Playing poker online in Australia can be quite easy once you get over the hurdle of signing up an account and then understanding how the flow of money works to and from your bank account.

Generally in Australia, you can use standard methods to deposit money. eg Visa,M/C and direct debit. Unfortunately you cannot use BPay, POSTpay or (au)paypal. There are numerous popular international methods such as click2pay,NETeller and Moneybookers.

These methods are free to join, and free to make deposits, pretty simple hey? most people have credit cards. However, receiving your winnings can get a bit more complicated. Before the poker sites pay you, they will often require further security verifications. For example, they may need a photo ID, documentation such as proof of address or citizenship certificates. On top of that, before the places like NETeller will credit you, they too need security verification (often by phone).

In any case this can be a nuisance if u just want to sign on and play immediately. the security process can take between 3-14 days to complete. Once verified, withdrawing money down the track is easy. Word of warning the withdrawal time can be quite long, sometimes even up to two weeks, in the mean time, the site is trying to get you to lose all your money back!!!

Be sure to read all the information on the sites so you know exactly how they work! In most cases, they are not going to rip you off, they just want to make it as secure as possible.

To put it simply, when you’re on tilt you’re irrational and emotional. You become a donkey, which is another poker term to describe poker players that make bad decisions. What frequently happens when you’re on tilt is that you get stubborn and you keep throwing money in a pot you should have walked away from. Subconsciously, you’re trying to make up for the chips you’ve lost and you want them now. While acquiring chips is the goal of any poker player, when you lose objectivity in perusing that goal you end up making bad poker decisions. What can happen next is even more dangerous – Tilt’s vicious circle! You end up making life more difficult for yourself, and that only upsets you some more but you keep doing it to yourself until you end up with zero chips. It’s only after a cool down period that you wonder “What the hell did I just do?”
Getting other people on tilt

While being on tilt isn’t a good thing, having someone else at the table on tilt could be a great thing for you. This is exactly why people like TonyG are acting like such a-holes at the table: they want to piss you off on purpose so that you lose your focus and start making bad plays. Guess what happens when TonyG is in your face constantly… You think to yourself “I’m going to show that #$@#$%^#”, and that is EXACTLY what he wants you to think. When I play online, I frequently notice that some people are just a-holes when I pay attention to the chat box. And once in a while, I pick on them on purpose without being excessive in my language or anything like that, but when I see something bad happen to them, I do like to point it out and twist the blade so it hurts even more. Am I a jackass? Yes, but I’m a jackass that’s going to end up with your money because YOU will make this a personal matter. You’ll want to teach me a lesson. And odds are, you’re not even going to learn anything from the lesson you’re about to get from me! Haha! But remember, there is such a thing as poker etiquette, and there is a line you shouldn’t cross if you choose to opt for these frowned upon tactics.

When someone is on tilt, they typically become over aggressive, raise when they shouldn’t and call when they should fold. Watch for hands or situations that really hurt them and look for changes in their behaviors. Someone who’s been very chatty and suddenly shuts up after losing a big hand could be on tilt. On the next hand, if you actually hit the flop, it’s time to push these boys around and let them push back. Picture yourself at the edge of a cliff struggling with someone else where each person is trying to throw off the other to the bottom. The difference is you have a harness and are securely attached so if you do go down, you won’t go far. If you can push the other person over, then they’ll go all the way. That’s what it means to play with someone on tilt. You want to push them off the edge, and they want to do the same to you. The difference is you know when to stop while they’ll fight to the death. You have a safety net because you remain focused and calculate your every move.

