/ Matthew Pitt / 22 February 2011 / Leave a Comment 
To go through and list every single reason why a poker player might go on tilt might take literally forever due to the sheer number of factors that one would have to take into consideration. With that in mind I thought it would be best to list a few situations that have caused yours truly to fall into the clutches of the dreaded tilt monster.
The most common facet of poker that used to cause me to go on tilt, or at least begin the slippery slope towards it, was the dreaded bad beat. We have all been there, looking on course to book a nice winning session at the cash tables only for some complete numptey to hit his two outer on the river to stack you. I believe this is what the excellent Jared Tendler refers to as "Injustice Tilt" because you feel as if an injustice has been done to you as it was your right to win the pot.
That is your first mistake. Unless you are a 100% lock to win a hand then you have no right to the pot because 1% occurrences can and do happen (once every 100 times usually, sorry for being sarcastic) This problem is also magnified by the fact most poker players tend to forget the times they had variance working for them in a good way, instead they attribute the fact they won a hand to good play not variance so when something negative happens it seems much worse to them and that the whole poker world is against them.
Another cause of Pudding tilt, but one I have gotten over almost 100% now, was simply running badly. As I am quite a low volume player compared to many running bad seems to last longer than say it would a 10-12 tabling grinder. The latter may get through a sticky spell of 3,000 in a single day where as it could take me 5-10 days depending on when I get to play. This prolonged period of running bad can begin to make you feel disillusioned with the game as you are constantly folding bad hands, missing flops and losing to flush-chasing morons all the time! This used to me down the path of "passive tilt" which will be discussed in a later piece but I have almost overcome this horrible demon basically by realising that you have to take the rough with the smooth and you have to realise that poker, cash games especially, are just one long session that never end. I try to imagine that in my lifetime I will play millions of hands so being card dead or having a bad spell of 2,000 is quite literally a drop in the ocean.
The third and final cause for me going on tilt, and again something I have learned to control, was when I made a mistake. I hate losing but accept it as part of the game, but I used to go nuts if I lost due to a mistake made by myself as I could have prevented it. The worst time for this was when I would say to myself that "they have the flush" but then still call anyway. WTF! How many of you are sat nodding now? This used to send me over the edge until I read "Every Hand Revealed" by Gus Hansen, the book that documented every hand he played during his Aussie Millions Main Event win back in 2007.
Although I can't remember the exact wording or what page it was on Hansen basically said in poker you have to accept that on occasions you are going to make decisions that are completely wrong and you will make plenty of them. By realising we work with incomplete information so our decisions are going to be clouded somewhat you quickly stop beating yourself up over making mistakes you make. As long as at the time there was a legitimate reason for your play then accept it and move on.
Related article
Pud on Tilt: Part 1 - Kübler-Ross model
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