Controlling Your Emotions and Avoiding Tilt in Poker

By [http://www.articlesengine.com/Author/Thomas-Kearns/20208/1] Thomas Kearns

Most folks when asked about what constitutes a really good poker player will respond with such qualities as calculated thinking, talent, lack of risk aversion and so on. The one aspect most mentioned by all, however, is psychological toughness and endurance.

The term tilt is one just about everyone has heard of and refers to a change of course in the game at a downturn. Tilt represents a specifically poker-related mental and emotional state, one where the player is irrationally influenced into making moves he never would have made in his normal play. Quite often, in this tilted condition, the player begins a sudden phase of loose-aggressive play or can turn into an unmanageable maniac, or many other weird undesirable deviations from his usual method of play. At times, fear is behind the tilt and the player becomes tight-passive. Whatever the tilt origination, the player is headed down the road to defeat.

The wise player will avoid being tilted in the first place rather than attempt to undo the damage it will inevitably cause. The best way to avert this type of disaster is to gain a thorough knowledge and understanding of the game of poker. You need to familiarize yourself with what distance and dispersion mean in poker to enable you to more easily get through the tough times. In many aspects of life, not just at the poker table, knowledge of mathematical statistics and the laws of probability will lead to a firmer grasp of reality.

Even a simple comprehension of statistics will help you to realize that specific combinations do not always result in specific results of success, e.g., AQs in combination come with a 68% chance of success which can result in a loss of one out of every three deals.

As we all know, knowledge in itself is not enough to always be of assistance. One can be in total awareness that odd things occur and that you can handle the situation. But a long train of bad cards can upset the coolest cat and the lucky morons become even more annoying at this point. Despite your coolness, in spite of yourself, you may find that you are running completely amok. This is tilt, my friend, and you must ride it to the best of your ability without becoming completely unhinged.

So besides theoretical knowledge, you might try another means to avoid the tilt and that would be an awareness of your personal triggers or hot buttons that when pushed send you off into the cosmos.

You must have a clear idea of an event to gain any control over it. You must be able to recognize such an event coming on before it hits and brings out the demons in you. Do not go with falling blindly under the spell of the tilt, observe yourself prior to, during and after the event and this insight will help you avoid the sensation of impending doom and can be more easily dealt with.

Now that you have gained clear insight into your triggers and your resulting behavior, you will be able to identify the tilt as it is looming before you and handle it in a more cool and controlled manner.

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Full Tilt Pokers Cashout Tournament Strategies

Full Tilt Poker’s Cashout Tournaments provide players the option to leave the tournament at any time before the final table and get the cash value of what their stack is worth. With the options of cashing out part of your chip stack or your entire stack and exiting a tournament, we players are presented with a whole new variety of options to consider.

In Cashout Tournaments, half of the buy-in goes into the Cashout prize pool, and the other half into the tournament prize pool. The ability to cash out in 10% increments of the starting stack (for example, if you start with 3,000 chips, you can cash out as little as 300 chips and keep cashing out in increments of 300) can drastically alter the way you approach these tournaments. With most pros, the goal in a tournament is first place. Cashing in a tournament or lowering variance is not a major concern the vast majority of the time. If that’s your only goal, removing chips from your stack is not going to be an option you employ very often. For most players, however, while first place is certainly always going to be the number one goal, there are other factors involved.

Often times, the best opportunity to cash out is going to be early in the tournament. You can get back some of the money you put up in the buy-in and navigate a slightly shorter stack while the blinds are still small and chip away to get back to where you started and beyond. The real key to knowing when to implement the Cashout option is how much the money means to you. There’s certainly a real advantage in a poker tournament when you triple up very early and have that bigger stack, but for a lot of players, securing that automatic Freeroll in a tournament is going to be even more advantageous (remember that with the 3,000 chip starting stack, should you increase your stack to 9,000, each 300 chips will allow you to cash out for 10% of what you put into the Cashout pool – 6,000 chips will get your full buy-in back and still leave you with a starting stack!). The ability to give peace of mind, guaranteeing that you can’t lose any money in the tournament, might allow you to play a stronger game as you go on at this US Poker Room.

