Q&A #71: Tilt, Poker on TV, and Are They Really Like That?

“If a normally quiet player starts talking a lot after they’ve put a big bet out there, they have the nuts (or at least feel like they do). If someone sighs and says, “Well, I guess I’m ready to go home,” they have a good hand, and so forth.”

Minor mistake in your otherwise good article?

Come on, Ed. Tell us a story. What’s the silliest thing you ever did while in Vegas on tilt?

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity Ed. I was always wondering about that.

Speaking of tilt, check out what happened to Terrance Chan’s laptop on his blog:

http://terrencechan.livejournal.com/

Beware of the speech Fred.

I think it’s pretty sad.
I get fourious when the things that should go the way they should accidentally go wrong, just in the time I need them go wright the way they should (like internet conncetion sucks for 15 minutes just when I’m in the middle of tournament with fairly big stack). sometimes some paranoid thoughts were running through my mind after a month of a bad streak or similar but I got over that kind of stuff.
I managed to destroy/damage couple of things in my life, but I’m working on handling it. It’s been the crucial point in my life for a few years, a few years ago.
Sometimes all the emotions accumulate, even not particularly relating to poker. So lastly I damaged a portable radio, as the anger for the dj being so stupid playing mainly britpop and lots of pop on a rock station cumulated together with internet suck and some idiots winning number of suckouts for a week or so… but I was quite decided to let this radio go, but it’s still working - a little bit worn off :-))
Things that do realy help great is Dzogchen meditation and feng shui. Selfconciousness and awarness and discipline.

I think one great way to work on tells is to look for them in your own play.

For instance, say you hit your hand on the turn and bet or raise rather quick. Then you realize, whoops, that was a bit too quick. Then ask yourself why you reacted that way. It usually it means someone can’t wait to put their chips in and are too engulfed in their hands. Over excitement. So there you’d catch your self and also see the possible root behind your version of that tell which also lends itself to how to counter-act that action. And so on…

Wow, my first post on Eddie’s page!

b

Ed, I noticed that you spend a very small amount of time on tells in “Small Stakes Hold ‘Em.” My question for you (or anyone else here) is, how important and/or reliable are physical tells in low-limit hold ‘em? Does the importance of tells change at higher limits, and if so, how?