There is a danger in playing the tilt game. If you’re trying to push someone else to be on tilt, your goal is to make them make things personal. But in your attempt, you may drive yourself on tilt without realizing it. By attempting to make things personal, you may end up taking things personally so it is a very dangerous game indeed. The safest approach is to simply not bother driving people to being on tilt and respecting the poker etiquette. It is a gentlemen’s game after all! But always keep your eyes open for signs that someone else is on tilt and see if you can take advantage of it in some way.
What to do when you’re on tilt

The best thing you can do is walk away if you can. If you’re in a cash game, take a break, skip a few hands, have a smoke if that relaxes you, jump around, yell like a maniac if you’re home alone (DO NOT try this in a casino…). Basically, you need to shake it off, and you need to do it fast. Jumping jacks work wonders! The worse thing you can do is keep playing and remain upset. You need to let it go because what ever happened is a thing of the past and there is absolutely nothing you can do to change it. Focus on the task at hand, on what matters: reading your opponents to win the day.

In early position, you want to be extremely particular in which starting hands you play. Early position is a tough place to play from so you need stronger hands to help negate the disadvantage of your position. Only stick with the strongest hands from early position – look for big pairs like TT-AA and AK.

When you get to middle and late position, you can open up your range a little. If several people have already entered the pot, you can enter as well with a variety of hands. Besides the obvious premium hands, you can also play small pocket pairs and suited connectors with the hopes of hitting a big flop.

As a general rule of thumb, you should really only play the top 20% of your starting hands. The other 80% you should just fold. It sounds terrible having to fold 80% of the time but that’s how the big winners do it. Even your favorite poker pros on TV have to fold most of the time – you just don’t see it on TV.

This is usually where newer players interject with the argument that any two cards can win in holdem. Of course any two hands can win in holdem but that doesn’t mean you should play every hand you’re dealt! Anything can happen in the short term but we look at poker and judge success from a long term perspective.

If you want to win money in the long term, you need to fold all those weak hands and stick with only the best hands. Weak hands don’t win often enough to pay for all the times they don’t get you anywhere. All the times you limp in with a weak hand and end up folding it add up quickly.

The other problem with weak hands is how hard they are to play post flop. When you play those marginal hands, it’s hard telling where you stand because your hand is so iffy. If you constantly place yourself in marginal situations, you’re going to lose money. Just avoid the problem in the first place and stick with strong hands.

When you play those strong hands, play them like you mean it. Come in with a raise and get some money in the pot. Sometimes it seems pointless to raise your strong hands, especially ones like AK, when you know the whole table is just going to call your raise but trust me, there is a point to raising.

Even if there are 9 other people in the pot, you should still raise your strong hands because they have more pot equity than the weak hands your opponents play. Even a hand like AK that only hits a pair 1/3rd of the time is worth raising because you’ll win more than your fair share of pots with it. Every time you get money in the pot against inferior hands, you win over the long term. Sure, you’ll have all kinds of results in the short term, but the bigger pots you win with your strong hands make up for the times someone draws out on you with a trashy hand.

If you play tight before the flop and raise your strong hands aggressively, you’ll already be well on your way to winning big in poker. Playing a tight but aggressive starting hand strategy is the easiest way to gain an immediate advantage over your competition. If you couple that with a solid post-flop strategy, your bankroll will grow faster than you ever thought possible.

My poker career started a couple of years ago at my golf club. There was a .50/1/2 game that I started playing that could be very, very good. I quickly learned that against poor play, I could make money playing poker. I often took away around $100 for 5 hours or so of play. I lost sometimes but not very much. I have to stress that the level of play was often very, very poor.

I also started playing in another semi-private game that was more like a 3/6 game that was much tougher. I learned that I wasn’t really all that good. Against better play for higher stakes I was just breaking even, but the fact that I wasn’t losing was encouraging.

One way or the other, I had the poker bug.

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I play because I enjoy the game, and I enjoy winning at it. I play to make money, but I also have a fascination for the cards themselves. I used to play competitive contract bridge, but I would rather play cards for money than for points. I am content to win at low-stakes poker. My goal is to make enough money playing poker to take the family out to dinner a couple of times a week. I’m not trying to make a living at it.

My motivations aside, I decided to try online poker. I first tried ring game 0maha8 (O8), but I had a lot of holes in my game. I was too loose, and I would get too emotional about some maniac stealing all the time. I chased and come in second a lot. Maniacs gave me a lot of trouble.