The Cashout Tournaments also provide a few other opportunities poker players have never seen before. There isn’t a player out there who hasn’t been playing their tournament and just had something “come up” or something they absolutely had to do. Maybe you were already on a time crunch with just a few free hours to spare and were looking to play a little poker. I would advise any player in this position to join a Cashout Tournament rather than risk running out of time in another MTT. The full Cashout option allows you to play and still get money out of the work you did, even if you can’t complete the whole thing!

My strategy going into Cashout Tournaments would be to cash out little by little. I might take a little off the top here and there, while trying to retain a relatively decent stack. I always like to have the biggest stack at the table so I can get maximum value out of my hands, but in the cases where I have quite a bit more chips than anyone else, getting a little bit of money for my chips becomes quite appealing. Later on in the tournament, I would consider cashing out a little bit here and there, while still trying to keep my stack above 15 big blinds, and preferably above 20 big blinds. Maintaining this stack size makes sure that I’m not so short that my hand is forced while still having enough chips to re-raise all-in and have enough chips that someone can fold. Try this US Poker Room!

The full Cashout option is one I would reserve for mostly emergencies and other such events that come up unexpectedly. Tournament life is such a valuable thing that I would never give up my last chip in a Cashout Tournament unless I had to leave, but cashing down to a shorter stack and trying to double up can be highly effective and fun as well. Many people like to start with short stacks in cash games and take away a lot of the decision work. Cashing out to 10 big blinds or less and beginning to play shove or fold poker is something many people hate, but many others love.

One final tip to keep in mind is that you will also have the ability to practice valuable tournament skills by utilizing the Cashout option. If you need more experience playing a shorter stack effectively, you can cash out a portion of your stack. This allows you to make additional money without having to actually dump off chips, and you can work on improving that portion of your poker game, as well.

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Popularity of Online Poker in US – Is it Good or Bad

Following the great 2003 Moneymaker upset to the World Series of Poker, online poker US sites have garnered a lot more attention, and not all of it has been welcomed. Although it has certainly stirred up a lot more interest in online poker sites for US players in the general population, the national media attention also stirred up lawmakers, bringing into question the legality of online poker play for US citizens. Many countries have already made online poker legal and have installed regulations for play, including the United Kingdom. The United States, however, has lagged behind in allowing on-line play, resulting in the proliferation of free play online poker sites for US players.

Quickly seeing the benefits of the online poker boom and hoping the capitalize on it, the state of North Dakota's House of Representatives passed a bill to legalize and regulate online poker and online poker card room operators located in the state in February 2005. The bill would have required online poker operations to locate all branches of operations physically in the state to qualify for legal status. The owner of Paradise Poker and CEO of Sporting bet, Nigel Payne, pledged to relocate operations if the bill passed into state law.

After hearing of the bill, however, the U.S. Department of Justice sent notice to North Dakota's Attorney General warning that online gaming "may" be illegal meaning that the pending legislation "might" be in violation of the federal Wire Act, passed into law in 1961, well before the internet. Shortly afterwards the bill was defeated by the North Dakota Senate. Since then the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Wire Act doesn't apply to types of online gambling other than sports betting, which was the original purpose of the law anyway. Despite the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the application of the Wire Act to online gambling.

Later legislation has further closed off the online poker US market. Passed into law in October 2006 by President Bush, the Safe Port Act includes a provision known as UIGEA or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which states that it is unlawful to use the internet for placing, receiving or knowingly transmitting a bet or a wager if the bet is unlawful in the state it is initiated, received or otherwise made.

This has made sure that online poker sites are unable to do business with Americans by prohibiting any American Financial Institutions from doing business with them. The time is ripe for new legislation to legalize and regulate online poker in the US. Groups such as the Poker Players Alliance have made it their mission to protect and advocate for the right of US poker players. Several attempts have been made already to overturn the UIGEA and perhaps soon with some fresh legislation online poker rooms will be able to welcome US poker players online again.

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