Full-Ring Friends Series: TiltBad

Welcome to the second instalment in my series of interviews with no limit full-ring cash game regulars that I have become friends with over my time as a player in those games. This week’s guest plays as tiltbad on PokerStars and posts on 2+2 as PartysOver. He has a highly entertaining blog and does some coaching if you are interested. I’d like to thank him for his time in answering these questions and I hope you enjoy this interview!

You are known as tiltbad and PartysOver, what are the origins of the two names?
tiltbad because of the old online comic (I forget the name) where the main character was strongbad. I thought it went well. Before I turned 18 I had much lamer names. Before making it, I would genuinely tilt bad. Like blow a bankroll in a few hours bad. Anyway, I’m glad that’s behind me. My screen name has gotten me a reasonable amount of action I probably wouldn’t get otherwise. Partysover because I made the 2p2 screen name right after Party Poker closed to Americans. I think it’s funny in a really really dark way.

You’ve been studying at college and playing a lot of poker in recent times, how do you balance the two and from all accounts maintain a party lifestyle as well?
Man, good question. I haven’t figured it out, but school work is the first thing to fall off and then poker during the weekends. It’s probably my last year in school and I don’t want to sacrifice partying with friends to grind a few extra hours. That seems stupid to me, but to be honest, a year or two ago I was doing just that. Hindsight is 20/20. I’ve really been focusing on just having fun recently to the point where I’ve put in under 25k hands in two months. I may be focusing too hard.

Tell me a bit about your poker story, how you came to be involved in online poker and what made you choose full-ring no limit games.
Freshman year we had $5 tournaments that were our lives. Consumed would be a proper word for it. I think everyone ended up being on the edge of failing out that year. I know our RA actually did fail out directly due to these games and I was damn close. We all caught the itch (including my current roomate, who went pro last year). I would deposit $25-50 at a time and try $7.50 buy-ins at 0.10/0.25. Anyway, that never ended well. Most people said it was rigged, but I really bought into the “more hands/hour = more beats/hour” and other bullshit. (Online poker actually is rigged, I’m just on the right side of it). Anyway, I lost about $175 give or take and, while degening it up in online pit games, won $300 or so, bought myself some stuff and pretty much got bored with it. The rest seems like a blur and so long ago but anyway, I won $35,000 right when FTP opened up in some MTTs. I was actually underage at the time and got my account closed with some money in it (I had also tried out 2/400 limit, 25/50, etc. oops!). I only cashed out $12,000 of it and I’ll never forgive myself for that. The good news is that it started a smallish bankroll after paying for two semesters of school and an insane itch to really learn the game. I lurked 2p2 forever and read every book I could get my hands on, started learning bankroll management, not to tilt, etc. I played 6m for a while and went from 10/25c to 1/2 in about a year, then 2/4 after six months of getting money in the bank and building up an oversized roll. I played with super lag 35/30 styles and my standard 20/15 style and everything seemed ok but it really bothered me to go through massive swings (especially at 2/4) and only be cranking out like 400 hands/hour. I was also putting in ridiculous hours to keep up with where I wanted to be in the VPP program. My roomate played full ring at the time and I decided to get 5-10 minutes of coaching for the basics from him and try it out on a double VPP day. I never went back to 6m. I realized, “forget the fish, the regs are even bad!” I must have gotten a lot worse though, because now I actually respect some of the FR regs. Ugh, it pains me to say it.

What are some of the major breakthroughs and leaks that you have plugged in order to get the point of playing solid winning poker?
Mostly pre-flop aside from the standard stuff like equity and ranges. My first epiphany happened freshman year watching my current roomate play where he folds KJo in EP. Just, wow. It blew my mind, like he had two broadway cards! The other really important stuff was obviously tilt control, bankroll management, and table selection. I mean you don’t even have to have any skill or talent to win at poker if you figure out those three things.

How many hours a week do you generally put in at the tables?
Definitely not enough, 10-15 generally. I’m hoping to double that by getting on a normal sleep schedule after the PCA where I can put in hands during the morning instead of sleeping in. Also, after football season I should have a lot more weekends free.

What are the best and worst aspects of being a poker player?
Best, I spend money like crazy and don’t think twice. Prop bets. Set your own hours. Coolering regs.

Worst, Breakeven stretches? Set over set? No, but seriously, it’s probably burnout. Most of the time poker is really, really boring especially the way full ring guys play it. It’s so easy to get burned out, it sucks. I’m in the middle of a burnout time and I’m trying to just 4 table short handed a lot until I feel like putting in a ton of hands again. Oh man, I almost forgot. Having people over and them seeing your grind station. I don’t talk about poker in front of strangers/acquaintances so they probably just think I’m a huge nerd. Oh well.