I was a bit discouraged, so I decided to try the small stakes O8 tourneys instead of the ring games. I noticed that the play was usually different. Maniacs weren’t as much trouble because I could usually wait them out. They frequently busted early. This strategy worked better for me, but I was still losing. I managed to make $500 last for about six months.

Poker NovicesIn looking back, I believe that a couple of transitions occurred in my play during this time. I was too loose at first and then became too tight after spending more time playing in tournaments. I believe these transitions are fairly natural and that a lot of new players must go through them, because the games that are available push a lot of new players in the same direction they pushed me.

When a new player tries online poker, perhaps with a set of experience similar to mine, he wants to play. He looks at players throwing away hands and asks “How can you throw more than half your hands without seeing a flop? You gotta see a flop!”

If he has any brains he finds that playing all the hands doesn’t work and then he possibly overreacts. Too tight play is the next natural stage that new players go through because they lose their chips so quickly in tournament games if they try to stay in the hands that have a combination of maniacs and players holding good cards. Too tight play works better than too loose in the tournaments, and the tournaments tend to be a little easier on the initial bankroll. You can play longer for your money with this strategy.

Anyway, you might make the too-tight strategy last longer, but it still loses. At some point, a player has to find the sweet spot. I started playing in more ring games after giving some thought to my play and my results. After going through my too-tight phase, I started betting my better hands more aggressively. I started trying to give other players the same problems they were giving me. I found that I had better success in some types of games than others. I was winning in tight games by using solid, selectively aggressive play and I was winning in loose games by being more patient and sharing profits with good players against maniacs. I started looking for those games before sitting down. I found that games somewhere in the middle, perhaps those with too many good players, weren’t worth playing. In short, I discovered game selection and I began adjusting to various game types.

I still have some holes in my game, but on-line poker is solidly profitable to me now. I’ve gone somewhat beyond my goal of paying for nights out with the family. I’ve added games other than O8 to my arsenal, branching out to find other profitable situations.

Pot odds work by comparing the size of the bet and size of the pot to the chances that your draw will hit. Luckily this is an easy concept to learn and before you know it you’ll be calculating the pot odds all the time without even realizing it. In fact, you’ll often use the pot odds when you’re not even in a hand to identify the fish at the table who chase draws against the odds.

There are two ways to calculate your pot odds. One way is extremely simple and easy to use; the other way requires a calculator. The simple method is easier to explain so I guess we’ll use that one today. Besides, I don’t even know how to use a calculator for pot odds. This stuff is all memorization. It’s simple. I have no idea why so many web pages teach the complicated method.
1. Find the Pot Odds

The first step in figuring out whether or not you should call a bet is to compare the size of the bet to the size of the pot using a ratio. If an opponent bets $10 into a $50 pot, your pot odds are 60:10. This reduces down to 6:1. If an opponent bets $50 into a $100 pot, your pot odds are 150:50 or 3:1. Notice that we include the bet when counting the pot size.

That’s the first step. The hardest part is over! Do you see how this works? You just set up the size of the pot next to the size of the bet and reduce it down to simple terms. The next step is even easier.
2. Compare the Pot Odds to the Drawing Odds

What you do here is compare the chances of your draw hitting to the pot odds we figured in the last section. The only thing slightly resembling effort that you have to do here is memorize the odds for a few of the more common drawing hands.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have a flush draw and an opponent has bet $10 into a $60 pot. You want to know if you should call or fold. The pot is giving you 7:1 and the odds of a flush draw hitting on the next card are about 4:1. Should you call? Yes. Whenever the pot odds are greater than the drawing odds, it is correct to call. In this example the pot odds are giving you 7:1 on a 4:1 draw. You can call this bet every day and expect to profit over the long term.

What I mean by “profit over the long term” is best explained using an example. Let’s say that over the course of a year you get into the above situation 100 times. 80 times you will miss the flush draw and have to fold for a total of $800 spent chasing and missing.

