A - Z of Poker: Day 20

From London to Vegas in 26 Letters

Day 20: T is for ...

T is for Tilt. An obvious choice for today. We are all susceptible to it, I suppose. Do we recognise it in others ? I think we do, and we should be looking to take advantage of it. Do we recognise it in ourselves ? I think people may have differing views on this.

Some will argue that it should be rather clear to us when we are tilting and then equally obvious that we should take defensive measures (which should really be some version of stopping play !). I believe others will take the view that the point where we cross from rational to tilt-driven is more insidious.

In either case, most of us will find a reason to carry on whilst on tilt. A good one is "they know I am on tilt so I will be able to get paid off more easily when I have a monster". Hmm ...

What about self-announced tilt ? Should we pay any attention ? Player-dependent I suppose. If I announce "I'm on tilt" you can generally take this at face value and know that I am going to be getting involved with bold and aggressive moves, sometimes bordering on desperation. This will not help you very much, however, as that is how I play anyway.

If Gandi announces tilt then you might, at best, include single-suited Aces and the 2nd nuts into his range.

The other facet to tilt is inducing tilt in others. This is an area in which I am world class. I don't need to engage in any particular tactics. Just playing my normal game and refraining to justify my play is enough to tilt certain people (naming no names, Miriam).

Lastly there is hindsight tilt. This is a very special type of tilt that manifests itself away from the table. It comes about in flashbacks and bad dreams when we rage and tilt at our own inexplicable play that resulted in yet another untimely (it's always untimely) tournament exit.


T is for Timing. Once we have put into action a solid game, have made proper adjustments to our opponents and the game state, and made every effort to plan our actions, a tournament result will often hinge on that certain something - "timing". I suppose it may be another synonym for "luck".

How else to explain that after waiting patiently for the right spot, just when we pick up KK and the action is call, raise, call, call, call and we are in the small blind. We push with the ideal stack size ..... and this time, the big blind has Aces !!