Tilt spells are very difficult to deal with once they have begun as it is the nature of the tilt to cause a loss of control. Tilts, like aggression, are part of homo sapiens make up and cannot be eliminated altogether. But fits of aggression and fits of tilt cause us to run amok for a reason. They are always triggered by an event, bad news, bad bruise, a gross insult, or any other fardle as Hamlet would call it, toying with his bare bodkin. Discomfort is the main catalyst to bring on an instant fit of aggression – discomfort such as pain or a really, really empty stomach.

We do not live everyday making a list of what caused our aggressive behavior and forever etch the list in our memory. No, when aggression hits, we pound the floor with our fists. Poker demands that we do become aware of our hot buttons. In order to be that cool, self-confident professional, you must be acutely aware of the events leading to your reactions. You should be able to draw up a list of things that push your buttons and sort the list from minor cause to major cause.

If you can do this as a matter of course, you can catch yourself and say to yourself, even out loud: “Okay already, this is the type of serious good luck on the part of my moronic opponent, which pushes my tilt button – beware. Should that idiot do it again, I will not tilt, I will understand and calm down. I will not lose my cool and I will play the best poker I know how.”

You can now admit to yourself that while maintaining control in poker does not mean you are in full control. You are not playing the game where the only goal in mind is to win every hand. This blindness will lead to disillusionment and an inferiority complex. You are playing because you enjoy that it challenges you to be an acute observer of human behavior as well as to sharpen your technical skills, and sometimes you win.

Such behavior is most likely to expend much of the energy which would otherwise build up into uncontrolled aggression and thus to maintain enough control over yourself to take a few deep breath when that ultimate trigger comes and to remain in control of the situation.

Some of the common triggers are:

An overall feeling of discomfort. Perhaps you haven’t eaten in hours and you slept lousy last night. We are not talking torture here and both of these conditions can be dealt with by confronting what the problems are and focusing on the present. Hunger and lack of sleep can be solved in the near future. Your poker hand is now.

Really bad poker mistakes. As you know, poker is one of the most competitive games around, which adds to the self-flagellation resulting from playing a hand badly, when you knew better. Be like the writer or painter who have performed so many rough drafts and sketches and thrown them all away, or rewrote or repainted, that they are accustomed to rejection and are much less hard on themselves because of it. They know that success is waiting for them if they just keep striving to write a better novel or paint a better picture. Either of these artists would gladly tell you that they threw out wads and wads of paper while finally achieving what they knew they had in them all along – a best seller and a painting that hangs in a fine gallery.

Of course, there are numerous triggers, too numerous to mention here. But if you are aware of your own hot buttons and what pushes them, your stupid mistake will become just a little bad one, your speed up in play will become a recognized trigger to the high anxiety that will surely follow, and that loss to a mere novice will not bother you so much when you realize he will just go somewhere else and lose the farm. Keep it all in perspective and you will be able to, if not conquer, control your tilt.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Poker Heaven Rakeback as well as Rakeback at Absolute Poker.

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