/ Matthew Pitt / 17 February 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
One of the major differences between a winning player and one who is break even or losing is not necessarily that the winning player wins more money but rather they lose less. One of the most common reasons for losing money is going on tilt so it is fair to assume that winning players go on tilt less then the average player but to overcome the dreaded tilt monster you first must understand the anatomy of the beast.
The term tilt is used to describe any time where a player's emotions have taken over them and as a result, they cannot play to the best of their abilities. There are various forms of tilt, which will be covered in another article, and each of them follows rather closely to what is known as the Kübler-Ross model.
The Kübler-Ross model is better known as the five stages of grief and was created by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a Swiss-born psychiatrist, back in 1969 when she wrote her book On Death and Dying. As the title of the book suggests, the Kübler-Ross model was initially used to describe the five stages humans go through to deal and cope with with grief and tragedy, with the emphasis on a person mourning the death of a loved one or becoming terminally ill themselves.
Although I am not attempting to say going on tilt compares to someone dying I have noticed direct link between the fives stages Kübler-Ross wrote about and how I personally began to overcome going on tilt. The five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance
Anyone who says they do not go on tilt in one shape or form is lying, or in the denial phase of the Kübler-Ross model. Everyone tilts, I do, other low stakes players do, even Phil Ivey will have and probably still does go on tilt now and again but the difference is Phil and I admit it (probably the only thing in common between me and Mr Ivey!) Denial is usually a temporary defence of a tilter, they simply will not admit the fact they go on tilt, or are actually on tilt right now, though they know deep inside that this is not the case. In order to prevent yourself from tilting you need to first admit you do actually tilt!
Next up is anger, which is a common response when the individual is actually on tilt. As previously mentioned there are various forms of tilt but one of the most common variations is over the top aggression caused by anger. Anger is not only a cause of tilt but can also be a bi-product of it. How many times have you tilted off any amount of money, logged off and being angry with yourself for doing just that? In order to prevent tilt you have to lose the anger as of all the emotions it is the most dangerous at the poker table.
Bargaining usually comes in the form the player pleading with a so-called higher power for something to happen in exchange for reform. How many times have you sustained some medium to heavy losses and pleaded with our very own Poker Gods to let you double up and in future you will set yourself a stop loss. Or have bargained with yourself that if you manage to break even then you will not tilt again. The bargaining stage usually occurs straight after the act of tilting has taken place, right after the anger has subsided.
The fact you have been bargaining with yourself or a supreme being speaks volumes in itself and usually leads to depression when you realise not only that these powers either cannot or will not help you, but also because you will often feel as if you have let yourself down by tilting in the first place. Furthermore, many will feel depressed and low due to losing some or all of their bankroll. This stage is one of the most difficult to pass through because it can see the player slide back to the anger stage or even as far back as denial as they refuse to accept it was their fault for going on tilt, instead those around them must have cause it. This vicious circle has claimed the bankroll of many players.
The final stage to compare is acceptance, acceptance that you do tilt, have tilted and will tilt again in the future. By accepting the fact you do go on tilt you can now take steps to prevent it from happening in future.
Not everyone will experience all five stages and not everyone will experience them in the same order. From my personal experiences I was in denial about my own tilt problem (more on that in another article) and that lead straight to depression, or at least feeling very negative about the state of my game. This in turn lead to me being angry with myself, which put me back into the depression camp before I finally accepted that I do tilt and have since taken measures to remedy this.
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