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Tilt (Poker)

Tilt (or on tilt) is a phenomenon that is common in most activities in life, especially sport. If you have ever watched a sportsman play a bad shot or make a mistake and watch a simple mistake really affect the way the player plays.

A perfect example is Andy Murray (the tennis player) who in his earlier days had a small issue with temper. Ever since i started watching him i knew he had real talent and whilst some matches he would play beautiful flowing tennis, other games he would play a couple of really bad shots and get infuriated with himself. I would then watch the frustration build and things would go from bad to worse. Ok, these days he has really sorted himself out however it is difficult to put mistakes behind you and move on.

Poker is no different. As long as poker has an element of luck, there will always be times when you get your money in with the best hand and get out drawn on the river by some loon chasing his one outer. Accepting this is i guess easier to put into practice than it is words. This lose of control on your game is what as known as 'tilt' in poker. A player can be put on tilt over anything that annoys them. It might be that they played a hand badly, busted out on the bubble, or simply took badly to comments from another player. Often when a player experiences these frustrations, they will start to play hands they wouldn't usually play, call bets when they would usually fold, and raise when they normally wouldn't. Tilt can cause players to play irrationally in an attempt to win back money and it can be a very dangerous thing, especially in no limit poker where you can be out the game in a hand.

The bottom line is that players do not play their best game when they are on tilt and this can make one bad decision or result snowball into a much bigger issue. Good players recognize that they can make mistakes and have even the best looking hand overturned. Learning to move on and focus on the next hand is key to playing winning poker.