Dakota Kid Presents - Deadwood Nuts

The Dakota Kid Goes on Full Tilt

By
Mike Randall

Tilt is the most difficult aspect of the game for most poker players to master. Our emotions are effected by the game and when the game goes badly and we allow our emotions to control our actions instead of making good decisions then we are on �tilt�. When we loose most or complete control of those emotions we are on �full tilt�. There have been a couple of times that I remember being on full tilt, I am going to tell you about one those times in this article.

This full tilt occurred in a game at the Gold Dust in Deadwood about two or three years ago. I arrived at the Gold Dust early on a Saturday for the scheduled 2 pm $10 - $20 holdem game. There had been a game going all night and Mike, a local, and a tall stranger from out of state were playing $20 - $40 heads up. Mike had about $1000 or so in front of him and the stranger had $3000 or more. As I observed the game, it looked like it could be a good one but didn�t want to get into it until they got a few more players. As soon as it was four handed I took a seat to the right of the out of towner. I had on previous occasions notice him to be extremely loose aggressive, a real maniac and today was no exception and he had been playing over 24 hours strait, the lack of sleep personifying his style! I would have preferred a seat to the left so I could raise and isolate the maniac with good hands, but it was taken.

I bought $500 in chips, my normal buy in for a game of this limit. By the middle of the afternoon I had made two re-buys, more than I usually invest in a game, but this was a really good game with lots of action and I was playing well, just taking some bad beats, so I saw no reason to quit.

To give you an idea of how bad I was running, I lost with five sets that day. For those who don�t know, a set is a pair in your hand with a third one on the board to give you three of a kind. The fifth time would have put most players on tilt right there. That hand I was dealt pocket tens in middle position. I raised and was called by Larry, a very good player. The flop came ten high with what I call a double rainbow, three different suits with no strait draw. Finally I had a set that looked like a sure winner. I slow played checking the flop and Larry checked behind me. A blank came on the turn and I led out. Larry re-raised and I raised back, he raised, I raised and then he just called, no double putting me on a set of tens, the nuts. The river was a three which paired the board. I now had the best full house and bet. Larry raised and I was stunned. I was sure Larry had put me on the tens when he quit betting on the turn that meant one thing, he had pocket threes for quads. All I could do was call because of the pot size and watch the dealer push the pot across the table when Larry showed the pocket threes. But still that didn�t put me on tilt. We both had great hands, played them well and he had got lucky with a one outer on the river. It wasn�t like he had played an off the wall hand and got lucky. That�s poker, you just have to take a deep breath and go on to the next hand.

A little later I picked up ace king on the button. Mitch, in middle position raised, I re-raised and the maniac capped the betting from the small blind. The flop was a rainbow with no ace or king. The maniac bet out and Mitch and I both called, knowing full well that he was capable of raising with almost any hand from ace-x to medium connectors. The turn looked to be a blank, the maniac bet again, and we both called. The river again looked like a blank and Ben again bet. Mitch made the call and I paused to study the situation before making the $40 overcall. I knew the maniac could easily still be on a bluff and heads up the $500 pot would be worth calling for. But Mitch, young and aggressive as he was, still had good poker sense and I felt like he had to have at least a pair to call with me still setting behind him, so I folded. Then Mitch said to Ben, �so what do ya got� and the maniac answered, �I don�t know, I haven�t looked yet� and he turned over absolutely nothing. Mitch turned over ace king and won the pot. Wow! My head was spinning; I could have split that pot. I was beside myself with anger and frustration, not with Mitch or my failure to call, but by the maniac playing and buffing a hand blind and that on top of a long afternoon of loosing hands and bad beats! If I set there another minute I was going to explode either at that �idiot player� or by playing the next few hands like a maniac my self. I was going on full tilt there was no double about it. More out of reflex than by a conscious desision I bolted from my chair and walk as fast as I could, almost running past the slots out the door of the casino. I continued down the street at a fast clip for about a block, and then I began to relax and slow my pace. When I returned to the game after a fifteen minute walk I was relaxed and ready to take this game on with a new out look without dwelling on past hands. After a few hours the maniac was broke and I had won a few pots to come out of the game a $300 winner which felt like a big win after the multi re-buys.

The first step in dealing with tilt is to recognize when it is taking control of your game and then you need to take a break in order to think about how to deal with it. Whether it be a couple of hands or an extended lobby time to see if you can resolve these emotions we call tilt. If that doesn�t help you get a �clear head� you need to call it quits until another day. The next time you feel tilt coming on remember the advice Kenny Rogers gives us in the song �The Gambler� and �know when to walk away and know when to run�. I did my �running� that day and it paid of.