Mental Factors in Poker: Recognizing the Steamer

Mental Factors and Tilt, Observing Opponents
December 21 2008

We’ve all had our bouts with tilt. This dangerous mindset has gotten the best of any player at some time or another. Once it starts, it’s tough to break free from the anger and emotions of a bad run. Playing against a player who is on tilt provides us a big edge, and it doesn’t get much easier than taking chips from a guy who doesn’t care anymore if he wins or loses. So being able to recognize a tilting player is a very profitable skill to possess.

Steaming players are usually easy to detect if you know what to look for. They usually have just suffered a couple of beats, losing a hand or two on the river. Suddenly they start playing much more aggressively than they’ve been playing, making raises and reraises quickly. If you’re able to see this developing you can start to play them like you would play an overly aggressive player. You can trap them with big hands and call them down with weaker hands like second pair.

Often players will tell you that they’re steaming. They’ll cry about how bad their luck is in the chat window, or they’ll be mean to the players who suck out on them. Once you read that they’re emotional, you can try to get into hands against them and take their chips with ease.

 

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