Playing poker is a magnificent pastime and an charming form of amusement. Even if many times in the history you may have found that you wanted to play poker but were not close sufficient to a casino to just jump in your car and sprint on in to take a seat at the poker board. This is where online poker gaming comes into the image. Online poker is an more and more well-liked way of playing poker from within the borders and calm of your own house. As you are able to play many different types of poker games at casino establishments, online poker websites also make this type of multiplicity with consider to poker games available to its poker players. Playing poker online via an online poker website is dissimilar in a few ways from playing in a material casino situation. It is significant to center on those difference thereby enabling yourself to make the choice of whether or not playing poker card games online is the right alternative for you.
One way in which playing poker online and playing poker inside a casino differs, relates to the gambling limits which are forced on the poker players. When playing poker online by way of an online poker website, the online poker player may not be necessary to put up as much money for an bet as the poker player that is playing this type of card game within the casino limits. This is one of the many compensation of playing poker in an online setting. Many persons just want to play poker for fun or to make a little spending cash maybe and are wary of risking big amounts of money in the practice. The variety of online poker websites will allow the potential online poker player to bet smaller amounts of money than the casinos will at times. This is an attractive feature of the online poker websites. If you are looking to spend small amounts of cash, this might be the type of gaming situation for you. If cash is no object, then maybe you will prefer to go to a material casino. Though, keep in mind that certain online poker websites will host higher gambling limits.

Top earner on the World Poker Tour (WPT) Daniel Negreanu has stated that stupidity will lead to a fast exit from tournaments.

In an article for The Grands Rapid Press, the poker ace told of one competition he was in where he made a good run and then blew most of his chips in one go.

He cites three examples of “stupid play” in tournaments, the first of which is bluffing at the wrong time.

Negreanu’s second tip is not to call a large bet with a weak hand in an attempt to catch an opponent out.

Finally, he said that gambling on a “coin flip” with a large amount of chips is often a poor move and can be disastrous.

To avoid falling into these traps, Kid Poker recommends keeping an eye on the blinds to avoid overbetting and getting impatient.

In addition, he stated that making risky moves early on can be an error and said it is advisable to save risky plays for later on in the event.

Negreanu has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and currently has earned more money than any other pro on the WPT, having amassed over $5 million in winnings.

Two days ago, I stopped at a red light in Long Beach, California. Strangely, I was thinking about the second part of this series when I noticed a man crossing a street. I was startled. He looked exactly George Hardie.

Now, Hardie is a very prominent person, politically active, founder of the Bicycle Casino near Los Angeles in 1984, former president of the California Card Club Association, and often credited with forging the path toward modern poker operations.

Fine. But the man crossing the street walked without particular confidence. He was holding a bag of groceries. He seemed sad and uncertain. Then the light changed, and I drove on, having determined that this wasn’t George Hardie. The closer I’d looked, the more differences I’d spotted in their appearances.

But that’s not the point. For a moment I’d thought it was Hardie. Then I started thinking about an important poker-to-real-life link that I teach. I’ll get to that in a minute. First, we need to acknowledge that maybe the man I’d seen had never been physically or mentally capable of great achievements. Who knows? But what if he had been? What if circumstances simply had not collided in the right ways, at the right moments, to spark his interest in achieving? Or what if his interests were sparked but, again, circumstances had not collided in the right ways at the right moments, to allow him to achieve?

How I Was Almost Retarded

I’ll tell you how this relates to poker, but first let me share something that happened to me a long time ago. I almost didn’t end up being “the Mad Genius of Poker,” you see. There was really no reason for me to begin analyzing poker strategy, programming artificially intelligent players on computer, writing books, or speaking before large audiences. I could have just as easily ended up retarded.

Don’t be so shocked. Sure, I know that most retarded people have little choice. We cherish them for living their lives as fully as they can. We feel fortunate that we’ve been blessed with better brains. Most people are never faced with, in essence, having to make a decision about whether to be retarded or not – but I was. Someday, maybe I’ll tell you the whole story, but right now, here’s briefly what happened.

