Below we offer to you two fantastic articles both by Mike Caro of Doyle's Room. The first is Mike Caro's law of least tilt, and the second is what to do when you're losing. Both of these articles are excellent strategy guides for avoiding tilt, and avoiding losing your money when your emotions get the best of you.

Special Thanks to Doyle Brunson and Mike Caro from Doyle's Room for giving us permission to use Mike's articles.

Caro's Law of Least Tilt: The Most Important Thing In Poker

Today, we're going to review the most important winning concept in all of poker. You've heard me say that, for skillful players, the key to winning is simply playing your best game all the time. Well, years ago, I addressed this in a much more profound way, and I'm going to share it with you.

Caro's Law of Least Tilt.
Now we're ready for the topic I promised. This was first published in Gambling Times magazine, March, 1982, and later appeared in Card Player magazine.

Is it the Law of Averages? Certainly not! Well, surely it isn't The Law of Gravitation? No. How about the Law of the Jungle? Funny, guess again! Oh, I see. You're tired of guessing because you don't know what the question is. Okay, I'll repeat it:

"In a poker game among eight equally matched world-class players, what very powerful law dictates who will eventually win and who will lose? "

You're thinking, "Who cares? How often am I in a poker game made up of eight equally matched world-class players?"

Ah, but this principle has a much broader importance. It ranks among the most powerful laws in the gambling universe. Great poker pros are governed by it. So are Henry, Jack and Felix at your Friday night game. So are blackjack players and golfers, craps shooters and backgammon superstars.

The black hole.
I'm talking about The Power, baby. It's a black hole in the poker table that can suck up all your chips and send you home whimpering. I'm talking about a merciless, ubiquitous, universal law that will never leave you alone until you honor it.

I'm talking about Caro's Law of Least Tilt. Exactly What is Tilt, Anyway? You might not know the meaning of the phrase "going on tilt." Turning to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged), we find on page 606 that "going on tilt" is not defined.

A pity. But checking a more credible source, Doyle Brunson's Super/System - A Course in Power Poker, we see that the term "on tilt" is defined on page 539. Quote: "When a player starts playing bad (loses his composure), usually after losing one or more big pots, he's said to be on tilt."

There are other slang ways to express this phenomenon. Vegas regulars call it "steaming." In my favorite Denver game, we used to say a man had "flipped a pancake."

It happens to players and pinball machines.
Going on tilt describes it best. What happens to a pinball machine when you shake it too hard? The lights go out, its normal mechanical functions are short-circuited, it stops playing its normal game, and suddenly the word Tilt flashes on its scoreboard.

Isn't that what happens to a poker player when you shake him too hard? Most players can take their bad beats graciously for a while; but when they suffer one blow too many, something usually snaps. Their lights go out, their brains malfunction, they cease to play their best game and, if you look really close, you can see the word "Tilt" etched on their foreheads.

Suddenly the most dedicated scientific poker players are babbling and bluffing and barging into pots with inferior hands. You've seen it happen, and it's a pitiful sight to behold.

The law defined.
Write this law on a piece of paper, tape it to the wall and study it. Caro's Law of Least Tilt: Among similarly skilled opponents, the player with the most discipline is the favorite.

Gee, that seems too obvious to bother saying. Obvious, hell! Ask around and see what the best poker players think is most important. Their opinions will vary. To save you the trouble, I actually surveyed ten tough players. My question was: "In a poker game among players whose ability is about equal, what do you think is the most important winning edge?"

Using a little judgment, I placed their answers into the following categories-

Knowledge of mathematics: 4
Psychological skill: 3
Knowing when to quit: 2
Alertness: 1

Had I undertaken a larger survey, other things would have appeared. But the point is made by this small sample. Incredibly, nobody mentioned the Law of Least Tilt! Everything listed is important.

Knowledge of Mathematics. A very weak player who knows nothing about probabilities or mathematics will be at the mercy of a knowledgeable opponent. However, a player with an outstanding grasp of odds and statistics is only a small favorite over a player with a pretty good understanding.

Of course, in some poker games even a small difference in mathematical ability can be critical. Seven-card high-low split is such a game.

Psychological Skill. Very important. But, in a game involving contestants of equal overall talent, is it likely that there will be much difference here? No.

