A more effective tactic is developing the ability to tilt people. Average players become whales and everyone at the table are effected by it as well.

Earlier in my career, I was much better at doing it (also cared less about what people think).

Whales are hunted to near extinction and the remaining ones can sense how people perceive them and few would actually enjoy that vibe.

Solution is to feed the average fish some chemicals to fatten them.

Very good point. In many of the high stakes games it works this way as well. Certain people on their A game might not be great for the game, but people know if they get tilted they play very bad and if your mental game is much stronger than people that are slightly better than you, it may be worth it to sit them for long sessions.

Psychological warfare is one tactic, but be warned - you will be absolutely despised.

There are ways to tilt people without being Tony G.

That's not really what I was getting at. I meant more along the lines of if you know a player who is very good, but once they get even one bad beat they go off the rails and dump 5 buy ins. That type of thing.

It also increases your implied odds somewhat when playing pots vs them.

Being aware of and taking advantage of tilt in others is different from purposefully attempting to induce it (through slowrolling, verbal abuse, or what have you), as Tanqueray was suggesting he had done. Like you, I'm fine with the former, just not the latter.

I think slowrolling and verbal abuse should be in different buckets.

As I've gotten more serious about playing winning poker, I've gone from the talkative beer drinker to the silent headphone wearing douche who doesn't talk to anybody, and sometimes I'll do over-confident douchey actions to irk people even more like slamming a stack of chips down for a call and looking smugly at my opponent.

I hear a lot about people saying this demeanor pisses off the fish and they leave or switch tables, but IME that doesn't happen nearly as much as the fish wanting to get me extra because they dislike me. I find people are often more willing to play giant pots against me just to try to stack me, and occasionally they get to stack me and celebrate and half the tables is happy and "har har, **** this guy he finally loses." But I know I'm getting way the better end of the trade because they're making huge mistakes trying to get lucky against me.

Some guy earlier this week called an all-in turn bet with 3 to a flush on board holding just the deuce of that suit; sure it hit on the river and stacked my top 2pair, and with how proud and smug he was after and how he tried to needle me even though I could barely hear him through my music, I'm pretty sure he was making that call only against me specifically.

Being that unlikable anti-social guy definitely works in my favour. Psychological warfare can be subtle, not just Tony G.

I find that people often dislike me as well, because I consistently win and they lose. That alone is often enough to tilt people and play back at me. I can't count the number of times I've GII in PLO with AA pre against some 40% underdog because he wanted to "stack the nit." I often will lose, but long term I am printing.

Same thing goes for short-stacking effectively. This strat pisses people off so much it's incredible. They think anyone who buys in short should be a loose-passive fish who VPIPs way too wide and when they encounter me, with a 3!% of about 85%, they get really annoyed that they can't VPIP their suited connectors as profitably anymore and go berserk when I sit a their table because I am absolutely terrible for their game.

I find that I, too, am much more likely to dislike anyone who has consistently beaten me in a game. (There aren't many out there, but I remember the few who have.)

But how less much do you enjoy poker when you're despised every time you play? Is the debatable extra hourly (and I'm saying debatable because it clearly hasn't been proven that it works long term) worth it? It's OK to care to an extent what people think of you. Not caring at all just makes you a sociopath.

FWIW, there are those who can tilt without pissing people off.

I was not suggesting negative behaviors such as slow rolling, but more like subtle trash talking to induce people to try harder to beat you. Something along that line...

This is even more of a derail. Please stick to the subjects of bankroll, winrates, and/or finances, and take tilt-inducing, mechanics, etc. to their proper places.

Also, please re-read the disclaimer you all agreed to when you came in to the thread. One person has earned an exile from this thread already.

The disclaimer I've clicked agree to probably over a thousand times now and not read once???

That's the one. Cliffs: No trolling or flamewars. Stay positive, even when critiquing. Stay on topic, take strat to strat threads and chat to the chat thread. Be aware that we mod this thread very tightly and will banish you from it at the drop of a hat. Breaking banishment is an insta-ban.

Tentative results for 2019:

Won $4059.29 over 333.6 hours. About half and half $1/2 NLHE and PLO.

Terrible volume this year after our home game folded Not a terrible year in terms of winnings though.

I doubt I'll be able to play before the end of the year due to family commitments, unless I can get over to one of the Florida Dog Tracks. But I'm starting 2020 off in Vegas so hopefully that'll jumpstart things.

I'm also probably not gonna have many chances to play before the end of the year, so:
NLH (almost entirely 2/5): 216 hours, $4515 winnings
PLO (almost entirely 5/10): 168 hours, $19,484 winnings
Definitely didn't play enough hours, ran super hot in PLO / pretty terrible in NLH, but overall happy with the year

May as well since the year is pretty much over (thankfully). This is a mix of PLO (1/2 and 5/5/15 5-card) and 0.25/0.5 - 5/10/25 NLHE, mostly 1/3 & 2/5 NLHE and 1/2 5-card PLO. Doesn't include $2,500 in promos (or $2/hr. in comps obviously). Ran pretty poorly at 5/10 and well below EV at PLO, but ran well at 2/5. 1/3 was somewhere in between.

All in all pretty happy, although I know I have room for improvement in 2020.

.

What app is that? I use PBR Tracker.

I use Poker Income. Free trial then like $1, then $5 for filters (date, game, stake etc.). Well worth it.

Last 5 sessions:
+$2800 ($2/$3)
+$1700 ($5/$5/$10)
+$1100 ($5/$5)
+$2200 ($5/$5/$10)
-$1000 ($5/$5)

Only 52% winning sessions but overall winning? Interesting. I say that cause mine is low too with a similar hourly. I guess you have a stop loss which caps your losses?

Nice. LAG or just flopping a set every new dealer?

It was a really good game for one which is why I was sitting in the $2/$3 the whole night. I also play super LAG (probably had about 80% VPIP this session) and my favorite dealer also sat down and literally dealt me the winner every single hand of her down, or at least good enough cards to bluff big and take the pot down which is basically getting dealt the winner. No she's not a mechanic but she might as well be the way I've run with her over time. I had a nice pot too where this player who just endlessly tilts against me overbet slammed his rack all in on the turn after I check called the flop with a set of aces, had him drawing dead. I actually stacked that same player with a turned house in my last session but it was just such a bad table I couldn't put a profit together otherwise. I would have gotten up but he was stuck like $3k in that game and I was thinking I could get him to tilt off more to me but I just couldn't hit hands all night and the table was otherwise very reg heavy. My plan for the session basically backfired as I managed to put him on monkey tilt with the first hand we played but then I wasn't catching hands, couldn't get into another pot with him, and then just lost small-medium pot after small-medium pot all night to the regs at the table as he fed everyone else.

Here's my year roll up as part time rec player.

Online Cash: $19319
Online Tournaments: $6272
Live Cash: $13400
Live Tournaments: -$2790

Clearly I should spend more of my time in live tourneys.

Yes, I generally don't lose more than $1k in a session, but if I do I just quit. I don't feel the need to chase my losses or get out of the hole at that point. Some people relentlessly play longer to get unstuck, but not me. I just decide it's not my night and head home. I definitely try to abide by the "minimax" concept (minimize loses, maximize wins).

Doug Polk in his Postle video explained that even top/elite players only have around a 54/55% winrate. I think people who have higher winrates are probably just manipulating their results artificially (or sit in extremely soft/passive/low variance games).

I really don’t think this is true.
60-70% is definitely attainable at most 2/5 games imo.
Doug Polk’s opinion is just his opinion.
I can almost guarantee the top 10-20% of winning players are easily over 60% wins over losses.