I flunked the sixth grade at William Smith Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado. And justice was served, because I deserved to flunk. I could do complicated math in my head, but I’d never learned to go up to the blackboard and follow the procedures. I liked astronomy and knew all the planets, but my grade school teachers had no idea about this. All they saw was a totally withdrawn kid who chewed pencil after pencil until the splinters could finally be swallowed. All they saw was a social outcast who hid alone in far corners of the schoolyard during recess. All they saw was a boy who daydreamed all through class, did no homework, and paid no attention to anything. To them, the boy seemed retarded.

A Good Hand For The Young “Mad Genius”

And the boy did not want to escape from the cocoon of the retarded, because to him it was sheltering. There was no responsibility. You could escape deep within yourself and fantasize about many wondrous things that became the bigger reality. I was there; I was that boy; I did this escaping and sought this comfort. And it wasn’t as if you were feigning retardation for the comfort; you truly were becoming retarded; you didn’t think there was anything more to be. You didn’t know how the real world worked, because the real world wasn’t real. Everything conjured up inside you was real. And you didn’t share it. And so you faded. I was there. I faded.

And then the day came after flunking the sixth grade where I sat in a class for “backward” kids in a semi-hidden room with a door in the back of a regular classroom. It was a shameful place where everyday you were humiliated walking through the normal kids whenever you entered or exited.

One day, a young woman teacher passed out tests to everyone in our slow class. These, I later learned, were intended to further separate us, weeding out the merely deficient from the truly retarded. Normally, I would just stare at the tests. Sometimes, I would just randomly mark multiple choice answers without reading the questions. Tests were an unwelcome discipline that invaded my daydreams.

But then there was that spark – a circumstance colliding in the right way at the right moment. And I focused on the first question and it was easy. And all the questions were so very, very easy for me. And while all others in the class toiled and were baffled and struggled through their allotted 15 minutes of mental torture – with the teacher reading the questions to the majority who couldn’t do it for themselves, I filled out the correct answers in perhaps two minutes. I raced against myself to see how rapidly I could accomplish this.

Poker pro Erik Seidel has said that a good tournament player needs to think like a marathoner rather than a sprinter.

Seidel commented in an article for the Hendon Mob that when a tournament is over, he has to remind himself that if he plays well and consistently, he will be rewarded.

However, he added that short-term gains are not always forthcoming and it is possible to play well and have a poor run of results.

This is because there is a luck element to the game and players might just have an unfortunate run of cards.

Conversely, he noted that some poker fans, particularly younger ones, have a lucky run of cards and record good results even though they play badly.

Seidel has one of the most impressive World Series of Poker records, having picked up eight bracelets so far in his career.

The pro has earned more than $8.7 million in tournament winnings alone.

I was playing a shorthanded hold‘em game at Commerce Casino. I flopped an ace-high flush. My conversation as my opponent started to bet and then hesitated was playful and went something like this: “Don’t go betting that hand into me. What if I have a flush? Oh, you are betting? I might be trying for the biggest flush in the history of poker. I might already have it. I might have a pair of sixes. Nope, it’s a pair of jacks. Anyway, I call.”

Sounds like babble, right? But it isn’t. Every word, my inflection, my tone of voice, my brief pauses for reaction — everything — were carefully gauged to elicit a tell and to put me in a position to manipulate the action. No, I don’t expect everyone to be able to duplicate what I do. I’m the best there’s ever been at manipulating opponents. I wish I hadn’t written that last sentence, but there’s no way to take it back now. I don’t like to boast about my poker skills, and I feel bad because it happens so often.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. You don’t need to completely master the psychology of poker conversation to be rewarded. You just need to understand the basic truth. That’s what we’re talking about today — not the specifics of what to say, but why it’s important to say the right things.