The other 20 times you complete the flush draw and win the $70 pot for a total of $1,400 in wins. Subtract $800 from $1,400 and you end up with net wins totaling $600. That’s what we mean by looking at the long term.
3. Memorize the Odds for Common Drawing Hands

The only thing you have to do now is memorize the odds for some of the common drawing hands out there. Some of the most common drawing hands I encounter are flush draws (4:1), straight draws (5:1), 2-pair to full house draws (11:1) and gutshot straight draws (11:1).

There are plenty of poker odds charts out there if you want to look up additional draws. Most odds charts list the odds in two columns: chance on next card and chance on next 2 cards.

You don’t know if you’ll have to call additional bets on the next street so always base your calculations on only one card coming. The only time you would want to use the “2 cards coming” column is when you’re about to get it all-in on the flop and know for sure that you’ll get to see two cards for this one bet.

Home poker games can have any rules they want, but casino rules and poker hand rankings are consistent. Poker games are normally played with a fifty-two card deck. A joker is sometimes used when playing Draw games. A joker is not used when playing “flop games” like Texas Holdem, nor is it used in Stud-style games. (See Texas Holdem Rules and Stud Poker Rules.)

Cards are ranked with the Ace the highest card, followed by the King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight and so on down to the Two, known as a Deuce. In most games, an Ace can also play below a Deuce for straights (see below) or as the lowest card in Lowball style games.

All poker hands, even if you are playing a game like Seven Card Stud, consist only of the best five cards available. Sixth cards are never used to break ties. Suits are not used to break ties (spades are not better than clubs). After all betting rounds are complete all players remaining in the hand show their cards (or discard them if they see a better hand has them beat). The poker hand rankings are, in order.

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1. If a joker or wild cards are used, Five of a Kind is the best hand, with five aces (the four natural Aces plus the joker) the best possible hand.

Poker Hands2. If there is no joker in play, the best possible hand is a Straight Flush: five consecutive cards of the same suit. (“Suits” are spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds.) The highest possible straight flush is a Royal Flush. A Royal Flush includes the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten of the same suit.

3. Four of a Kind. Four cards of the same rank, for example four kings, plus any fifth card. As always, higher ranks are better — four tens would beat four sixes.

4. Full House. Three cards of the same rank, with a pair of another rank. For example, KKK33. The higher ranking three cards determines which full house beats another — 77766 beats 222AA.

5. Flush. Five cards of the same suit. For example, the Ace, Queen, Nine, Seven and Three of clubs. When comparing flushes, they are ranked from the top card on down. A9732 defeats KQJ85, while a QJ987 flush defeats a QJ983 one. If two flushes have exactly the same cards, like AJ976 of spades versus AJ976 of hearts, this is a tie and a pot would be split.

6. Straight. Five sequential cards of different suits. For example, 98765. When two straights are shown, the highest card determines the winner — KQJT9 defeats 87654. An Ace can be used to make either a “Broadway” straight of AKQJT or a “wheel” straight of 5432A. “Around the corner” straights like 32AKQ are not allowed.

7. Three of a Kind. Three cards of the same rank, like 888 with two unpaired cards. As always, a higher ranked three of a kind defeats a lower ranked three of a kind — 99932 beats 666AK. In flop games it is possible for both players to have the same three of a kind, in which case the two unrelated “kicker” cards would determine the winner — QQQ92 would defeat QQQ87. If the two hands are identical, the pot is split.

8. Two Pair. Two cards of one rank, two cards of another rank and a kicker of a third rank. For example JJ882. KK332 defeats QQJJ9. 99554 defeats 9933A. 7766A defeats 7766Q. Two hands of the same ranks, like KKQQ5 versus KKQQ5 split the pot.

9. One Pair. Two cards of the same rank, and three unrelated cards. For example, JJK73. A higher pair defeats a lower pair. When players have the same pair, the unrelated “kicker” cards are valued in order, so 99Q32 defeats 99765.

10. No Pair, High Card. Poker hands with no pair or any of the other ranking values listed above. When comparing no pair hands, the highest card determines the winner, using each card in order if necessary, so AKQ94 defeats AKQ85.

