Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
Playing poker can often times feel, like riding a roller coaster. Once you get caught up in the action, the betting & raising. The rush of felting an opponent & exploiting his weaknesses... Or even the gut wrenching kick in the stomach of getting nailed by a one outer. With all that being said, you may be able to see that poker is an emotional game. This is one of the reasons we love to play,but.... It is also a poker player's worst enemy both on & off the felt. For example, have you ever tried to play poker after you've had a fight with your girlfriend? I'll bet you didn't play well. How many pots have you lost immediately after suffering a bad beat? Quite a few I'd imiagine. The point I'm trying to get at is. That this is not only a game of cards & pot odds. It's a game of people & emotion. Some of the biggest pots I've ever won, have been of players that I know are good, but they are riding the tilt wagon! Either from something in their personal life bothering them, or from taking a bad beat. It's all the same. Emotion is emotion, if you're human you can't always control it. If you're a robot, then you have nothing to worry about. If however you are human as I am, you may read ahead for some tips I've picked up along the way( though don't always adhere to). 1.)Don't play when personal issue's could distract you! This would seem easy to do, but it's a little harder than you think. I can't tell you how many people who's pockets I picked whom had just either fought with their girl friend, or had a bad day at work. I've even fell victim to playing when I knew that i was distracted. It's easy to say, hard to do. 2.) Take a quick break after a bad beat. Now this piece of advice you may not be able to use, if say you're in the late stages of a tournament. Though I've found that I can sometimes just disconnect myself mentally from the beat. I know these things are going to happen. It's the nature of the beast. Sometimes especially if it's a cash game I will take a brief stroll to clear my mind. I have much more to say on this subject, you'll have to wait for my next thread it will be titled: Don't Kick the Donkey!( the two subjects are closely related.) There are a lot more things you can do to keep yourself sailing on calm waters, so to speak. What are some of the things you Mobsters do? Just remember Mobsters its not only a game of cards & math, its a game of people & emotion. Until next time Mobsters. GL on the felt!
You are very correct....emotion is more hard to control....specially if your taking a beat from a calling station....lol....anyway nice advice mobster....tanks
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
I dont think that the emotion is the worst think for a poker player. Many have learned to control themselves no matter what, and is something that you can achieve if you have the will.
I believe a poker's player worst enemy, is exactly the same with human's worst enemy : Stupidity.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
Well said young man! I've learned a lot from reading in the BRM forum and with my poker seniority at less then 2 years I can't say enough about the continuous lessons to be learned.
And hoodi, if you need that computer sent to you (no monitor) let me know!
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
Posted by doomdy: I am allways calm also after 4 or 5 badbeats in 5min. With tilt you loose money so no point in doin that. Patience is he key to succes
i am always calm after one or two bad beats- but after 4 or 5 i am super cal- because my bankroll is gone back to emotions in poker- yes they are very important- i think this element is the weakest part of most players, just because of the human nature- very few can operate like robots, or bots in this case
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Canada
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 1490
Posted by Mober: I dont think that the emotion is the worst think for a poker player. Many have learned to control themselves no matter what, and is something that you can achieve if you have the will.
I believe a poker's player worst enemy, is exactly the same with human's worst enemy : Stupidity.
And tilt is directly correlated with stupidity. That's why you end up making moves you shouldn't when tilted. Tilt removes logic from your decisions, and replace it with emotion. For example, you KNOW it's incorrect to chase a gutshot against an opponent who's firing off pot size bets, yet you do so anyways. Or limping out of position with weak hands at an aggressive table. Or pretty much any other losing plays.
Your emotional and mental state changes quite a bit when you allow tilt to influence your play. And the worst thing is, that tilt compounds the longer you play. Ie: you start of slowly, playing looser, less aggressive etc, and start losing more and more. Next thing you know, you're donk shoving you're whole stack of 3000 chips into a 1000 chip pot with complete air, and smashing something when they call with a made hand.
The hardest part of tilt for most players, is recognizing that they ARE on tilt. The second hardest part, is leaving the tables when you know you're on tilt.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
[QUOTE]Posted by Greenmohave: Well said young man! I've learned a lot from reading in the BRM forum and with my poker seniority at less then 2 years I can't say enough about the continuous lessons to be learned.
And hoodi, if you need that computer sent to you (no monitor) let me know! [/QUOTU U have Facebook?
Posted by Mober: I dont think that the emotion is the worst think for a poker player. Many have learned to control themselves no matter what, and is something that you can achieve if you have the will.
I believe a poker's player worst enemy, is exactly the same with human's worst enemy : Stupidity.
And tilt is directly correlated with stupidity. That's why you end up making moves you shouldn't when tilted. Tilt removes logic from your decisions, and replace it with emotion. For example, you KNOW it's incorrect to chase a gutshot against an opponent who's firing off pot size bets, yet you do so anyways. Or limping out of position with weak hands at an aggressive table. Or pretty much any other losing plays.
Your emotional and mental state changes quite a bit when you allow tilt to influence your play. And the worst thing is, that tilt compounds the longer you play. Ie: you start of slowly, playing looser, less aggressive etc, and start losing more and more. Next thing you know, you're donk shoving you're whole stack of 3000 chips into a 1000 chip pot with complete air, and smashing something when they call with a made hand.
The hardest part of tilt for most players, is recognizing that they ARE on tilt. The second hardest part, is leaving the tables when you know you're on tilt.
I completely agree....it really hard to recognize tilt....specially if the game is up and down and then suddenly your all drain out on chips....hahaha..poker its really hard to master this game......gl all
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
I dont know about you, but im on tilt when im angry from something that happened during the game, either its ring, tourney etc. And i know pretty well when im angry
Unless i play for fun or freerolls the chances going off boundaries are rare to none, when i know something is wrong according to my play rules.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
Lack of Patience + frustration = LOSING Earlier I got focussed on one player who one with a bluf and wanted to bring him down.....had to refocus and stay patient and later sailed pasyt him in the stack sizes. Could easily have lost patience and got frustrated and gone after him!
Joined: Feb '10
Location: Portugal
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 998
This is so true. Actually in my opinion when we talçk about beginers mistakes, we talk about the mistakes that every players does (even with experience in poker) if they get too emotional. Other thing is that, people that gets too emotional with the game they get more addition too and they have hard time to admit they made a mistake!
Joined: Jan '10
Location: Indonesia
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 1875
Posted by doomdy: I am allways calm also after 4 or 5 badbeats in 5min. With tilt you loose money so no point in doin that. Patience is he key to succes
After 4 or 5 badbeats, usually all of my chip already gone yes, right :emotion is worst enemy but sometimes my chip grow up from bottom to middle when I play very angry and tilt . Strange , many time (more than my normal situation ) I win prize in that condition.
It's true. I know that's not good, So I need your advise. How could be ? cos, I had no affraid anymore ? or what ? I couldn't analysis. please share
back to emotions in 
