Tilt - Part III: Exploiting It

Whenever someone in your game goes on tilt, your expected value (EV) should go up. By definition, such people are playing poorly for emotional reasons, and their mistakes should put money into your pocket. Let's look at ways to get the most profit from their emotional imbalance.

An earlier column described two main types of tilt, becoming wildly loose-aggressive and playing scared. Since scared players are less profitable, and risky, I'll just briefly discuss ways to exploit them.

Respect their bets and especially their raises. They won't bet without a good hand or raise without an excellent one.

Bluff and semibluff much more frequently. They will frequently fold when they should call.

Steal their blinds or antes. They will rarely call and almost never play back at you. If they reraise, you know they have very good cards. If they just call your raise, they probably won't bet out or check-raise later, giving you free cards to draw out and win legitimately.

Don't make thin value bets, especially ones based on position. Checking does not necessarily mean they are weak. They will often check good hands.

Don't check-raise. If you check, they will probably check behind you unless they have you beat. If they do bet, you may not want to raise or even call.

Now, let's look at the more visible, exciting, profitable, and dangerous form of tilt, wild aggression.

As I said in my last column, this form of tilt is contagious; others often become infected by the "let's gamble" virus. You therefore must constantly look for signs that anyone is on tilt or getting close to it. Of course, the most important person to watch is yourself.

When trash hands win huge pots, and your aces get cracked by 7-3 offsuit, you can easily lose your balance. You may think, "Since I can't beat them, I'll join them." Or, you may not make a conscious decision, but suddenly find yourself taking crazy chances. If you see this happening, take a break or go home.

You also must look for changes in everyone. Solid players will become wild, and others will start playing scared. A few will make the sorts of intelligent adjustments that you should make. You must recognize, understand, and adjust to the changes nearly every player makes. Don't assume that people are playing their normal game.

Don't say or do anything that will cause the player(s) on tilt to regain control or leave the game. Do everything you can to spread the "let's gamble" virus. You want the party to last as long and be as wild as possible.

It is extremely foolish to criticize players who are on tilt, but it happens all the time. People get so frustrated when trash and stupidity beat their good hands that they attack viciously, call a player names, or even insist, "If you keep playing like that, you'll go broke." They may embarrass the people on tilt into playing rationally or quitting the game.

Since tilt is contagious, some of the apparently rational players may be getting close to losing control. It's probably easy to push them over the brink. Don't be nasty or do anything that would destroy the "wild party" atmosphere. Instead, buy them drinks, encourage them to keep playing, and point out that Harry just won a hand with a two-outer and Barb won an earlier hand with 7-2 offsuit. And say it with a smile: "It is sure exciting to see hands like that win big pots." Encourage everybody to gamble foolishly while you play solid poker.

When people are on tilt, position becomes very important. You generally want unpredictable players on your right, and predictable ones on your left. Since players who are on tilt are extremely erratic, you usually want them to your right. Let most of the action and surprises occur ahead of you.

However, some players on tilt, especially drunks, become quite predictable. They either bet or raise almost every hand, or they telegraph their moves by picking up chips, staring disgustedly at their cards and getting ready to throw away them away, or even acting out of turn. If you know what someone is going to do, sit to his immediate right. You will be in a near-perfect position, almost the "permanent button." You can fold your marginal hands and slow-play or check-raise your good ones.

Some of my recommended adjustments are similar to those I suggested in "It's a New Era" (Oct. 10, 2003), because all loose-aggressive games require similar strategic changes. However, because people are acting emotionally, you must make some subtle variations.

Make sure you have enough chips. Don't play in a wild game with a short stack. You could play scared and get run over.

Avoid fancy plays. Emotional people are too oblivious and volatile for them to work. Play straightforward, solid poker.

Tighten up, especially before the flop or on third street. Because you will see trash hands win huge pots, you may want to loosen up – but don't do it. First, since the initial round of betting will often be quite expensive, you should not get involved without good cards. Second, once you get involved, the pot odds may become so large that you'll be tempted to chase and may even be justified to do it. Third, you must constantly resist that "let's gamble" virus. If you loosen up just a few times, you could easily find yourself on tilt.

Check-raise more often. If the player on tilt is to your left and you want lots of action, you should check-raise, especially if he has telegraphed that he will bet.

Slow-play big hands more often. Let the player on tilt do the betting and raising. He will get lots more action than you would. And if the game has become really wild, others may also jack it up. Sometimes you will flop the nuts and have others cap the pot for you.

Bet into the player on tilt to thin the field. If the player on tilt is on your left, the field is large, and your hand is vulnerable (such as top pair, poor kicker), bet into him so that his raise will force out dangerous hands. If you have A-6 in the big blind, bet, get raised, and A-7 folds, two great things happen. First, you win a pot you could not win any other way. Second, the player with A-7 can easily get upset because he folded the winner, and proceed to go on tilt himself.

Minimize bluffs and semibluffs. Somebody will almost always call you.

Invite them to bluff. Many players on tilt love to bluff. They want excitement, and it's much more exciting to bluff than to win with the best hand. So, check your marginal hands, and snap off their bluffs.

Don't fold on the river. This point is related to the last one, but it refers to more than bluffs. Some players on tilt will bet weak hands for value because they are too off balance to evaluate their chances accurately. Others may call with even less. You will often have to make apparently foolish overcalls. So what? If you make a bad overcall, you lose one bet. If you make a bad fold, you lose a whole pot, and perhaps a huge one. Even worse, you may become so upset that you go on tilt.

You may think I've overstated the danger of going on tilt, but it is very real, and it is always there. Keeping your own balance is, in fact, your key task. If you keep your head while the others are losing theirs, you will dramatically increase your edge. My next column describes ways to cope when you're losing your balance.

If you would like to learn more about yourself and other players, you can order Dr. Schoonmaker's book, The Psychology of Poker.