Low Hand Rankings (Lowball Poker Rules)
Two principal ways are used to determine rank of low poker hands. The more common way is for an Ace to play low, and for straights and flushes to be ignored. Thus the lowest possible hand is a 5432A. The second low poker hand ranking method is “Kansas City” or “deuce to seven” method, where Aces are high and straights and flushes do count. With this method, the best possible low is a 75432. In both cases low poker hands are compared in terms of the number they create, from highest card to lowest — 87653 defeats 95432. If a joker is used, it serves as the lowest missing card.

One problem with poker hand nicknames though is they sometimes become obsolete. Take the case of three tens, TTT. One nickname for this three of a kind is “thirty miles of bad road”, which is often shortened to “thirty miles.” Many years ago this thirty miles notion led to the hand getting its most famous nickname: “Gilroy to San Jose.” Unfortunately, these days San Jose has sprawled all the way up to the Gilroy city limits! Even if it means we can apparently travel thirty miles in one step, I guess we have to keep the nickname. More puzzling though is another, more obscure nickname for TTT: “Woodbine to Corbin.” One would assume the genesis of this nickname is the same as Gilroy to San Jose, but take a look at a map. Woodbine is about five miles from Corbin! I guess that’s why the nickname hasn’t caught on.

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While a few full poker hands have nicknames like “the dead man’s hand” of Aces and Eights, two card Texas Hold’em hands tends to lend itself more to nicknames. I suppose this is because there are fewer card combinations than in Omaha for example, where only rare birds like AK47 (A-kay-forty-seven) can get nicknamed. However, in Omaha an entire branch of hands are classified as “double-scheckies” due to the incomparable Bob Scheckman’s penchant for falling in love with any bit of double-suited shit that came his way. In any case, here are a few Texas Holdem starting hand nicknames that have stood the test of time.

AA Rockets; Bullets; American Airlines
KK Cowboys
QQ Canadian Rockets; Canadian Aces; Siegfried & Roy
JJ Fishhooks; hooks
88 Snowmen; Doggie Balls
77 Sunset Strip
66 Route 66
55 Presto; Speed Limit
44 Canadian Presto
33 Crabs
22 Ducks

Poker Hand NicknamesAK Big Slick
AQ Big Chick; Walking Back to Houston
KQsuited Marriage
KQoffsuit Mixed Marriage
KJ Kojak
K9 Fido; What a Dog
K3 Commander Crab; King Crab
Q7 Computer hand
Q3 Gay Waiter (queen with a tray)
J5 Motown; Jackson Five
T8 Golden Dan
T5 F&W Woolworth’s; Five and Dime
T4 Broderick Crawford; Convoy; Good Buddy
T2 Texas Dolly
98 Oldsmobile
96 Big Lick; Dinner for Two
95 Dolly Parton
92 Montana Banana
83 Most feared hand in Holdem
7T Split
76 Union Oil

Then there is the case of J4. First named after John “Austin Squatty” Jenkins due to his penchant for raising and reraising with this hand of “hidden value”, the hand later also became known as “Kid Grenade” after a poker dealer who when he played was “liable to go off at any moment”. He once told me the hand’s true nickname should be “Full Employment” because “If you play J4, you’ll always have a day job.”

Use these 4 tips to help you sort out that fuzzy strategy on how to play mid-pocket pairs in Texas Hold’em.
1) Realize that pocket pairs are not indestructible

In my opinion, the problem with playing mid pocket pairs stems from the fact that they are far too overvalued preflop. It’s easy to get excited when you look down and see your pocket pair and start raising like a mad man preflop but when the flop cards comes down you are a little lost, as your hand is not nearly as strong as you thought it was.

Mid pocket pairs are solid hands, but they are not worth reraising another player with before the flop. Remember that there is more to a Texas Hold em hand than the preflop betting round, so prepare for whatever might happen on the flop with your preflop actions.
2) Hitting a set is the ultimate goal

When you see a flop with a mid pocket pair you need to look at it in one of two ways; you either hit a set or you didn’t.

