See also Online Poker Opponents: Keeping Track of Poker Styles

Shake a pinball machine too hard, and it will "tilt". The same can be said for a poker player who gets shaken at the table. Players go on tilt for all kinds of reasons:

• They receive a bad beat.
• They make a bad play.
• The tournament director makes a ruling that doesn't suit them.
• The cocktail waitress or chip runner is slow to attend to their needs.
• They are being lectured or needled by another player at the table.
• Their significant other calls and asks them to quit the game and come home.
• They have been subject to a long streak of unplayable hands.
• They have missed the flop many times in a row.
• A bad player at the table is getting very lucky and winning many pots.
• A bad player is getting manhandled by a good player while the tilter is forced to wait for an opportunity that never seems to come.
• They were just told to change tables, and they moved into a blind that represents a significant portion of their stack.

Most players who are on tilt will play more aggressively. They will call very big bets without the best hand. They will take more chances. And they will target the person who sent them on tilt.

However, other tilters will play a very loose, passive game. They will limp into nearly every pot and call every raise out of position, hoping to get even by flopping a monster.

Here are some of the symptoms that help me identify players who have gone on tilt:

• They mutter under their breath.
• They shake their heads in disbelief.
• They are visibly angry with a player at the table.
• They berate the dealer or floorman.
• They give "lessons" to players who just beat them.
• They call too many raises with subpremium hands, in order to catch up or deliver a compensating bad beat.