Are you on the Verge of Steaming?

Posted February 14, 2026 by TPBC in Poker Strategy.

Playing bad poker is often times a result of steaming, losing your discipline and composure. So it is really advisable not to play when you started steaming. This will definitely affect the way you play and the conclusion will be anything other than good.

Steam is common term in poker which is a state of anger, mental confusion, or frustration in which a player adopts a suboptimal strategy, usually resulting in poor play and poor performance. This term is closely associated with tilt and some consider the terms equivalent, but ‘steam’ typically carries more anger and intensity. If you are steaming most probably your decisions will not be excellent and will lead you to lose your valuable chips.

Oftentimes, a person’s personal life affects the way they play poker. Not counting the lack of luck in the game. For example, a person who’s house is pending to be repossessed by the bank will not make crisps decision when he is playing because its bothering him big time.

Almost anyone can be a victim of steaming whatever will cause it. Bad things happen in our lives and it  has a big impact on our decisions. So avoiding to play poker until your composure settles back is the best way to do when you steam.

If you started steaming expect it to become worst as the moment goes by. You need to bring back your composure before playing again. Here is one good example of a poker player on tilt.

Things started out fine for you when you started playing poker. After a few winning streaks, you encountered a bad beat. An inferior hand beats your superior hand. And you lose an all in bet because of that. You came back with another set of chips. In this hand, you tried to tests your luck by betting with a, ultimately poor set of cards. But you lose! Big surprise. You are starting to feel animosity for the player who got the two pots in a row and you also feel irritable for trying to bet with a losing  hand.

After those two hands, luck had been good to you and gave you another chance to go through. But then you made another bad decision. You folded on a very large bet only to realize that your opponent has a horrible hand. Then you started remembering all those things that happened to you in the first place, then you become angry with the other player who won the pots that you’re supposed to then you started realizing that you’ve been a loser since and the list goes on..

Well, it does not end there, when you continue playing while you haven’t gotten over your steam then it will be a losing situation for you. Maybe now your playing with a poor hand, losing all the money you have and loaning jewelries you are wearing. So as early as possible, stop playing. Regain your composure first.