5 Ways to Quickly “Cool Down” During a Poker Session

When a player gets hot, there are many ways to cool down: drink water, turn on the air conditioner or fan, take a warm shower, and so on. But what do you do if the heat is not around you, but inside you?

In this article, we will discuss not the overused topic of tilt and prolonged practices to counter it, but a more practical and easily implementable thing — releasing emotions directly during a game session.

What emotions can be managed during a poker game

In this material, we want to discuss with you not feelings or long-term emotions, but short-term intense emotional reactions that arise during a poker game as a response to what is happening.

When even the most high-class poker players reduce all intense emotions to tilt, anger, and irritation, psychology identifies a much wider spectrum. This was compiled by Paul Ekman along with a dozen other scientists into a single “Atlas of Emotions.”

From this list, poker players during a session most often experience seven short-term emotional reactions:

1. Frustration — a mix of irritation, resentment, and dissatisfaction due to failure;
2. Emotional excitement — a sharp increase or emergence of a desire to do something colored with joyful anticipation in response to a positive result of your actions or a fortunate coincidence;
3. Sorrow — a feeling of inner bitterness and sadness that arises in response to encountering something unpleasant;
4. Satisfaction — a feeling of joy and enthusiasm from achieving a goal;
5. Disappointment — a mix of dissatisfaction and discontent associated with unfulfilled expectations or hopes;
6. Thrill — intense excitement, positive or negative, arising in response to the need to quickly resolve a situation in your favor;
7. Anger — a mix of hostility and aggressive dissatisfaction in response to someone’s unpleasant actions or a negative outcome.

Despite the clear belonging of the listed emotions to the positive or negative spectrum, they can all affect the psychological state of a poker player both positively and negatively. For example, frustration and sorrow can stimulate a person to gather themselves and play better to avoid experiencing it again. On the other hand, emotional excitement and thrill can scatter a person’s attention or shift priorities, distorting the focus. Therefore, when working with emotions, poker players should pay attention to each of them, not just the “canonically” negative ones.

Why is it beneficial to blow off steam?

According to the American Heart Association, scientific research shows that suppressing emotions, stewing in “burnout,” and ruminating on emotional experiences lead to stress accumulation. This results in increased risk of:

• Development of cardiovascular diseases;
• Deterioration of overall physical health;
• Weakening of stress resistance and psychological stability.

Releasing excess emotions in the moment helps not only reduce these risks but also fosters better self-understanding and recognition of triggers, improving emotion management in the long run.

“Cooling down” techniques in the heat of emotions

Suppressing emotions is harmful, but detaching from them is also problematic, as over time it can lead to the development of dissociation (when the body and its reactions “disconnect” from consciousness). In traumatic events, a temporary “break of ties” helps preserve the psyche, but without restoring these connections, a dissociated person stops feeling their emotions fully and does not understand the causes of their physical reactions, perceiving them and the emotions as happening to someone else.

To prevent emotionally charged poker sessions from leading to this outcome, you can use five simple techniques for moments when you’re “burning up” or feeling exaltation from positive emotions.

#1 Breathe deeply and use imagination

This technique is most familiar to people from meditations, as it forms the basis of many of them. However, we offer you a variation used by poker regulars, such as Jonathan “apestyles” Van Fleet.

Freeze in a comfortable position, take a deep breath through your nose, and then slowly release the air through your mouth. As you exhale, imagine that you are releasing not just air but your emotional reaction as well. For convenience, you can visualize it, for example, as a colored cloud or cool water flowing over you on the exhale.

#2 Use your inner Hellmuth

This method is regularly used by Daniel Negreanu: at the moment of a sharp negative reaction to a hand or an opponent’s play, he “releases his inner Hellmuth” — internally voicing everything he thinks at the moment without smoothing the edges.

This is called “venting” — releasing emotion in verbal form inside your head or out loud. You can do this as an internal monologue, out loud with yourself, by talking to a trusted person, or by writing it down on paper / typing it out.

#3 Scream

Primal scream therapy is not a joke, but a real technique in psychology. Its effectiveness is not well-studied, but there is no recorded evidence of harm as of 2024. However, there are some interesting studies — an overview of some can be found, for example, on the BBC UK website — showing that screaming under emotional stress:

• Helps quickly and effectively release emotions in a safe way;
• Promotes the release of dopamine and other mood-enhancing hormones;
• Reduces muscle tension, relaxing some muscles;
• Increases blood circulation in the neck and head area.

The technique is simple: when you feel a strong overwhelming emotion, grab a pillow or vase, open your mouth, and scream into it with a prolonged scream. It doesn’t necessarily have to be loud and long — sometimes you can feel relieved after just a couple of seconds.

There are a few “safety” rules: don’t scream at others, don’t use it too often to avoid damaging the mucous membranes and vocal cords, and don’t try to form words — just release pure sound.

Fun fact: the scream vase is a popular item in Japan, marketed as a “way to capture your anger and let off steam.”

#4 Exercise intensely

Quick push-ups, squats, and even shadowboxing are great ways to redirect an emotional outburst from the mental “zone” of your body to the physical one. This is evidenced by the findings of numerous scientific studies — for example, a 2019 study from the Universities Hospital Bonn and Cologne, according to which this method:

• Reduces stress levels and the degree of emotional reaction;
• Prevents the fixation effect from experiencing emotion;
• Facilitates the “digestion” of emotion;
• Increases concentration;
• Improves blood circulation throughout the body.

Important! Don’t forget to warm up before the session and avoid sudden jumps to prevent injury to joints and ligaments when transitioning from a seated stationary position to activity.

#5 Joke about the situation or exaggerate it

Turning unpleasant situations into a joke or exaggerating an overly emotional reaction has scientifically proven positive effects on a person’s ability to control emotions.

According to a review article by the Department of Psychology at the University of Regensburg, joking about a situation helps:

• Reduce the intensity of emotions and their impact on well-being;
• Smooth out discomfort from failure.

Exaggerating, on the other hand, removes the pretense of seriousness from an unpleasant situation, allowing you to perceive it as not worth emotional investment. For example, feeling frustrated after an unsuccessful spot, you start to dramatize through hyperbole — saying aloud with maximum pomp:

“My heart is now broken and will never recover! The opponent’s decision to shove 45o against my AA was so brilliant that I need to find out who taught him that, so I can learn this technique too!”

How you joke is entirely up to you: the main thing is that you feel calmer and more at ease afterward.