Tilting Defined

So just what exactly does it mean when some decides to tilt? Tilt is when you play bad cards out of aggrevation when your luck is running bad. Tilt is when you get a bad beat. You're on tilt when you fight with your wife and then go play. In other words, when you decide to tilt, all your doing is asking for trouble, and in essence your throwing away money in most cases.

The thing about tilt is that even if you don't show anything on the outside, you can still be suffering on tilt from the inside. What this means is that even if you're not acting like the hulk, if you feel like you want to be smashing things, you still have major tilt issues - but just don't show it.

The problem with tilt of course is that it distracts you from optimal play - which most of players are NOT doing even when they aren't on tilt. Even when players are fully aware of what they are doing, they'll call down a hand when they know they are beat - but they just can't bear to laydown their hand.

What tilt does is amplify your hasty decision making and put you in a "I want to get him back", "Screw it, I don't care" or "I'm going to push my way around" attitude. So, even if you're not smashing things on the table, you're pushing yourself to make wrong plays in crucial situations. You don't have to be a pot splashing maniac to be on tilt - because if you make any play that costs you a bet that you could have saved, that's good enough to be on tilt.