The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success by Ian Taylor & Matthew Hilger

Author:Ian Taylor & Matthew Hilger [Taylor, Ian & Hilger, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Games & Activities, Card Games, General, Poker, gambling
ISBN: 9780974150239
Google: tYCfPAAACAAJ
Publisher: Dimat Enterprises Incorporated
Published: 2007-11-15T00:07:24.690523+00:00

Passive Tilt

Passive tilt is a poker player’s silent enemy. It can creep into your game without your noticing its arrival, and once there, it can be difficult to detect. Rather than betting and raising in the right situations, you will begin to check and call too frequently. Passive tilt generally affects a player’s post-flop play more than his pre-flop play, as pre-flop raising is normally something that is done automatically from rule.

Passive tilt is nearly always caused by either a loss of confidence or latent risk aversion. The most-likely triggers are outlined below.

Running badly – A bad session might make you less inclined to bet and raise your good hands. Subconsciously, you will begin to expect the worst and that your opponent will always hit his draw. To minimize your losses when that “inevitable” bad card falls, you will stop betting and raising. In addition, you will tend to go into check/call mode when faced with any aggression from your opponents unless you have an extremely strong hand.

New limit – When you play a new higher limit for the first time, you might be less willing to raise, because the monetary amounts involved look much higher. You will become conscious of the amount of money you could potentially lose if things go wrong. You will also be likely to give the players at this new limit more respect, even if their play doesn’t warrant it. Subconsciously, you will consider them better than you, until you get used to the new limit and believe you belong.

Insufficient bankroll – Players with an insufficient bankroll will have a tendency to play too passively because they are unable to properly absorb downswings. They can’t afford to take high-variance gambles with positive expectation, or at least they will feel that way.

A big problem with passive tilt is that it can go undetected for a considerable period of time, especially when simply triggered by running badly. Ian once had a 250-big bet downswing and decided to send his hand histories to a friend for analysis. His friend pointed out several hands where he had missed bets and raises, and it became apparent to Ian that he had been on passive tilt.

Passive tilt can be a big problem because it feeds on itself. If you take a few bad beats and go on passive tilt, you might not protect future hands properly. This gives your opponents the chance to draw out on you even more, which might force you even more into your shell. Before you know it, you are a tight, passive rock, with no positive expectation.

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