Super Monkey Tilt

**fauxpas360** · 07-18-2009 10:06 PM

Tonight I've tilted away approximately 20% of my bankroll. I have no explanation other than I started running bad, then worse, then HOLY$^&# WTF HAPPENED?!?

Sure, everyone tilts sometimes. It's happened before, but never to this extent. And never for the amount of $$, since I've been able to build my bankroll up over the last couple of years.

So my question is, other than the obvious (STOP PLAYING!), how do you handle that little bit of tilt before it starts to snowball? It's strange, when I was on the biggest part of my spew-bender, I was almost enjoying it...........

Oh, and Scott, I blame you. Obv. you stole all my cards for your little run last week.

**thevesman** · 07-18-2009 10:14 PM

i know this well. i think good bm is the place to start. it's about discipline really and staying away from the "strike it big to get back up" syndrome. i was prone to it for a long time and still fall into it from time to time. stay within yourself and have a plan. you do need to take breaks to come back fresh. the worst thing you can do during a bad run is to keep tossing buy-ins at it.

i hit a $3 mtt recently for over $800 to take my bankroll up over $1200. It's below $500 now precisely because I got excited and started playing $26 mtts and even one $50. I have to remind myself I didn't get here by playing those games. I got here by playing a simple $3 rebuy. If we just continue in that frame of mind we can get enough wins to move us to the level we want to play at - but not until we do.

I say this not knowing what games you are playing, cash or sngs or mtts. I base my comments on tourney play primarily.

**thevesman** · 07-18-2009 10:15 PM

i might add that coinciding with my stupid decision to play these higher bi multis i happened to hit a pretty crushing downswing in terms of beats. it's been absolutely brutal and the worst combination given my bad bm.

**ALEE24** · 07-18-2009 10:33 PM

just take tonight and definitely take sunday off and get your mind off of the game...watch a movie or 2...hang out with some friends...start at it again on monday..no worriezz

hope you get feeling better ;p

**Ivan_Drago45** · 07-18-2009 11:08 PM

I definitely quit playing. If I still have the poker itch, I'll pull out one of my poker books and do a little studying.

**absinthe father** · 07-19-2009 12:10 AM

I think it's interesting when you say you were almost enjoying throwing you're money away at the tables. This touches at the very core of what tilt is imo. The urge to just burn up our money, to tear down that nice looking bankroll that we've managed to build, is something I think most players have, at least to some extent. Sure, we always claim that we're trying to win our money back - and that's why we are taking such big risks - but sometimes we are just throwing away money for the hell of it - we are doing it simply because we can. And this in itself gives us some sort of pleasure.

I think this behavior stems from a self-destructive instinct that we all have, and is triggered in desperate situations when things are looking bad. It's like if you're caught inside a burning house, and the flames start closing in on you. At some point you might decide to run straight into the flames, hoping to get through to the other side and get out of the house alive. You woun't go out without a fight! You know what I mean?

So the urge to destroy yourself (read: your bankroll) even more when everything seems to be going against you - i.e. the flames are closing in - is in reality a form self-preservation gone out of hand. This is where it gets tricky. Poker is not like nature. A downswing is not like a burning house. While in nature this instict might help you survive, in poker it just destroys you even more. While you might get out of the burning house alive, you're downswing is just gonna get bigger.

So how are you gonna get out of the house if you can't plunge yourself into the flames, hoping to reach the door? Well, THE FLAMES AREN'T REAL. They aren't a threat to you (that is, if you have a proper bankroll for the level you're playing at). They just feel like a threat. And we're hard-wired to respond to threats in a certain way. If the threat is big enough, we may do stupid things to try and get away from it.

I feel that it helps to look at tilt in this perspective. It's actually a natural thing. Our brains weren't made for playing poker, so our instincts are sometimes counter-productive. And I guess if you start to become aware of what's happening when subtle changes in your emotional state begin to affect your play at the tables, you can more easily take control of your emotions before they get out of hand.

**Quirmbach** · 07-19-2009 12:35 AM

Originally Posted by absinthe father

I think it's interesting when you say you were almost enjoying throwing you're money away at the tables. This touches at the very core of what tilt is imo. The urge to just burn up our money, to tear down that nice looking bankroll that we've managed to build, is something I think most players have, at least to some extent. Sure, we always claim that we're trying to win our money back - and that's why we are taking such big risks - but sometimes we are just throwing away money for the hell of it - we are doing it simply because we can. And this in itself gives us some sort of pleasure.