The true value of a pocket pair is its ability to hit a set and extract a lot of money from the unsuspecting opponent. Pocket pairs have huge implied odds because the possibility of a set is often overlooked by your opponents, which means that you are likely to get paid off if they also catch a piece of the flop.

If you are unfortunate and do not hit your set, you mid pocket pair is not going to be worth fighting with. This is not to say that you should completely give up on the hand, but to simply be aware that you may well be beat, and the fact that you are not sure of where you stand means that you should lean toward folding if there is a lot of action.

Even though it’s disappointing that you did not hit your set, you should be happy to fold and avoid digging yourself into a deeper hole. Your bankroll will thank you for it.
3) It is worth calling relatively large bets to see a flop

Even though the odds of actually hitting a set are 7:1, it is still worth calling a 4 or 5 big blind bet to see a flop. This is due to the fact that for the one time you do hit that set, you can expect to be paid off handsomely, which makes up for the times that you called the bet to see the flop but missed.

As I already mentioned, your opponent is unlikely to suspect that you have a set, and so if they hit a hand like top pair, you can expect to see a large portion of their stack coming your way. So at the end of the day, you will lose a little bit of money from the times you call and miss, but you will easily make up for this when you hit your set.
4) When you hit your set, play it fast

The last thing you want to do when you hit your set is to slow down and start checking and calling. You want to make sure that you get the most from the hand, so don’t be afraid the build the pot by betting and raising. If you are checking and calling, you are missing out on a prime opportunity to force your opponent to put more money into the pot, as they will not usually suspect that you have such a strong hand.

There will be times where your opponent folds when you bet and raise with your set, but try not to let this get you down. Remember that if your opponent was not willing to call your bets or raises on early betting rounds, then you were unlikely to have ever extracted much money from the hand anyway. At least you gave yourself the opportunity to win the biggest pot possible.
Overview

The key point to remember is that your main goal is to hit a set with your mid pocket pair. A pocket pair will still retain some value after the flop, but the problem is that it is difficult to know where you stand. Therefore the best plan of action is to be careful and avoid getting involved in a big pot.

The more you play pocket pairs, the more adept you will become at playing them. Hopefully this article helped you to find your footing a little when it comes to mid pocket pairs, but there is no replacement for practice, so get out there and play!

When I speak of aggression, I’m not referring to blind aggression. Aggression doesn’t mean randomly betting, raising and bluffing for the hell of it. It means playing your strong hands fast to get money in the pot and folding when you don’t have anything decent. Aggression is simply betting and raising when you have to goods and bailing out when you don’t.
Aggression Before the Flop

Playing with aggression before the flop serves several purposes. First of all, it gets money in the middle when you have a strong hand. Hands like AK are worth betting with because, even though they don’t win every time, they win more than their fair share of pots.

Every time someone puts money in against a stronger hand, the person with the stronger hand gains. If someone wants to try to suck out on you with an inferior hand, you should make them pay for the chance.

Raising your strong hands before the flop also serves to knock other people out of the pot. If you can get it down to just you and one or two other people, you’ll win way more often than if you let the whole table in. Remember, you want people to pay for the chance to play against your strong hands.
Aggression After the Flop

Post-flop aggression is useful in so many ways. Most importantly, it gets money in the middle when you have strong hands. I know I’m repeating myself but one of the biggest places poker players miss value is in not playing their strong hands fast enough.

In addition to that, aggression charges people to play draws against you. When you bet enough to cut down your opponents’ pot odds, you profit every time they call. If they fold, you get the pot. Even if they do hit their draws sometimes, it creates a win-win situation for you over the long term.

When you play aggressive with your made hands after the flop, it puts all the pressure on your opponents. It takes a bigger money commitment to raise your bets than it does to bet if you just check all the time. In the end, it makes your opponents play more straightforward against you. They are less willing to mess around with bluffs because you’re always out there playing strong hands and making big bets.

