Implied Tilt Odds

The other day I was playing in a 6/12 game, and I was getting frustrated by the rock-ish (tight/passive) play… you just can’t earn more than one or two big bets per hour in a game like that, and I wanted to get the table loosened up.

I was dealt Jack-ten suited on the button. I got in to see a cheap flop.

The flop was Ace Nine Deuce, with one spade. At this point, I had a backdoor flushdraw, and a runner-runner strait draw that would require 2 perfect cards. It was one bet to me, and I was able to close off the betting for one $6 bet. Now, obviously, I didn’t have even CLOSE to the right pot-odds to call here with my ridiculous draw. I didn’t even have close to the right implied odds. However, I did have what I call “Implied Tilt Odds.” (I believe this term was coined by one of the Tilt Boys.) I announced to the table “I think I’ll runner-runner you guys, just for kicks.” My thinking was that if I didn’t get a card that gave me a legitimate draw on the turn, I’d fold and everyone would forget I even said it (assuming I was trying to misrepresent my hand.) I’d be out $6, and it wouldn’t impact my table image at all. Plus, this was a rare family pot, and I had a chance to put the whole table on tilt.

I caught a queen on the of spades on the turn, which was the perfect card– I now had an outside strait draw and a flush draw. I had 15 outs– clearly, my hand was now WORTH a call. Actually, I probably could have raised based on my pot equity at that point, but I didn’t think it was the right move given that I was just trying to induce tilt.

The river came an 8, giving me the nut strait. UTG+1 bets, and there were 4 callers. I said “I said I was going to runner-runner you… weren’t you listening?” while raising. 3 callers, and I flipped over my insane catch.

At this point, literally the whole table was on tilt. There were two top-pair hands, a set, and a two-pair hand that I had outdrawn. Over the course of the next two hours, I proceeded to take about 30 big bets off the table before cashing out and going home. This was because nobody was noticing that I was only playing about 5% of my hands– they couldn’t get that runner-runner out of their minds. When I had the nut on the flop, I would get 4 or 5 callers, and usually a couple of raises and re-raises from players trying to punish what they assumed was a draw.

And that’s what “implied tilt odds” are all about– I risked one small bet to improve the quality of a whole session. Even better, the table is left thinking I just got lucky all night, and I’ll likely continue to get action from those players the next time I see them!