Elements of Poker: Exclusive extracts from Tommy Angelo’s classic book

Although Tommy Angelo¹s Elements of Poker was released in 2007, it’s as relevant to poker players today as it was back then. That might sound a bit daft considering it was only four years ago, but poker strategy moves so quickly that it¹s not something you can say about most poker books.

A key reason for its continuing relevance is that Elements of Poker isn¹t a traditional poker strategy book. Its aim is to enable you to play your best game more often, using principles born out of Angelo’s acclaimed ‘Tiltless’ coaching programme.

The central theme from that programme prevails throughout the book, as Angelo himself explains. ‘My premise would not be that the client wants merely to learn how to play better. I would assume that the client’s objective is to score higher. Learning how to make your best game better is one way to score higher. Learning how to play your best game more often is another way. My curriculum would put equal emphasis on both ways.’

Despite not being a traditional poker book, it covers live poker, online poker, cash games and tournaments and deals with such fundamental concepts as position, tilt, stack size and table selection.

‘This book is about imagining idealistic extremes and then implementing practical methods of moving towards them,’ says Angelo. So let’s get stuck in and see what it’s all about with these exclusive extracts.

Tilt

Tilt has many causes and kinds, but it has only one effect. It makes us play bad. It makes us do things we wouldn¹t do if we were playing at our very best. And that¹s how I want to define it, exactly like that. Tilt is any deviation from your A-game and your A-mindset, however slight or fleeting.

There are two reasons to define tilt in this way. One is standardisation. All A-games are identical. Anyone who is playing his A-game is making the best decisions he knows how, and his mind is as right as it ever is. That¹s what A-game is. It¹s our best. And we all have it. So by defining tilt from the top down, we can draw a line for any player that cleanly divides his tilt from his non-tilt.

The other reason is that we aren¹t just playing with words here. We are using them as shovels to dig for gold. And by using the word tilt to focus on our best, instead of our worst, we hit a lode: tilt is non A-game. Tilt is anything less than your utmost. Tilt is suboptimalness. Defining tilt in this way, everyone tilts. It¹s just a matter of how often, how long, and how bad.

And so we arrive at the three dimensions of tilt: frequency, duration, and depth. How often do you deviate from your A-game? How long does it last? And how far below your A-game do you go? Revisit those questions. Tilt is all about you. If you think you should have taken the day off, or if you think you should have played at different stakes, or if you think you made a bad raise, then you tilted. Only you know when you knew better.

Sixth street

Sixth street starts when the betting stops. Sixth street is when players relax, which is why it pays not to. Sixth street is when statues become fountains. While playing the turn and river, the players are stoic, doing their best to give up as little information as possible. And then, as soon as the betting stops, their parts start moving, broadcasting information about their thoughts, their feelings and their cards.

Sixth street is when players let their guard down, as if all of a sudden it¹s safe to reveal classified secrets to the enemy. It’s like they don¹t even know the war is still going on.

For example, Joe raises before the flop and only Moe calls. On the flop, Joe bets, Moe raises, and Joe folds. The pot is awarded to Moe, and sixth street begins. Any reaction to the hand constitutes sixth street action. If a hand ends with no comments, no gestures, and no strained silence, then that hand did not have a sixth street, in the same way that some hands don¹t have a river.

For any given hand, sixth street is over when no one is talking about it. Sixth street is usually finished by the time the next hand starts, although for some hands it can last for years. If you fold before the flop and your mind strays from the action, that¹s okay. Just tune back in for the showdown and sixth street. Look around and see who did what and from which positions, listen to what people say, note who is happy and sad, look at the stacks, and it¹ll be like you never missed a thing.

The grey area

Black and white represent betting decisions that are definitely right or definitely wrong. The various shades of grey represent all the others. Here is an example of black and white betting decisions: playing any poker game, it¹s on the river, you are heads-up and you have the nuts. Your opponent checks to you. Should you check or bet?

As we move into the grey, the theoretical expectations of our options become more balanced. A decision might make us a 60/40 favorite, for example.

Moving into the central grey region, we arrive at those decisions for which the expected outcome is 50/50 or nearly so. These are the decisions of little or no theoretical consequence, the decisions where each option is as good as the other. These are the decisions that matter least.
Also in the central grey (the land of closest decisions) we can expect disagreement to go up over which decisions are best. We can expect intelligent, elaborate debates with both sides insisting theirs is the right side. We can also expect to debate with ourselves and to second-guess ourselves.

In the central grey is where we are most likely to torture ourselves with the question: ‘Did I get it right that time?’ And that’s why I say: the decisions that trouble us most are the ones that matter least. Let¹s say you face a close betting decision, and afterwards, you want a definite answer. You want to know, one way or the other, if your play was right or wrong.

STOP! That’s a mistake. Just by thinking like that, about right and wrong, you are making a mistake.

If you play a hand, and you face a close decision, and then you write about it or talk about it, I think that’s great. Or if you talk about hands other people played, same thing. All good. But be careful. Don¹t fall into the grey area¹s trap. Don’t burn up valuable energy and waste precious sanity.

Don’t assume that just because you have an answer, and just because someone else has a different answer, that one of you is right and the other is wrong.

Game selection

Game selection is a perpetual process. Every time you post a blind, that¹s a game selection decision. You just said no to all other games and activities. You re-selected the game you are in.
To make profitable game selection decisions, evaluate yourself and your opponents without assigning judgment labels. When you look back on a decision that you made, or that one of your opponents made, do not think in terms of good, bad, smart, stupid, etc.

Instead, evaluate decisions the simplest way imaginable, like this: I think that my/his decision was more profitable than the alternative(s), or, I think that my/his decision was less profitable than the alternative(s). And by how much.

Here is an example of what not to think. ‘Wow. Can you believe it? That moron called three bets cold before the flop with a total piece of crap that I wouldn¹t even have played for one bet.’

Instead of thinking, just observe, like so: ‘He called three cold with K-5o.’ And then stop right there, before the thinking muddles you up. You have the information you need. You are not obligated to form an opinion about the play or the player. If, while you are playing, you are attached to the notion that you are a ‘better player’ than any or all of your opponents, or that you are a Œworse player¹ than any or all of your opponents, that’s bad news for your game selection and game rejection decisions, and for your betting decisions.

What if there’s a guy in your game who played Œway worse¹ than you yesterday when you first played with him, because he was tired and tilted and you weren¹t. But today he is back to playing his usual strong game and you aren¹t, and you still think you have a big edge over him? What if those kinds of changes were going on all around you, and in you, all the time?

Guess what? They are.

You need to evaluate him now, always now. Players go on tilt. They come off tilt. They can tilt for long periods, or for one bet. They win pots and feel good. They lose pots and feel bad. They improve. They tire. They change. You change. If you have an inflexible image in your mind of an opponent, then whenever he changes, your evaluation of him will be wrong. If you have an inflexible image in your mind of yourself, then whenever you change, your evaluation of yourself will be wrong. For up-to-date evaluation, there is no time but the present.