And finally, aggression gets you paid off more often. When other players see you out there betting and raising all the time, they naturally start to wonder if you’re just a bluff-monkey. The more you’re out there betting and raising, the more your opponents are willing to call out of disbelief. If you play your bluffs the same way, your opponents are going to have even more fun trying to figure out when you’re telling the truth and when you’re stealing the pot.
Summary

Remember, aggression is important but you can’t use blind aggression to make any money. Instead of calling with your weak hands, fold them. Instead of calling with your strong hands, raise them. Aggression is a simple concept to learn but difficult to implement. When you get the hang of it though, you’ll see major increases in your poker profits.

To put it simply, when you’re on tilt you’re irrational and emotional. You become a donkey, which is another poker term to describe poker players that make bad decisions. What frequently happens when you’re on tilt is that you get stubborn and you keep throwing money in a pot you should have walked away from. Subconsciously, you’re trying to make up for the chips you’ve lost and you want them now. While acquiring chips is the goal of any poker player, when you lose objectivity in perusing that goal you end up making bad poker decisions. What can happen next is even more dangerous – Tilt’s vicious circle! You end up making life more difficult for yourself, and that only upsets you some more but you keep doing it to yourself until you end up with zero chips. It’s only after a cool down period that you wonder “What the hell did I just do?”
Getting other people on tilt

While being on tilt isn’t a good thing, having someone else at the table on tilt could be a great thing for you. This is exactly why people like TonyG are acting like such a-holes at the table: they want to piss you off on purpose so that you lose your focus and start making bad plays. Guess what happens when TonyG is in your face constantly… You think to yourself “I’m going to show that #$@#$%^#”, and that is EXACTLY what he wants you to think. When I play online, I frequently notice that some people are just a-holes when I pay attention to the chat box. And once in a while, I pick on them on purpose without being excessive in my language or anything like that, but when I see something bad happen to them, I do like to point it out and twist the blade so it hurts even more. Am I a jackass? Yes, but I’m a jackass that’s going to end up with your money because YOU will make this a personal matter. You’ll want to teach me a lesson. And odds are, you’re not even going to learn anything from the lesson you’re about to get from me! Haha! But remember, there is such a thing as poker etiquette, and there is a line you shouldn’t cross if you choose to opt for these frowned upon tactics.

When someone is on tilt, they typically become over aggressive, raise when they shouldn’t and call when they should fold. Watch for hands or situations that really hurt them and look for changes in their behaviors. Someone who’s been very chatty and suddenly shuts up after losing a big hand could be on tilt. On the next hand, if you actually hit the flop, it’s time to push these boys around and let them push back. Picture yourself at the edge of a cliff struggling with someone else where each person is trying to throw off the other to the bottom. The difference is you have a harness and are securely attached so if you do go down, you won’t go far. If you can push the other person over, then they’ll go all the way. That’s what it means to play with someone on tilt. You want to push them off the edge, and they want to do the same to you. The difference is you know when to stop while they’ll fight to the death. You have a safety net because you remain focused and calculate your every move.

There is a danger in playing the tilt game. If you’re trying to push someone else to be on tilt, your goal is to make them make things personal. But in your attempt, you may drive yourself on tilt without realizing it. By attempting to make things personal, you may end up taking things personally so it is a very dangerous game indeed. The safest approach is to simply not bother driving people to being on tilt and respecting the poker etiquette. It is a gentlemen’s game after all! But always keep your eyes open for signs that someone else is on tilt and see if you can take advantage of it in some way.
What to do when you’re on tilt

The best thing you can do is walk away if you can. If you’re in a cash game, take a break, skip a few hands, have a smoke if that relaxes you, jump around, yell like a maniac if you’re home alone (DO NOT try this in a casino…). Basically, you need to shake it off, and you need to do it fast. Jumping jacks work wonders! The worse thing you can do is keep playing and remain upset. You need to let it go because what ever happened is a thing of the past and there is absolutely nothing you can do to change it. Focus on the task at hand, on what matters: reading your opponents to win the day.