“Tilt” is a state of emotional distress that all poker players encounter at some point. Things aren’t going well, you’re losing, nothing seems to be going the way you want it to… after a while this can build up into a state of frustration that actually impairs your ability to make correct decisions at a poker table. As a rule, I wouldn’t make it a priority to try to tilt other players at the table. You should be focused on making good decisions first and foremost. However, there are regular opportunities that present themselves in which you can tilt another player with little to no effort required.
Talk
It’s a risky move, but talking during a hand can be a great way to get players to pay you off more than they otherwise might have. For example, if you flop a flush draw, when you complete your flush on the turn, you could say something like, “that’s an interesting card.” This will get the player more involved in the hand and more interested in seeing your two cards. After all, what could you be possibly holding that would get you to open your mouth like that?
Show Them a Tilty Card
In the World Series of Poker this year, I made a raise with Five-Two suited because… why not? The player in the big blind re-raised me. He had been playing tight and I had also been playing tight, so I figured he probably had a very strong hand in this situation. However, his mistake was that he didn’t re-raise large enough to get me to fold and I knew that if the flop came favorably (like Ten-Two-Two), he might lose a lot of chips to me, so I called. The flop was Ace-Seven-Six, which was no help to my hand. He bet, but the size of his bet screamed, “please just fold” to me. So I decided to take a stab at the pot and raised his bet. He got very flustered, said something like, “everytime!!” and showed pocket Kings as he folded.
In this instance, I could have slid my cards to the dealer and collected the chips, but I knew I could emotionally derail this player even further if I showed him the Two. So I did. Of course, he went bizerk, “how can you call a re-raise there with Ace-Two?! You are so bad!” This went on and on for a few minutes signifying that his mind was not in the right place.
Sexualize Things
The best way to distract poker players is to get them to start thinking with the wrong organ. There are so many ways this can be done. You can just chatter about the hot strippers you hung out with last night, or blatantly hit on a girl giving a massage to another player at your table. Or you can even tell stories about the hot Canadian girls you did a three-way with. However you do it, the goal is the same in each case: get them turned on and distracted from poker.