POKIQ

poker glossary

Tilt

Tilt is playing worse than you know how to because of how you feel, usually after a loss, a bad beat or a long stretch where nothing works.

It rarely looks like anger. Much more often it is a small drift: calling one more river than usual, playing hands from a seat you would normally fold, staying in a session an hour longer to get even. Each is defensible on its own, which is what makes the pattern hard to see.

The useful measure is not how you feel but whether you are still following your own plan. Deciding a stopping point before you sit down turns a judgement made while losing into a decision already made while calm.

an example

your cards

board

You have jack high on the river, which beats nothing your opponent can call or bet with. Two hands ago you lost a large pot. Calling here is not a poker mistake about this hand, it is the previous hand still being played.

This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find tilt in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.

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Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.

Forty hands against a bot, no account, and your own hand history at the end.

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