What do your family (both immediate and extended) think of your poker playing?
They don’t know any details and I keep it that way. They think everyone goes broke, house always wins, etc. A long time ago, I got in a fight with my mom over money and I said, “fine fuck you you’ll never have to give me a cent.” I’ve kept my word and that’s probably motivated me more than anything else. Moving up from 10/25c was damn near impossible since I had to make a $1200 nut every month. Man, I’m glad those days are over.

You have been a $400nl+ regular for some time now, what do you think separates a good mid-stakes regular from small stakes grinders?
Hand reading. And it goes beyond figuring out a range. It comes down to how they react with different parts of their range depending on what you do.

What advice could you give to someone moving up that is struggling with being 3-bet more pre-flop, floated post-flop and played back at more in general?
Don’t tilt and take it in stride. Vinny, a friend of mine, posted something on his blog (vinnyvt.com) that was like “no one is thinking, oh! here’s so-and-so, I rail the low stakes games and I know he’s trying to move up so I’m going to fuck with him!” Think about it, just relax and if need be get the hell off that table. Also, my advice for “in general” is stop playing so much OOP.

I’ve heard some players have hired you as a coach in the past. What are some of the common things you like to instill in your students and how do your coaching techniques differ from those of others?
I don’t know about unique techniques but, after a session or two of sweating and getting basic preflop concepts/leaks down and some broad talk about postflop concepts, the rest is hand history review. I pretty much just like to get them to think about ranges (see above what I had to say about it), playing way more IP, and not getting too abused by light three bets in steal situations.

As a PokerStars Supernova VIP what changes do you think could be made to the VIP program to improve it?
I think it’s more than fair. We have two main sites up right now and Stars only has to give us 28% rakeback if you think about it. A lot of people are going to get closer to 60% and still complain. How about instead of the VIP program changing, they make the 50bb tables fast and a three hour time limit for ratholing.

How do you view the future of online poker? Will it be legalized in the US sometime soon and if it is what sites and networks do you think stand to benefit?
I don’t know, it’ll probably die out to be honest. I don’t think legalizing it matters unless someone like Harrahs opens up an online poker room. Anyway, I’m happy to have it the way it is and wouldn’t mind moving out of the US if it finally kicks the can. Grinding live poker is also an option for me. But, eventually, I’d like to not have to rely on poker for income. Although anything business related I’ve touched has crumbled. Sigh.

Quick Quiz – Of All 2+2 SS Full Ring and PokerStars $100nl-$400nl regulars
Best avatar?
Weaktite, The old clown one. It legitimately put the fear of god in me.

Best strategy poster?
Hmm… I think the FR strategy sections suck for the most part and to get solid advice you gotta go to the 6m forums and read through those stickies. I haven’t actually read a strategy thread in a few months to be honest.

Best trash talker?
I think Epipen’s pretty funny. The in your face people like srk or jackk aren’t witty enough for my tastes but can be funny.

Best 24-tabler?
Piscooooo? I love having him on my tables! Where has he been, by the way?

Funniest?
Piscooooo? I used to hate his broken english on 2p2 until he berated me in chat for a few days straight. Kelistaan is/was also constant gold.

Friendliest?
Weaktite, he told me I have a place to stay in Canada. He also offered to set up two IP’s so that he could continue soul raping me at the tables.

Weirdest?
Supreme20, nothing personal, he’s just kinda out there.

Most under-rated?
Good question, there’s a handful of regs that aren’t really on 2p2 who I think are solid, but who knows. I don’t have a most or want to say their names I generally respect the non 2p2 ones a lot more than the ones I know on 2p2.

Most over-rated?
Hahahaha I won’t say, but every time I play with him I think it in my head. One of my friends said, “he got famous for LOSING! Are you kidding me?”

Who, if anyone, have you met in real life?
No one yet, PCA and WSOP will be changing that

Most Tilty?
Probably billzfan? Just from HH’s I’ve had sent to me by multiple people. I unfortunately haven’t experienced it first hand yet.

Least Tilty?
I think you’re the most solid, I don’t know if you don’t tilt, you just don’t really get too out of line and every thing’s real calculated. I did see that QJo hand, though!

Best table selection?
I couldn’t tell you, maybe my roommate. This guys a bankroll nit, dropped out & went pro at 10/25c (I think? Which btw was probably the best choice for him), grinded 50/$1 for over a year and a half despite being rolled for way higher, and still won’t grind 2/4+ full time. Just when he sees a table with like 2 other regs. God it tilts me.

Best short stacker(lol)?
Joe Banks(lol). The only problem I see with him is that it’ll be hard for him to start shania’ing or whatever since he can’t just start limp/folding or limp/calling. He basically has to give up the strategy as soon as the regs catch on. But I swear, it was genius and took me an embarrassing amount of time to catch on and realize.

If you’re interested, my blog’s at tiltbad.com. There’s some poker stuff on there but usually it’s just me rambling. Recently I’ve just been posting a lot pictures? I recommend finding a recent post, “Poker: Geography Lesson” from November 14.