Knowing When to Quit. For a bunch of reasons which I don't want to discuss now, it's better to quit when you're losing than when you're winning. Most players get this backwards and play longer when they're losing. Anyway, seldom does one player secure an important edge over his peers by quitting at the correct times.

Alertness. You'll seldom find a game among equally skilled foes where one is substantially more alert than his opponents.

Tilt by Mutual Agreement.
Tour the card rooms of Las Vegas, the poker parlors of California, the private games in Texas. Try legal seven-stud in Washington and Oregon. Play Hold 'em in Montana.

Yep, poker's booming everywhere. Look for the toughest, meanest game in the area. Ask around, you'll find it. It's usually a medium or high-stakes contest and it's often comprised of the same regular players night after night. Sometimes there's a stranger to throw off some money; but usually it's survival of the fittest - hometown heroes battling for regional honors.

I'm talking about a poker game where players of approximately the same expectations wage a war of egos. Listen to me, you seven-card stud superstars - I'm talking to you!

Almost every ego contest I've witnessed has an unspoken rule that goes like this: Weak players are timid and we're not weak, so let's bet our hands like crazy. Nobody will get hurt if everyone does it.

There's more to this tacit understanding. Any player who suffers two bad beats in a row is expected to play more recklessly than usual.

Oh, I almost forgot, there's another part. If a stranger gets in the game and tries to take advantage of our generous bets and raises, we'll play conservatively.

This last part is consistently violated. Take these poker pros and near-pros aside and ask what they'd do if a solid, talented player from Milwaukee sat in their game.

"We don't give action unless we get action." Snail slime!

The sad thing is, these guys really believe this! Gosh, you take your skilled sever-stud prayer from Topeka and put him in the $30 and $60 limit seven-stud game at the Sahara and . well, I like his chances.

Ego, Ego, Raise 'em Up!
The talent in this game is awesome. Gathered here at the Sahara is some of the keenest seven-stud talent that ever sprouted West of the Rockies. But, yes, they do play too recklessly and when they lose too many pots and get on tilt they play really recklessly.

Naturally, you'd expect this to stop when Fred from Sacramento sits in the game. You guys remember Fred, don't you? Following my instructions he won $3210 in one session. You probably don't remember, since that isn't a milestone win. And, of course, you don't remember Charlie since he won only $1530.

These players were sent in the game as an experiment; and they both reported the same thing. The regular players did not lighten up on their raises. Instead, they made these new players a target and tried to intimidate them with a barrage of irrational raises.

Following my advice, both Fred and Charlie called timidly for the first several pots, letting the aggressors establish an image. Then they counter attacked for three consecutive hands. They'd been instructed to get the last bet in at every opportunity (within reason) no matter what cards they held. Although Charlie managed to lose all three pots, Fred won two of his, once making an inside straight down the river against queens-up.

Controlled Tilt - the Cruelest Weapon.
According to plan, Fred and Charlie never got out of line after that. They had established an early reckless image. The image stuck, even though they played solid poker from then on. The regular players felt confident that the tacit loose-play agreement was not in jeopardy. No one, they reasoned, was taking advantage.

Although these two sessions are not significant enough to prove the point, let's make believe they are. What the hell, we're talking about more than 400 hands, and only a statistician would demand a larger sample.

What it proves is this: In a game where everyone goes on tilt some of the time, the player who spends the fewest minutes on tilt wins the most money.

(Since some tilt plays are horrible and others are merely bad, you could argue that it isn't the time of tilt, but the quality of tilt that determines the winners. It's really both.)

Controlled Tilt is simply doing the things that a player on tilt does, while being motivated rationally rather than emotionally. The strategy is to appear totally berserk while remaining thoroughly in command. This is the cruelest, most profitable tactic I know.

What to Do When You're Losing
The following lecture was the 42nd Tuesday Session, held August 3, 1999, and later
appeared in Card Player magazine.

Classroom Lectures: You'll Never Be a World-Class Poker Player
Unless You Can Handle Your Losses

Most poker players lose a whole lot more money than they should when things
go bad. They complain about misfortune, but a lot of it is self-inflicted. You've got to expect things to go bad from time to time in poker. If you learn how to cope with these inevitable losses, you'll have a lot more money to spend overall. The sad thing is that hardly anyone handles poker losses correctly. Today we'll talk about that.

