Gambling Guide

Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player knowingly adopts a sub-optimal, over-aggressive strategy.

Placing an opponent on tilt or dealing with being on tilt oneself is one of the most important aspects of poker. It is a relatively frequent occurrence, due to frustration, animosity against other players, or simple bad luck. Experienced players recommend learning to recognize that one is experiencing tilt and to avoid allowing it to influence one's play. However, putting one's opponents on tilt is a remarkably effective way to win at the poker table, albeit one that isn't going to win many friends.

Being "on tilt"

The most common way to wind up on tilt is to be the victim of a bad beat, or being defeated in a particularly public and humiliating fashion. For example:

1. Folding to a large bet only to have your opponent turn over a horrible hand (being shown a bluff).
2. Even worse: being bluffed by a small bet (a post oak bluff).
3. Having an opponent "suck out", or catch a miracle card late in the hand (an unlikely out-draw).
4. Having what you think is a dominating hand be bested by an even more powerful hand that you never saw coming.

All of these can upset the mental equilibrium considered essential for optimal poker judgement. Another common way to wind up on tilt is through basic annoyance at the behavior of the others at the poker table. Excessive rudeness (or lewdness), being heavily intoxicated at the table, and otherwise poor table etiquette are all common ways that other players can begin to wear on your nerves.

The most important thing to remember about being on tilt is to recognize when you're beginning to become on tilt. If you don't recognize the situation and take measures to alleviate it (changing tables, several deep breaths, imagining beating the snot out of the player at the table), you will quickly wind up broke and only more frustrated than you were when you started going on tilt.

For the beginning player, the elimination of tilt is considered to be the most essential improvement that can be made in play (for instance in the strategic advise of Mike Caro and especially, Lou Krieger). Many advanced players (after logging thousands of table-hours) claim to have outgrown “tilt” and frustration, although other poker professionals admit it is still a “leak” in their game.

Putting others "on tilt"

Any player with a decent amount of play-time under their belts can beat a table filled with bet-crazy “maniacs” who will go all-in with any two cards. However, winning at a poker table that has eight fifty year-old men who only bet or raise if they have two face cards and fold under the slightest amount of pressure is much more difficult. Putting a player on tilt infuriates them to the point where they will call or raise almost any bet made.

The act of putting someone on tilt may not pay off in the short run, but if some time is put into practicing it, a player can quickly become an expert at “tilting” other players (with or without bad manners). In theory, the long-run payoff of this tactic is a positive expectation, although it has been observed (e.g. by David Sklansky) that a more profitable strategy is likely to be superior table selection.

Some of the more common methods of putting a table on tilt include:

1. Playing junk hands that have only a slight chance of winning in the hope of sucking out on the turn or the river and delivering a bad beat (this can be an enjoyable occasional style which will make the table’s play “looser”, and has been ‘perfected’ by players such as Daniel Negreanu in low and middle-limit play.)
2. Victimizing certain individuals at the table, (which is often considered a more old-fashioned tactic, identified with 1970s “verbal” experts such as Amarillo Slim.)
3. Pretending to be drunk, i.e. hustling, excellently demonstrated by Paul Newman vs. Robert Shaw in The Sting (although his technique included cheating).
4. Constant chattering, making weird noises and motions whenever you win a hand, or other erratic behaviour is a “tilting” or “loosening” approach first discussed by Mike Caro.
5. Taking an incredibly long time to announce and show your hand at the showdown. (Such deliberate breaches of etiquette have the side effect of slowing play and risking barring, thereby limiting the earnings of the expert player. For this, and other social reasons, such tactics are mostly associated with the novice.)

All of the above have been recommended as methods of upsetting the other players at the table, with the intention of having them betting into your winning hands, and playing sub-optimally.