Emotional Intelligence & Tilt

Poker and Emotions – How Emotions Can Affect Your Play: In our Pokerrailbird Newsletter, published on August 27, 2022, we briefly discussed how our emotions could affect our ability to make logical decisions at the poker table. We also talked about Emotional Intelligence (EI) and cited a few examples of how it can help us avoid Tilt.

In this article, we want to take a deeper look at exactly what Poker Emotional Intelligence is and how it is relevant to help us become better players. If we looked at EI, strictly from a poker point of view, what does it actually mean? Once we have determined what EI is related solely to poker, what can we do to improve our poker EI? Why do some players seem to have a higher EI (less negative emotion) than other players?

Poker Emotional Intelligence & Avoiding Tilt

In the Poker World, the infamous term for losing control of our emotions is called “Going On Tilt” or “Tilting”. What causes a player to go on Tilt? Numerous things, but some that are the most common:

• Your pocket aces get cracked.
• The opponent called all the way to the river, against pot odds, and hits the two-outer.
• Set over set, and of course, you have the bottom set.
• Flush over flush.
• Straight over Straight.
• You lose with Trips because you are out-kicked.
• Your opponent talks too much.
• Anything that happens at the table, that pisses you off.

There is little question that the items listed above, along with a host of others, can become quite irritating. However, that doesn’t answer any of the questions we have posed. Why would some players go on Tilt, and others not, even though they both had an identical situation?

Inc. Magazine (Read It) contained an article saying that poker players, in general, possessed exceptionally high EI. Why? According to Inc., it’s because:

• They’ve mastered emotional control and discipline.
• They have an advanced ability to read body language.
• They know every hand counts.

I believe there is some validity to Inc.’s assessment of poker players and their level of Emotional Intelligence. The more seasoned a player is, the less likely they are to display any tangible quantity of emotion. That said, more players than not, do allow their emotions to control them, from time to time.

According to Daniel Goleman, the definition of EI is: “the ability to manage both your emotions and understand the emotions of people around you.” He goes on to say that there are five key elements to EI.

• Self Awareness
• Self Regulation
• Motivation
• Empathy
• Social Skills

Emotional Intelligence & Decision Making

I believe Self Awareness and Self-Regulation have slightly different connotations in poker versus other individual-performing sports, such as golf. Why? Let’s say you have a golf game and you’re playing Tiger Woods. Unless you have spent thousands of hours practicing, have had the best golf coaches in the world, are in great physical condition, and so forth, do you think you have any chance of beating him? No, of course not.

In 2003 Chris Moneymaker stunned the Poker World by winning the $2.5 million WSOP Main Event. Moneymaker was an unknown accountant, from Tennessee, that won his seat at the Main Event through an online tournament, which he paid $40 to enter. In poker, anyone can win or lose on any given night. It’s possible, you’ve seen it happen, that even the worst player in the room can leave a world-class player in dismay, wondering if they are really the professional they claim to be. How does it happen?

Expectation And Variance

There are two factors that we used to measure our poker results, as well as other games. Expectation, which is your win/loss rate, and your variance, also referred to as Standard Deviation.

These same factors would also exist in golf. However, the standard deviation is negligent, compared to your expectation. That’s why you can’t beat Tiger Woods, or rarely anyone else better than you. But in poker, the standard deviation is quite high, making it possible for the bad player to crush the game on any given night.

That’s one thing that makes poker great. I can’t think of another game where weak players can sit down with expert players and even have a chance. Standard deviation, the short-term luck factor, is what keeps the bad players coming back. They remember those few wins and not all those losses.

What does all of this have to do with EI or Tilt?

What Really Causes Tilt

Earlier, I listed several items that could cause a player to go on Tilt. Now I am going to say that none of those are the “cause” of Tilt, although they are the catalyst for Tilt.

How often have you heard a player exclaim, “That’s impossible, he hit a one-outer on the river” or some similar statement? When this happens, especially if it’s a couple of times in a short time frame, Tilt often ensues. But did the event cause the Tilt?

No. The player that suffered the so-called “bad beat” caused the Tilt. Somewhere, in his brain, there is a disconnect. He fails to understand that poker is a game of high Standard Deviation and that this short-term luck factor just worked, albeit against him.

Tilt doesn’t have to be our response to getting a bad beat or ten of them. When we tilt, we are allowing our emotions, due to either a lack of poker knowledge or a lack of understanding of Standard Deviation, to control our logical being. So how do we stop going on Tilt?

Self Awareness/Self Regulation

When I discussed the definition of Emotional Intelligence, I said that I believe self-awareness and Self-regulation took on a somewhat unique connotation as it relates to poker. For poker, and probably other games, Self-awareness would include poker knowledge.

I stated that Tilt is due to a mental disconnect. That disconnect is the result of not having sufficient empirical poker knowledge to process that bad beat, see it for what it is (Standard Deviation), and move on to the next hand. In other words, the greater your understanding of the underlying platform of poker, the less chance you will go on tilt.

This is why your more experienced players rarely, if ever, Tilt. When they take a bad beat, they either have no reaction or will say “nice hand” and move on. This is due to their empirical poker knowledge and their understanding of expectation and Standard Deviation. Or, to put it another way, they are Self Regulating. By that, I mean they are not allowing anything from external sources to impact how they play the game, hence no Tilting.

If you want to have a deeper understanding of why Poker Knowledge is vital to your poker Emotional Intelligence, then I recommend reading “Real Poker Psychology” by Mason Malmuth.

I hope that the information above helps in your understanding of Tilt, and more importantly, how we can control it.

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