Take Control of Tilt: Part 3 of 4

In the last blog I told you about a strategy that can be used to help control tilt in real time. Included in that is the use of a statement to ‘Inject the Logic’ as a means of getting you thinking more clearly at a time when tilt starts affecting your thinking.

I also talked about working towards resolving the underlying cause to your tilt. Something that reduces the intensity of your anger, so you have less emotion to manage at the table.

Resolution happens when you solve the conflict between you and poker. It may seem as though your conflict is straightforward – you hate getting sucked out on, you hate losing, you hate making mistakes, you hate losing to bad players, you hate being hit & run, you hate running bad, etc. But there are a lot of details about this conflict which can’t be covered in a short blog.

A way to start working towards resolution

For now, the easiest way for you to start working towards resolution is to design a logic statement that directly attacks the reason(s) why you hate what you hate in poker. Here are some examples:

• If you hate losing because you’re competitive and want to win, try this, “I have to lose in poker because of variance. I’m more like a slot machine that pays out a large % of what I take in, than a professional athlete who beats lesser opponents most of the time.”

• If making mistakes makes you tilt, try this, “Perfect poker isn’t possible for long stretches. Every mistake I make is an opportunity to learn as long as I work on it later.”

• If you hate how unlucky poker can be, try this, “This is why I use BRM and if I keep playing solid and weather the bad run, I’ll gain a huge edge over players who totally lose control.”

• If you feel like you deserve to win, try this, “Poker doesn’t care what I think I deserve, my job is to do the best I can with what’s dealt.”

• If someone is being rude and pissing you off, try this, “While they try to annoy me, I am going to pay attention to how to exploit there tendencies and take money from them.”

I’m certain that you can come up with many good ones for yourself that will work as well or better. In fact it’s best when written by you.

As you continually apply these statements during the session you are slowly chipping away at the problem and slowly getting closer to solving tilt. This process is much more like chopping down a tree with an axe.

As much as you’d like to have a chain saw and solve it right away, that just not how the brain learns. It’s not like you can just download the solution to tilt like a character in the ‘Matrix’. Ironically just wishing that you could makes you less able to control it in reality.

For more information about Jared, his coaching or to ask him a question, visit jaredtendlerpoker.com. You can also follow him on Facebook & Twitter. Also, keep an eye out for his upcoming book.