Emotional Control.

Of the three things I mentioned yesterday, this is perhaps the most difficult one to quantify or measure. It's hard for people to see, in themselves, when they are emotionally "off." For example, I remember watching a friend one time who was blowing up because a guy called him with A3 off suit, and won. I tried to reason with him, but he finally made the determination that no one in the universe shall ever call one of his bets with A3 off suit...and of course he proceeded to lose the rest of his stack. He's a slightly above average player, and he was mad about that call for a few days.

What I tried to tell him was, "You want people to call your raises with AK suited with hands like A3 off suit." It didn't get through at the time.

When people lose control of their emotions, they do all kinds of stupid shit while playing. There are so many forms of tilt, and you will generally experience them all at one point. Here are some of the forms of tilt:

Boredom tilt. Otherwise, you just can't stand playing the limits you are playing in.

Cold Deck tilt. You're not getting a freaking hand, and you're pissed about it. Sure, we have to play the players. But, we can only get by with bluffing players with absolute crap so much. I've won SnGs without ever having a monster...but would I have lasted in a 500 entrant tourney?

Mediocre cards, no flop tilt. You know the situation. You get KJ suited five handed, play it, and the flop doesn't even sniff you. It doesn't just happen once though...you get about seven or eight of these hands with no help whatsoever. You bluff and get a few pots, and if you're playing the player it shouldn't matter...but some people can go on tilt with this situation.

One phrase tilt. I've seen it online. Someone says ONE thing, and that one thing is enough to push someone into tilt.

Trash talking tilt. Either you go on tilt because someone is talking shit to you, or even if you're talking shit to someone else.

Bad beat tilt. This is obvious.

Suck out tilt. Bad beats and suck outs might be different by definition, but they surely feel the same.

I'm sure you can think of other forms of tilt, but the main point is there are many things that could put a person on tilt. One way to avoid some of these is to not be so results oriented. If you think that winning the hand or SnG is all that matters, you will be let down each time you lose, and that will just compound your tilt. If, however, your main concern is to make correct plays all the time, the results will speak for themselves over the long run.

Don't get me wrong, no one is able to get to where they NEVER go on tilt. If they say they do, they're lying. But, you can control it, and minimize it. For example, a year ago, aces getting cracked would make me blow up...now, it's just a minor annoyance to me. You start to realize that you are going to win overall when you get your aces in against someone with a worse hand...but you WON'T win 100 percent of the time.

Here's the thing that makes me go on tilt THE MOST: Making stupid plays.

One thing that you'll find common amongst all those forms of tilt is that you can actually do something (whether before the situation occurs like realizing that nothing wins 100 percent of the time, or during if someone is talking trash just put on some headphones if it pisses you off, of course there are other examples) about it.

And, if you can do something about it, you can control it. And, if you can control it, you can prevent yourself from making decisions based on emotion.

Rather than go through all the different ways someone can piss you off, I think that it would be better for anyone reading this to just outline the things that put them on tilt for themselves. Someone might be mad when they get reraised. The first question to ask, then, is why? The other person is trying to win just like you. They won't lay down to aggression, just like you. And, whenever a person makes a bet, they're giving you information. It's just your job to interpret it. But, one thing you can count on is that the information isn't derogatory against you. They're not getting personal with you.

Control of emotions is essential to winning in poker. Write down what makes you mad, and develop ways to minimize it, understand it, and control it. It will take time, but once it happens you'll notice that making decisions in the game becomes easier because you're basing it on things other than your hatred for another player, or at how events are transpiring.