You can’t avoid t becoming tilted during your online poker play, no matter what level you are playing at. Whether it’s in a live game or online is really up to you. Many players will prove to be very proficient at taking their game apart in small increments, over and over again. They will become so proficient that it may be easier to beat them only mentally, while their rivals will struggle to adapt in defense.
Tilt occurs when you take what should be small steps and go all out in executing the perfect play. Players will either call to try and catch the cards they want on the flop, or they might fold when they should call. Whichever way they execute their loosening, the cards won’t always fall into their favor and they will eventually run into rough waters. Making the wrong move will cause these kinds of runawayes, and we all know how well that can be.
I was once in a sit and go tournament when I finished third with a decent chip stack. The player under the gun raised in with a mediocre hand during the very first hand. A few players called basically to cover the original call, while I waited my turn to act. I subsequently called, as did most of the other players at the table. About fifteen minutes later I checked my email, text message, and Facebook page. All three went to sleep once I became the chip leader at the table. I arrived at my table late because I had overslept.
The table was playing very well and the other players received very little action. I was able to comfortably play my slow nagapoker game and I ended up taking the first seat. The format of the tournament was a mini satellite of the kind of event series many poker players are familiar with. In any case, my first hand was weak, so I played very conservatively. In that first hand only I had a chip stack of about $6000, which did not put me in a lot of danger. Many of the players at the table were playing with stacks of $5000-$10,000 and I was relatively comfortable in that range.
The second hand was played very differently. Everyone checked around the first half dozen of the cards. When the cards came out I had what was basically a hand with some potential, so I checked. That check often meant I got no action, which was fine because I really didn’t want to make a move. As the saying goes, he eventually got bored and played his whole stack off the top of his head. He didn’t hit any flops, but he did catch some cards and I ended up losing about $30 on two hands of 48.6nl that board.
I had a lot better luck on the third hand. He actually fired a bet at me and I had a very good read on his hand. Based on my experience of short-handed play, I predicted a call, which he picked up. At that point, all I wanted was to go all in to protect my hand. Sure enough, he went all in a few moments later, and I had all of his chips. At that point, all I wanted was to double up, not take all of his chips!
So, if you’ll allow me, this is the kind of fun you will have by going all in pre-flop, or being dealt a hand that could turn into a big hand, you will usually be a winner unless you give the impression to your opponents that you are not. If you are really popular, and can convince your opponents you are, that will make you a player the others will fear.
If you are not popular, and you are winning without beingacked out, you will no doubt get the impression that the other players at the table don’t respect you and they will stop challenging you. That might actually be a good thing for you… even if they don’t respect you, they won’t challenge you.
You could sit back and let people think you are the nuts and play right into their hands, or you could do the opposite. If you let people think you are a wild risk taker, you might get into a hand with someone later and you might potentially double up, or get paid off with a good hand. The key is to make sure that you are the risk taker when you are the favorite, and not the person who is always going to call in the first couple of hands.
