It is a little understood fact that tilt is more common in online poker than it is in live play. There are numerous reasons for this and the first one has to do with human psychology. When human beings experience negative events in their lives, they are in a far better situation to be able to handle them if other aspects of their life are running smoothly.
Compare this to people for whom there seems to be a never ending series of negative events. This constant barrage of punishment can lead to people becoming depressed and even suicidal. In a similar way, this is similar to poker. It is often said that tilt is often the result of a series of bad beats that happen close in succession.
I believe this to be true on the whole as any one single beat can in all likelihood be combated more easily. But often it is when the player is still reeling from the “injustice” of the first beat that they then experience another. Or in some cases it isn’t even a beat at all that sets it off, it could easily be simple plain old fashioned annoyance at not being able to pull off a bluff.
But the massive difference with regards online poker and live poker is the speed of these events. Because the entire process is speeded up then this negative “hand clumping” where sequences of negative events come along will happen far more frequently!
This in my opinion is perhaps the number one cause of online tilt. It is a combination of the rapidity of online play coupled with the sheer anonymity of the situation that creates a fatal cocktail. Players do not have the same level of discipline in online poker because no one is watching them. If they blow a gasket then they only have to answer to themselves and no one else.
So what is the answer? Well I believe that you need to do two things if you want to cure yourself of this. Firstly you need to know what your own individual tilt levels are and you need to know them well. You must know if your own limit is after one negative event, or two, or three or whatever.
Do you get annoyed when your kings are up against aces? Or is it something like one or two outdraws that pushed you to the edge? Or are you the type who beats yourself up simply because you are a perfectionist? Whatever your level is for hitting the tilt button then knowing how far you can go is a serious piece of knowledge to have.
This is because you can avoid it simply by leaving the table or tables if you are multi-tabling. This is often easier said than done of course and I myself have been guilty of doing this many times, that is to simply play on when I was not in the best mental state.
I realise that it may seem weak to simply leave a table all because you have taken a bad beat but the modern online poker environment is getting so tight that it will come down to various other factors that will enable you to make money or not. Those factors will come down to being disciplined at all times and keeping control.
There will simply be no room for bad discipline and leaving the table to calm down and simply logging off may be your best course of action. Quite often the process of making money in the modern game involves processes that have nothing to do with the actual hands themselves.
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