Don’t Annoy Your Foes

Many people hear about my reputation for using hard-core psychology and manipulation in poker, and assume that I talk a lot at the table. They’re wrong

Some players are annoying to play against because they’re always babbling, whether they’re in a hand or not. Many opponents resent this incessant chatter. The unwelcome talk demands their attention and makes it difficult to ponder things that are not poker. You see, your opponents often wish to evaporate within their own thoughts. Then, time passes for them. They sometimes wish to brood over bad losses. Time passes. They sometimes wish to escape poker hell when the cards are making everyone else happy. So, they daydream. And time passes.

What you shouldn’t do — what you must never do — is deny your opponents the chance to escape into their own minds. You want happy opponents who are willing to lose their money to you without feeling the same pain they feel when losing to more strident opponents. The less it hurts them to lose money to you, the more money they will lose to you. That is something I constantly keep in mind when I’m playing poker. It’s so important that I’m going to repeat it. The less it bothers your opponents to lose money specifically to you, the more money they will give you.

They Don’t Mind

Now let’s talk about constant babbling at the table. There are times when everyone is friendly and engaged in conversation. That’s fine. I often join in. But there are other times when most players are withdrawn and absorbed in their thoughts. When they’re not in a hand, I try not to bother them. What’s important is to talk to them when they are involved in a hand. That’s when they’re not daydreaming and I have their full attention. It’s also when they don’t mind being talked to. In fact, they welcome it, because they subconsciously think they’re gaining information. They are, but it’s the information you want to provide — which usually is false — that will coax them toward choosing the action you desire.

In the first paragraph, I gave you some actual language that I used at the poker table. I suggested that I might have had all kinds of different hands. But as I suggested each one, I watched my opponent’s reaction. Since I’d flopped the nut flush, this wasn’t an attempt to determine if I had my opponent beat; it was an attempt to determine how I should play the hand. Let’s say my opponent held a pair of tens. Some opponents would have given me a clue to the approximate strength of their hand by showing false concern when I suggested I might have a pair of sixes, but not looking at all worried when I said I had a pair of jacks. This is instinctively how many players behave — look concerned when they have you beat, look unconcerned when they’re worried. It is the essence of what I discuss in Caro’s Book of Tells — The Body Language of Poker: Most opponents go out of their way to act weak when they’re strong and strong when they’re weak.

But nothing happened as I rambled. The equality of reactions, no matter what I said, indicated to me that my opponent didn’t have much of anything, and therefore didn’t care about exactly what I held. He just wanted me to throw my hand away and hoped that any mention of any strength was a lie on my part. He actually had J-8 offsuit, and neither card paired the flop. He paired eights on the turn (fourth boardcard) and could use his jack for a flush after the river card (a fourth heart on the board), checking and calling on both streets. In this case, the information was worthwhile. By determining that he was weak or bluffing, I just called — rather than raised — on the flop. Had I raised, he most likely would have folded immediately and I would not have made an additional $400. But although the value of this type of babbling is significant if used correctly, this example exaggerates the profit. Sometimes the knowledge you gain is worth nothing, and sometimes it works against you, because you lose a hand that you wouldn’t have played or would have played differently. In this case, sometimes I would have just called with the nut flush on the flop, even without a tell.

Always a Reason

Very often, by simply talking and saying the right things, I’ll see something that will provide a clue as to the strength of an opponent’s hand. But I don’t speak for no reason at all. I very often see players trying to work this verbal magic on their own, and they say the wrong things at the wrong times. It’s pure luck that they talk someone into a call they’re seeking or out of it. Of course, in general, they’re more likely to talk them into it, because players are looking for rationalizations for calling, and anything you say usually raises suspicions and is better than nothing if you want to be called. However, some words are much better than others, and I always try to say the things that are most likely to get the result I’m seeking.