The following is taken from the 42nd in my series of Tuesday Session classroom lectures at Mike Caro University of Poker, Gaming, and Life Strategy. The lecture was held on Aug. 3, 1999. The title of the lecture was ....

What to Do When You're Losing

1. When things go well. It's easy to keep your integrity when you have money. People who can afford to keep their word about paying back debts usually do. But the real test is when you can't easily afford to repay a debt. That's when character and integrity come into play. Well, a similar concept applies to whether you're winning or losing. It's much easier to stick to your game plan when the cards are running your way. Your true test as a player is how you handle losing. This is precisely when many otherwise skillful players fail the test and damage their bankrolls - or even go broke. Repeating, the main reason skillful players go broke is that they don't know what to do when they're losing.

2. Don't forget poker's most important secret. The secret is simply, "Play your best game all the time." It's a secret that's easy to acknowledge, but hard for players to follow, especially when they're losing. I believe that playing your best game all the time is so important that years ago, I created a whole audio cassette tape to drive the point home. Of course, it seems almost silly to make a big deal out of playing your best game. What kind of a secret is that? Everybody understands it already. Sure, but not everybody does it. In fact, almost nobody does it. That's what makes it important.

3. Two types of dangerous losses. There are two types of losses that put otherwise skillful poker players seriously off course: (1) losing sessions, and (2) losing streaks. Losing sessions make some players lose their will to play their best game hand after hand. Frustration takes over. Before long, they're playing as poorly as the opponents they came to conquer - and sometimes more poorly. It's sad, and it happens all the time. But, from now on, I want you to play as perfectly as you can, every hand, every decision. It's those decisions that matter. As I've taught for almost 30 years, your lifetime profit will be the sum of your good decisions minus the sum of your bad decisions, and that truth doesn't change whether those decisions are made while you're in the middle of a winning session or in the middle of a losing session. Perhaps more damaging are losing streaks. Every poker player experiences them. Losses after losses, day after day - I know the feeling. It's as though you expect things to go bad. One of the most destructive things players do during a losing streak is panic. They play worse because they need to win, but that's the wrong attitude. You don't need to think about winning. You need to think only about making good decisions, hand after hand, session after session. The wins will come when they're ready to come. Winning isn't your job. Making good decisions is your job. Winning is the eventual result of making good decisions consistently.

4. Let's not even think of it as a session. You can let a losing session destroy you if you think about it as a session to be won or lost. Whether you win or lose during a session, though, really has no bearing on your lifetime profit. A session is just something with an artificial beginning and ending. If you didn't know what they were, you'd simply weigh your bankroll once in a while to see how you were doing. Sessions don't really enter into the equation, so why even think about them as wins or losses? And remember during any "session" to be careful when you pass "Caro's Threshold of Misery." That's when you've lost so much that any additional damage doesn't feel any worse. But you can encounter this dangerous condition only if you think in terms of sessions. So, don't. The best psychological way to handle losses is to begin every hand fresh. You're neither ahead nor behind. You are where you are when the next deal begins. Your good decisions will give you the best chance of rising from that point. But if you lose that hand, forget it. It's on to the next one. Again, you're neither winning nor losing. You're starting fresh. You are where you are - again and again.

5. Don't think of it as a streak. Streaks - winning or losing - are always something seen in the rear-view mirror. There is never anything in the cards that will dictate that the streak either will or won't continue. So, you're always starting fresh. Just as every hand is a new start, every session is a new start. Never give a streak the importance of something that has influence over your future.

6. Strategic adjustments when you're losing. Here are things you should do when you're losing, not because there's any force causing the cards to be bad, but because your image is damaged and your opponents tend to play better: (1) Be more selective about your starting hands. (2) Don't bluff (at least not very often). (3) Don't raise as often. (4) Don't bet "for value" with the hands that you normally would.

7. Psychological tricks when losing. Try these: (1) Remind yourself that you are exactly even right now. (2) Remember that even though what you do now doesn't seem to matter, there will come a time when it will matter. Things you might try during a losing streak: (A) Take a small win and go home. (B) Play in a smaller game. (C) Look for reasons why you're losing. If you find reasons, adjust. But if you don't find any, stick to your game plan and keep the faith.