How to Stop Tilting at the Poker Tables

You’re not alone – ‘how to stop tilting‘ is typed into Google around 90 times a month! Add in ‘kill tilt poker‘, ‘poker on tilt‘, and ‘tilting poker‘ and it accounts for hundreds of searches.

Tilt Poker Term

‘Poker tilt’ even has its own Wikipedia article.

There tilt is defined as ‘mental or emotional frustration causing suboptimal strategy and over-aggression‘.

An Urban Dictionary definition dates back to the glory years of poker, and can apply to bad beats in live or online poker, casino games or any form of gaming in general:

Full Tilt Poker may even have been named with this in mind, although ‘full tilt’ also means ‘top speed’.

How to Stop Tilting

Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu listed his strategies to avoid poker tilt in a video interview.

He recommends listening to friends if they say you should take a break, and setting a limit of losing 2-3 big pots at which point you quit your session.

Red Chip Poker instructor ‘Gripsed’ made a longer video explaining how he stays calm grinding online and avoids ‘blow ups’.

For tilt control he emphasizes being ‘process oriented’ rather than results oriented, and deep breathing to relieve tension.

Tilt Breaker

A popular software program ‘Tilt Breaker‘ developed by an online grinder can automatically end your session if you’re approaching a preset ‘stop loss’, and helps you manage your bankroll.

It’s compatible with PokerStars, Full Tilt, iPoker, PartyPoker and Microgaming.

See a longer video of the Tilt Breaker software in action on our poker tools list.

Try out Tilt Breaker with a 15 day free trial and stop tilting today.

Pro Poker Players On Tilt

If how to stop tilting is still an impossible question, we can at least laugh at it. The video below is a compilation of the best examples of poker players on tilt in televised events.