But I don’t talk just for the fun of it. When I’m not in a hand, I’m usually quiet. I’m confident that when I leave the poker table to cash out, nobody ever says, “Doesn’t he ever shut up?” as they do with undisciplined blabbermouths. And nobody says, “I’m sure glad he left, now we can play poker in peace.” The reason nobody feels that way about me, despite my sometimes animated and vocal behavior while playing, is that I’m always sensitive to what fits the situation and what doesn’t.

As we’ve discussed before, it matters a great deal how you conduct yourself at the table. There seems to be a lot of players who believe that psychology doesn’t matter much, because opponents are almost always going to make decisions based on their cards. That’s wrong. Most players are going to make decisions based on you! I know that’s controversial, but it’s the truth. Very few hands “play themselves.” Most involve borderline decisions that make it unclear to an opponent what he should do. Because most of these decisions are precariously balanced, it doesn’t take much to push those decisions in the direction you desire. It’s just a matter of knowing what you want to accomplish and saying the right thing.

Everyone Knows

Used car salesmen know that what they say and how they say it influences people. Advertising people know it. Everyone knows it as they try to persuade others around them. Saying the right words at the right time in the right way makes all the difference in the world. So, why don’t poker players know it?

How much is saying the right stuff worth? It’s hard to say. If you’re a slight winning player making $1 an hour, and could move to $21 an hour by saying the right thing, that would increase your earnings 20 times. But that’s a silly way to look at it. To me, talking is so important to the game style I play that I believe it triples my earnings compared to playing the same way in silence. However, if I couldn’t talk, I wouldn’t play the same way — it just wouldn’t be profitable. I’d have to abandon a lot of my “exploratory” hands, where I see the flop in order to manipulate my way out of trouble. So, who knows exactly how much my mastery of this phase of poker psychology is worth? It’s worth a lot, though.

For many gambling enthusiasts, a trip to Las Vegas is often a life long dream. Unfortunately, with busy schedules and even the expense of the trip, many of us may never have the opportunity to visit. And for those who have had the opportunity to play in Vegas they know all to well the desire to return. Whatever reasons you can’t make it there you needn’t worry because there is a great alternative available to you in the comfort of your own home. With online bingo at Bingo Vega, you can find many of the great Vegas games without ever leaving your house.

What are your favorite Las Vegas games? Maybe you’re thinking video poker, slots, pull tabs, or blackjack. Of course keno and bingo are popular games in Vegas, not to mention roulette and craps. So you’re probably thinking that there’s no way an online bingo site like Bingo Vega can compete with the variety of exciting games available in Las Vegas. Well you’re wrong! The fact is, all these games, from video poker to online bingo and online keno and even roulette and craps are available at Bingo Vega.

Moreover, with Bingo Vega you get the 24/7 lifestyle of Vegas all from the comfort of your own home. You can save on expensive flights or bus trips, not to mention hotel and food costs, but you can still play all your favorite games at Bingo Vega. Simplifying Bingo Vega as an exclusively online bingo site is a mistake that many newcomers make. There are a wide variety of games, even within each group of games. For example, there are more than 15 varieties of slots and a range of video poker games you can play on top of online bingo. So the next time you’re feeling down about missing out on a trip to Vegas, log into Bingo Vega and experience everything Vegas has to offer!

There are many different types of slot machines available to those that want to play. There are those with three reels as well as those with five reels.

There are some casinos that will offer more of one than another, so you should try them all out when you have the opportunity. Many people like one or another better, but three reel slots are a favorite of many and that is because they are the classic slot machine. When most people think of slot machines they think of the three reel slot because for a long time that is all there was to choose from.

To play the three reel slot machine you only need to know how the machine is set up and how to get started. The three reel slot machine is like any other that you may have seen, it just has three reels.

The reels are the spinning wheel that has symbols painted on all of its surfaces. On the three reel machines there are three of these wheels spinning at the same time. The goal is to have the three reels spin and then stop so that a specific combination of symbols are displayed that will earn you money based on a payout schedule.