I think this behavior stems from a self-destructive instinct that we all have, and is triggered in desperate situations when things are looking bad. It's like if you're caught inside a burning house, and the flames start closing in on you. At some point you might decide to run straight into the flames, hoping to get through to the other side and get out of the house alive. You woun't go out without a fight! You know what I mean?

So the urge to destroy yourself (read: your bankroll) even more when everything seems to be going against you - i.e. the flames are closing in - is in reality a form self-preservation gone out of hand. This is where it gets tricky. Poker is not like nature. A downswing is not like a burning house. While in nature this instict might help you survive, in poker it just destroys you even more. While you might get out of the burning house alive, you're downswing is just gonna get bigger.

So how are you gonna get out of the house if you can't plunge yourself into the flames, hoping to reach the door? Well, THE FLAMES AREN'T REAL. They aren't a threat to you (that is, if you have a proper bankroll for the level you're playing at). They just feel like a threat. And we're hard-wired to respond to threats in a certain way. If the threat is big enough, we may do stupid things to try and get away from it.

I feel that it helps to look at tilt in this perspective. It's actually a natural thing. Our brains weren't made for playing poker, so our instincts are sometimes counter-productive. And I guess if you start to become aware of what's happening when subtle changes in your emotional state begin to affect your play at the tables, you can more easily take control of your emotions before they get out of hand.

Worth a second read, IMO... Good post.

**BguitarH** · 07-19-2009 04:16 AM

when I was on the biggest part of my spew-bender, I was almost enjoying it...........

I know this absolute exact feeling! Funny you posted it because I'm not sure I was consciously aware of it until I read it. I wish I had a resolution for you but sadly it still grabs me sometimes, usually absolutely out of nowhere, and when I tilt I don't kid around, I tilt bankrolls.

To be totally honest I had to actually face the fact that I'm not mentally strong enough to overcome the urge to tilt sometimes and therefore I no longer leave myself with any significant bankroll....

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

**absinthe father** · 07-19-2009 11:27 AM

Another thought:

The “tilt instinct” can also be seen as the same thing as what makes people stand up to a bully. We all have an aversion towards being pushed around. It naturally creates frustration, and a desire to push back builds up inside. When and how we act on that desire differs from person to person, but sooner or later we will do something.

In poker you will, or course, get pushed around by your opponents – and that naturally brings out the tendency to push back, which may often be the right play – but on a meta-level you will also get pushed around by the game itself. The utter randomness of the deck will at times appear to be bullying you. And this may feel just as real and just as personal as it does for a kid who gets bullied and humiliated in front of the whole schoolyard, for instance. So what do we do when the game starts to bully us? We push back! At some point we just can’t take it anymore. So we go on tilt. We say: “Hey, you want to take my money? Here, take it all! I don’t care." We throw our money at it, and it feels good because we’re finally “taking a stand”.

So I guess my conclusion is: allow yourself to be pushed around by the game, but not by your opponents!

**cdavi** · 07-19-2009 07:45 PM

Originally Posted by thevesman

i know this well. i think good bm is the place to start.

You're right, a good BM always cheers me up...

Seriously though, time away helps me, but everyone needs to find their own way to handle tilt. Walk away, punch a punching bad, kick the cat..what have you...

I read an article about "The Maven" David Chicotsky (spelling unsure) who was the Bluff Online POTY. I know I've posted about this before, but something that hit home is that he never has any emotion when playing. Whether he wins a huge pot giving him the chiplead, win's 20K (or 100K for a beast like him), loses to runner runner on the FT bubble, has his aces cracked on 3 tables simultaneously, pretty much anything, he says he doesn't even flinch or think about it. Just takes everything in stride.

When you get all jacked up and excited at a table, your emotions will be extremely high and when something bad happens, your emotions crash and you either get sad or get pissed off. When that happens, you tilt. All people do is remember the times their AA loses to j9 suited, but don't remember the thousands of times they held or their j9 suited all in on the jack high flop hit the 5 outer, or all the bad calls they make get lucky and win the pot with runner runner. If you can't remember all the good times, you have to stop getting all hyped up and excited when you win, or all sad and pissed off when you lose. When those emotions are taking out of the game, you will think better and will play optimally more often...