Finland Gov’t Opens Clinic to Help Poker Players on Tilt

First they invent, saunas, and now this.

In most of the world, you’d have to describe the relationship between poker players and governments as icy, at best. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in Finland.

The ancestral home of Patrik Antonius and Ilari Sahamies has recently opened a one-of-a-kind clinic and website aimed at providing assistance for poker players who have suffered one bad beat too many. It’s called “Tilt” (it’s in Finnish, so you’ll want to let Google translate it for you) and it’s for players who have gone on tilt, and are, according to a sketchy translation of the website: “guided by hatred, for example, feelings of despair and surrender”.

Anyone who “loses contact with his game management and emotions” is welcome to drop by the office in downtown Helsinki to get some help. In the future, the website will also provide a variety of resources for tilting players.

Which leads to the question of what exactly is there at the clinic to help someone on tilt? Are there rooms that constantly play relaxing elevator muzak, or videos of puppies and kittens frolicking in sunny meadows? Or maybe there’s just a kitchen stocked with a wide variety of soothing herbal teas and bongs? Whatever it is, here’s hoping the idea catches on over in North America, because an anti-tilt chill-out clinic on the Las Vegas strip could save a lot of people a lot of money and angst.