When you play three reel slots the symbols will vary from game to game and usually have a theme. The symbols can be just about anything but some of the more common items are cherries, playing cards, numbers, bars, pirate themes, and more. When you play with the three reel slots you will need to know what the pay line is, too. The pay line is the line that runs across all of the reels and it can be diagonal, horizontal, etc. You have to bet on a specific pay line to play.

Phil Hellmuth has stated that American Olympic hero Michael Phelps can play poker, and pointed to his performance at the Caesars Palace Classic as evidence.

The ten-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner said on his blog that Phelps is “a very good young player”.

According to Hellmuth, when the swimmer was knocked out first at the final table at Caesars Palace, he received a standing ovation.

Phelps reached the last nine but crashed out when his A-K ran into K-J and a jack appeared on the river.

Hellmuth said that he offered to introduce the winner of eight gold medals in Beijing to some poker stars at the $15,000 buy-in event at the Bellagio but said that Phelps seemed to know them all already.

Phelps and Hellmuth both hold records that make them arguably the top participants in their chosen professions.

The athlete claimed the most gold medals ever won at the Olympics in one year while Hellmuth holds more WSOP bracelets than anyone else and has cashed a record-breaking 68 times.

If you don’t think poker is a competitive sport, chances are you’ve never made it to the late stages of a major tournament where the only thing higher than the blinds is the pressure of playing for thousands – or even millions – of dollars in prize money.

As a former basketball player, I can compare the pressure of a WSOP final table to the final minutes of a playoff game where every play is crucial and any mistake can mean the difference between walking away a champion or a runner-up. From the crowds on the rails to the lights, TV cameras and reporters running around the floor, everything around you is amplified. Let the pressure and the circus atmosphere distract you, and you can easily watch your tournament slip away.

Pros who have been in these situations before – whether they’re athletes on the court or players on the felt – understand the key to wining in this atmosphere is to maintain focus on the task at hand and to block out everything else that doesn’t matter. TV cameras? Forget ‘em. Railbirds? Block them out. Bear down and play, and let the rest take care of itself.

Unlike other sports, poker has one more X factor that you have to learn to deal with – the money ladder where finishing just one spot higher can mean thousands or even hundreds of thousands of additional dollars in prize money. For players who haven’t gone deep in major tournaments, thinking about the short-term money jumps can be just as distracting as any TV camera. Succeeding at this stage takes focus on a single goal. For me, that goal is winning.

In my experience, tournaments can be divided into two distinct parts; in the money and out of the money. Before the bubble, my goal is to make the money. I want to cash and, hopefully, put myself in a position to win. After the bubble breaks, I aim to win. For me, and many other pros, the real tournament doesn’t start until after we’ve reached the money and its here where I really try to concentrate on making the smartest long-term strategic decisions I can in order to secure a win.

A hand from Event #1 of this year’s WSOP illustrates my point. We had reached four-handed play where the difference in finishing first and fourth was more than $500,000 when I got involved in a pot with Andy Bloch. I was holding pocket 7s and led out at a flop of Q-Q-3 only to have Andy make a pot-sized raise behind me. Though I don’t know what Andy was holding, I’m guessing that he may have had over-cards and, possibly, a flush draw. While my two pair of 7s and Queens may have very well been good, it would cost me my entire stack on what was essentially a coin flip in order to find out. In the end, I laid my hand down and looked for a better spot.

Why, you may ask. Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, I had a big enough stack at this point that I wasn’t committed to continuing with the hand and, while folding to Andy cost me some chips, I could still fold and sit comfortably in second chip position at the table. Secondly, and even more importantly, even if I was ahead of Andy on the flop, my read gave him 13 outs (approximately, a 40% chance) to make his hand. With my tournament life on the line if I called, I just wasn’t getting the odds to gamble.

