Keeping up with the tilt flow

Poker Strategy / Marcus Bateman / 27 August 2010 / Leave a Comment

One of the key points about tilting players is that you often need to take much greater risks to try and win their money.

Particularly if you are playing short handed or heads up poker, the observation and reaction to this concept will win you a huge sum of money in the long run. As players start to tilt, their game deteriorates in a pretty steady flow, and keeping up with it is fundamental to maximising your wins against tilting players.

Many players do not manage to keep up when confronted with steaming players, often just keeping their game solid instead of trying to really push in the face of tilt. Tilt usually manifests itself in players being overly loose, aggressive, and reckless (although it can take other forms). This playing style requires big adjustments to really take full advantage of such leaks, and all expert poker players are masters of adjusting in line with the temperament of key players around them.

One of the key points about tilting players is that you often need to take much greater risks to try and win their money. Tilting players who are playing every hand will start stacking off very light, and you have to get in there and try and gamble with these players before they go broke or get even/calm down. This can sometimes backfire, with them hitting a big hand and winning a big pot, but for the most part in the long run such situations are chances for huge scores.

Compare the two likely options when a player starts steaming after a losing a big pot and you start gambling more lightly with them. Even assuming that you simply get in a 50/50 spot with them, such a bet is not really a 50/50, as the two likely paths of the result are very different. If the tilting player wins, they will probably calm down a little and carry on playing semi-badly, but nowhere near as bad as before. However, if they lose, they are likely to start steaming much harder and lose even more money before they end the session.

Any bet where you take a 50/50 chance where if you lose you lose 1 unit, but if you win you get 1 unit and the chance at much easier future units is clearly a great bet, and getting involved with steaming players at every opportunity is crucial to giving you the best chance at winning money that the vast majority of the time will be getting lost that session.

Although it is tempting to sit back and just try and trap tilting players, often the player to win the money most consistently in such situations will be the one who gets in as many pots as possible during the short time frame when a player's game truly falls apart. Just like many things in life, you have to strike when the iron is hot in poker, and maximising your wins in these spots can add up to a huge difference to your hourly rate at the end of the year.

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