Tilt

What is tilt? How exactly does it affect one's play?

This is probably one of the biggest fears of a poker player. Tilt generally happens after a bad beat. E.g. you flop nut flush in late position and aggressively 3 bet, only to face a huge all-in for most of your stack from an early position 2 pair. You call, only to be beaten on the turn by the two pair hitting a four outer and making a boat. Tilting players would then start betting aggressively out of position with any semi-decent hand (or maybe no hand at all) and lose much more than they would have had they been playing rationally.

In my opinion, thinking back about the times when I was tilting (and I do that a lot), most of the times, it had to do with me thinking about how much I lost, and how much time I would have to recover it before the session ends. This usually leads to raising and building large pots, in the hopes of taking down a big one and recovering from the beat. Never works. Of course, there are times when you get lucky and make back all your money, but times like that only encourage you to play irrationally, and you soon lose all your discipline and patience.

Thing about poker is that you have to, emphasis on have, or in other words, must play with a clear head, making mathematically sound decisions so that you profit in the long run. Playing to recover from a loss only causes impatience, irregular play and ultimately, huge losses. Why is this so detrimental? Simply because when playing a game of variance, you naturally incur losses in the short term, even though you play mathematically perfect. Statistics and math in poker is designed to give you an edge in the long term, where luck isn't as much of a factor. Compounding those losses with additional leaks through tilt affects your bankroll exponentially, which severely stunts your income, and in the worst of cases, puts you in the red.

So, how best to avoid tilt? Simply avoid thinking about past losses and recovery. Instead, focus on the game at hand. Think of probabilities, not possibilities. Easier said than done though.