While making the tough hero call in front of friends, family and the ESPN cameras may have been a great poker moment that earned me a few minutes of glory, I did my best to block all of that out of my mind and concentrate on the task at hand – winning the tournament. By focusing on the game plan I devised earlier, I was able to walk away from a marginal situation with only a small loss and move onto the next hand.

In the end, my decision to pass on the possible short-term gain I could have realized in this hand paid off, as I went on to defeat Andy after we reached heads-up play. I’ll take a WSOP bracelet over a few minutes of television glory any day.

Is it the Law of Averages? Certainly not! Well, surely it isn’t The Law of Gravitation? No. How about the Law of the Jungle? Funny, guess again! Oh, I see. You’re tired of guessing because you don’t know what the question is. Okay, I’ll repeat it:

“In a poker game among eight equally matched world-class players, what very powerful law dictates who will eventually win and who will lose? ”

You’re thinking, “Who cares? How often am I in a poker game made up of eight equally matched world-class players?”

Ah, but this principle has a much broader importance. It ranks among the most powerful laws in the gambling universe. Great poker pros are governed by it. So are Henry, Jack and Felix at your Friday night game. So are blackjack players and golfers, craps shooters and backgammon superstars.

The black hole.
I’m talking about The Power, baby. It’s a black hole in the poker table that can suck up all your chips and send you home whimpering. I’m talking about a merciless, ubiquitous, universal law that will never leave you alone until you honor it.

I’m talking about Caro’s Law of Least Tilt. Exactly What is Tilt, Anyway? You might not know the meaning of the phrase “going on tilt.” Turning to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged), we find on page 606 that “going on tilt” is not defined.

A pity. But checking a more credible source, Doyle Brunson’s Super/System – A Course in Power Poker, we see that the term “on tilt” is defined on page 539. Quote: “When a player starts playing bad (loses his composure), usually after losing one or more big pots, he’s said to be on tilt.”

There are other slang ways to express this phenomenon. Vegas regulars call it “steaming.” In my favorite Denver game, we used to say a man had “flipped a pancake.”

It happens to players and pinball machines.
Going on tilt describes it best. What happens to a pinball machine when you shake it too hard? The lights go out, its normal mechanical functions are short-circuited, it stops playing its normal game, and suddenly the word Tilt flashes on its scoreboard.

Isn’t that what happens to a poker player when you shake him too hard? Most players can take their bad beats graciously for a while; but when they suffer one blow too many, something usually snaps. Their lights go out, their brains malfunction, they cease to play their best game and, if you look really close, you can see the word “Tilt” etched on their foreheads.

Suddenly the most dedicated scientific poker players are babbling and bluffing and barging into pots with inferior hands. You’ve seen it happen, and it’s a pitiful sight to behold.

The law defined.
Write this law on a piece of paper, tape it to the wall and study it. Caro’s Law of Least Tilt: Among similarly skilled opponents, the player with the most discipline is the favorite.

Gee, that seems too obvious to bother saying. Obvious, hell! Ask around and see what the best poker players think is most important. Their opinions will vary. To save you the trouble, I actually surveyed ten tough players. My question was: “In a poker game among players whose ability is about equal, what do you think is the most important winning edge?”

Using a little judgment, I placed their answers into the following categories-

Knowledge of mathematics: 4
Psychological skill: 3
Knowing when to quit: 2
Alertness: 1

Had I undertaken a larger survey, other things would have appeared. But the point is made by this small sample. Incredibly, nobody mentioned the Law of Least Tilt! Everything listed is important.

Knowledge of Mathematics. A very weak player who knows nothing about probabilities or mathematics will be at the mercy of a knowledgeable opponent. However, a player with an outstanding grasp of odds and statistics is only a small favorite over a player with a pretty good understanding.

Of course, in some poker games even a small difference in mathematical ability can be critical. Seven-card high-low split is such a game.

