Ego, tilt, and gender issues at the tables.

OK, I said I'd comment on everyone's favorite question from their non poker-playing friends, but I have to put that off so I can jot down my thoughts after two amazing live cash game sessions I had this weekend.

Let me preface by describing my style a bit. I'm generally a happy person, and I tend to smile a lot, laugh a lot, and get involved in table talk when I play. (aside: this is probably something I need to work on a bit, but that will be a big change) I am generally seen as a conservative player, but who is able to make moves when warranted. I'm not mean, I don't talk shit, I don't angle shoot or pull douchebag moves.

Thursday I decided to head to Pala and play on day/evening shift, and leave around 11 pm. I arrived around 2 pm, and sat down at a new $1/$2 NL game that started when the board hit 6 names. There wasn't a 2/5 game going. Joining me at the table were a few regs and a middle-aged guy (MAG) whom I had played with before, but wasn't what I'd call a "regular". He was seated two seats to my left. I recalled him as a semi-tight, conservative player. He mentioned he was on a 7-day vacation, and he would frequently head out to the pits to play blackjack, miss a blind or two, then come back to poker for several rotations, rinse, repeat.

We had all bought in for $200, and he was playing pretty tight for a few hours. From his comments, I could tell this guy had quite an ego, but I really didn't start noticing it until he had lost a few pots and had to rebuy. He would pull out his roll of hundreds and peel off 2, always making a comment like "what the hell, it's only chips, right?" or something of a similar vein.

Long story short, I stacked him a few hands after he'd returned from a blackjack stint when I raised my T9s on the button and he called me from the big blind with AJos. I caught trip 10s on the turn. As he peeled off 2 more hundos, I heard him mutter, "un-fucking-believable, stupid girl hits everything."

At this point, MAG apparently goes off the proverbial deep end. Something I have done has sent this normally calm guy on full out, freight train screaming down the side of a mountain, massive steaming monkey tilt. This was the most spectacular example of tilt I have EVER seen at the tables. Ever. He started 3-bet shoving with ATC, or attempting to bully me out of every pot I was in with him. This went on for, I kid you not, TWELVE HOURS. My intent to leave at 11 pm went out the window, and I ended up leaving at 11 am Friday.

Why is this comment-worthy? People tilt all the time, it's not new in poker. But as my skills have evolved over the past months, I can look back on this session and realize that I was able to do Thursday what I hadn't been able to do previously, and that was effectively adjust my tactics to exploit this guy. Once I picked up on what was going on, which took about 3 hands, I went from an obvious TAG style to something different.

Now, if a random 2p2-er or poker pro sat down and watched a few hands between me and MAG, with no other prior information, they would say I was playing very strangely, passive with some hints of aggression. I started check-calling a lot. I min-raised more in this session than in 5 previous sessions combined. I limped nearly every hand I wanted to play. Sometimes I would check-raise, but not often. All of this style change was based entirely on my read of MAG.

See, MAG had an ego problem, and based on his age and background (New York, born and raised, probably in his late 50's) and the one comment I heard, I knew he couldn't handle getting beaten by a girl. I knew exactly what he was going to do every hand I played with him. I suppose you could say I "had his number." I knew when he would bet or raise, and it was very very easy to let him lead himself into trouble.

I see this a lot. I know when I sit down at a table (especially a $2/$5NL game) that several of the guys there are thinking "yesss....easy money." So they start throwing their chips around, trying to bully me out of pots. They try to bluff more often. I'm a female, I MUST be weak-tight, right? They cannot believe that I would raise 97s preflop and get pissed off when I hit my straight or two pair. They cannot believe I could possibly know what they have, read their betting patterns, and make a hero call when they try to 3-bet shove light. They also cannot believe that I could ever bluff. My fold equity when I sit down at a table of unknowns is higher than my chip stack might indicate.

I went back to Pala on Saturday evening, and found MAG there at the $2/$5 table, in the same clothes. He hadn't slept, I have no idea how much he was stuck. This was a tougher game, and there were some good players at the table, but you can guess who my focus was. I had taken $600 off him Thursday night/Friday morning. He was back to conservative play for a while after I sat down, then I won some pots from him and he was sliding down that tilt-mountain again. I cashed out at 1 AM, up $800 for the session.

The bottom line is: girls, use this. Guys, beware of this. so many times I see guys let their penises get in the way of their poker playing.

Next time I'll post some of the memorable hands from these sessions....