Does anyone even play pinball anymore? Just in case you aren’t familiar with the concept, tilt refers to a feature on every pinball machine that causes it to shut down (and you to lose) if the game’s been rattled too much.

Think of your brain as a pinball machine and you’ll understand tilt in poker.

What just happened?
The nuts are the best possible cards at that stage of a hand and boy, do they feel good!

We’ve all been there. You’re in tight, feeling some pressure. You’ve got a rock-solid hand and you’re doing all the right things – it’s your time. Then, out of the blue, someone takes you down in a very big way with the most incredibly bad beat on the river ever, ever, ever. A couple of hands later, the same thing happens again!

Perfectly formed square indentations begin to appear on your forehead as you bang it repeatedly onto your keyboard. You cry out for justice to an uncaring universe. Confidence, strategy and patience become distant concepts, obscured by a red mist that has descended before your eyes. You stop slapping your head on the keyboard long enough to see you’ve been dealt J-4 off suit. “ Damn the torpedoes, I’m taking this pot!” you scowl, shoving a super-size raise into the middle DARING ANYONE to try to take more chips off you …

And they call your bet.

And they win.

And now you’ve taken a bad situation and made it much, much worse.

Tilt may have been a successful strategy back in the Wild West, when prudent gamblers would have been wise to fold a strong hand against an angry cowboy with a gun. But in the modern game, tilt is a consistent loser. Good players are finely attuned to its signs and won’t hesitate in taking chips that are just being thrown away.

Why we tilt
Tilt is a physical reaction to an abstract problem and it's roots lie in our genetics. Through eons of evolution nature has programmed us to respond to being attacked by either hitting back or running away. This isn’t a voluntary or thought-out reaction. Glands secrete adrenalin and other neurotransmitters into your bloodstream that can take over your thought process – if you let them – and cause your behavior to become automatic. Great if you’re unexpectedly attacked by a mastodon while hanging out in your cave, not so good if you’re trying to reverse a big loss on a poker table.

That’s poker!
Counteracting tilt is mostly about experience – the more you play, the more you’ll recognize that bad beats and tough breaks are just part of the game. Over time these even out. If you keep an honest count, you’ll find that you win a lot of hands you should have lost, too.

If you’ve got less experience, and don’t feel like paying for it in poker chips, you can get a leg up by learning to spot the signs that tilt may be about to visit you and developing some strategies to make it feel unwelcome.

- Take a break. Good poker is all about the application of pressure. Put enough pressure on a player and the old evolutionary processes will start pushing them towards tilt. If you’re feeling unusually high, prolonged periods of pressure in a cash game and losing, you’re half way to tilt already. Your best bet in this situation is to cut your losses and look for greener pastures. But, if you hang in there AND take a bad beat, it’s definitely time to get off that table before your brain goes Cro-Magnon. Take a little walk, hit the weights, or just do whatever you do to clear your head and chill out. With a clear mind you should be able to think rationally about why you were struggling so much and how to fix it. In tournament play this is a bit tougher, but you can still take a short breather. Just sit out a few hands, physically leave your PC and take a little stroll around the house.

- That’s Poker! If you’ve just suffered a brutally bad beat and some smartass bleats out, ‘ That’s poker!’ , you’ll probably want to punch him in the face – really hard. It’s OK to have those feelings, but less acceptable to act on them. Remember, just because you badly want to thump someone doesn’t mean that what they’re saying isn’t valid. One of the best things you can do if you’re feeling your tilt-o-meter winding up is to remind yourself of all the pots you’ve taken – and will take again – with bad beats of your own. Berating an opponent after a bad beat is a sure sign you’re on tilt and the sharks will smell your blood in the water. Instead, gestures that say ‘ nice hand’ or ‘ that’s poker!’ let HIM know that YOU know he sucked-out and it’s not going to affect your game.

- Use it. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Feel tilt coming on? Ask yourself if it’s because you sleepwalked into betting big at a stronger hand or got trapped. Whatever the reason, smart players recognize frustration as a sign that they might be doing something wrong. If you can take a step back and channel your emotion into sharpening your attack, you’re in an infinitely stronger position than the tilter. Lose on a tough beat or two and you’ll know other players will be watching for signs that you’re about to go wobbly. If you can keep your wits about you then this is your opportunity to tighten up and patiently wait your turn to strike back with solid hands against players who falsely assume that you’re weak. If you’re lucky enough to draw a monster soon after a bad beat then you’re in the perfect position to clean up by feigning signs of tilt with big, aggressive bets.