Psychological Skill. Very important. But, in a game involving contestants of equal overall talent, is it likely that there will be much difference here? No.

Knowing When to Quit. For a bunch of reasons which I don’t want to discuss now, it’s better to quit when you’re losing than when you’re winning. Most players get this backwards and play longer when they’re losing. Anyway, seldom does one player secure an important edge over his peers by quitting at the correct times.

Alertness. You’ll seldom find a game among equally skilled foes where one is substantially more alert than his opponents.

Tilt by Mutual Agreement.
Tour the card rooms of Las Vegas, the poker parlors of California, the private games in Texas. Try legal seven-stud in Washington and Oregon. Play Hold ‘em in Montana.

Yep, poker’s booming everywhere. Look for the toughest, meanest game in the area. Ask around, you’ll find it. It’s usually a medium or high-stakes contest and it’s often comprised of the same regular players night after night. Sometimes there’s a stranger to throw off some money; but usually it’s survival of the fittest – hometown heroes battling for regional honors.

I’m talking about a poker game where players of approximately the same expectations wage a war of egos. Listen to me, you seven-card stud superstars – I’m talking to you!

Almost every ego contest I’ve witnessed has an unspoken rule that goes like this: Weak players are timid and we’re not weak, so let’s bet our hands like crazy. Nobody will get hurt if everyone does it.

There’s more to this tacit understanding. Any player who suffers two bad beats in a row is expected to play more recklessly than usual.

Oh, I almost forgot, there’s another part. If a stranger gets in the game and tries to take advantage of our generous bets and raises, we’ll play conservatively.

This last part is consistently violated. Take these poker pros and near-pros aside and ask what they’d do if a solid, talented player from Milwaukee sat in their game.

“We don’t give action unless we get action.” Snail slime!

The sad thing is, these guys really believe this! Gosh, you take your skilled sever-stud prayer from Topeka and put him in the $30 and $60 limit seven-stud game at the Sahara and . well, I like his chances.

Ego, Ego, Raise ‘em Up!
The talent in this game is awesome. Gathered here at the Sahara is some of the keenest seven-stud talent that ever sprouted West of the Rockies. But, yes, they do play too recklessly and when they lose too many pots and get on tilt they play really recklessly.

Naturally, you’d expect this to stop when Fred from Sacramento sits in the game. You guys remember Fred, don’t you? Following my instructions he won $3210 in one session. You probably don’t remember, since that isn’t a milestone win. And, of course, you don’t remember Charlie since he won only $1530.

These players were sent in the game as an experiment; and they both reported the same thing. The regular players did not lighten up on their raises. Instead, they made these new players a target and tried to intimidate them with a barrage of irrational raises.

Following my advice, both Fred and Charlie called timidly for the first several pots, letting the aggressors establish an image. Then they counter attacked for three consecutive hands. They’d been instructed to get the last bet in at every opportunity (within reason) no matter what cards they held. Although Charlie managed to lose all three pots, Fred won two of his, once making an inside straight down the river against queens-up.

Controlled Tilt – the Cruelest Weapon.
According to plan, Fred and Charlie never got out of line after that. They had established an early reckless image. The image stuck, even though they played solid poker from then on. The regular players felt confident that the tacit loose-play agreement was not in jeopardy. No one, they reasoned, was taking advantage.

Although these two sessions are not significant enough to prove the point, let’s make believe they are. What the hell, we’re talking about more than 400 hands, and only a statistician would demand a larger sample.

What it proves is this: In a game where everyone goes on tilt some of the time, the player who spends the fewest minutes on tilt wins the most money.

(Since some tilt plays are horrible and others are merely bad, you could argue that it isn’t the time of tilt, but the quality of tilt that determines the winners. It’s really both.)

Controlled Tilt is simply doing the things that a player on tilt does, while being motivated rationally rather than emotionally. The strategy is to appear totally berserk while remaining thoroughly in command. This is the cruelest, most profitable tactic I know.