Steam Points... take advantage

A subject I rarely read about, or hear players talking about enough is your opponents' Steam Points.

Their steam point is the time where they lose control, where they've had enough. They begin throwing their chips into the pot, as if to say, "I'm sick of this... take them, I'm going to keep losing them anyways!"

We should always be keeping an eye out for this very lucrative opportunity. When do they begin steaming their $$ away, why do they begin steaming it away, and how can we take advantage of their lack of discipline?

Too often, we focus solely on our own steam, and how not to (which is important), but it sometimes doesn't allow us to exploit the emotional weakness of our opponent. Looking for, knowing why, and understanding our opponents steam points is a huge part of what fills our pockets in the long-term.

When the steam begins... boiling has to follow!

Thoughts?

-Dayne

This is a great topic. Once you learn to control yourself, learn to exploit other's lack of control.

I never had much trouble controlling my emotions in poker and, although I’m sure I have been on tilt before, I can’t ever remember losing my cool to the point where I started throwing money away. I used to box when I was a kid and you have to learn to take a punch to the face with your eyes open and not let it make you angry or cause you to let go of your own technique. I kind of think of a bad beat as a punch to the face….it hurts and sometimes it’s a big surprise, but you have to take it with your eyes open and keep fighting your best fight right after it happens.


I find that it difficult NOT to notice when a weak player hits is steam point. They often spout off to the table and then they throw their chips in with an angry snort and a dirty look. It’s easy to take advantage of those guys. They are often calling with terrible odds or worse, drawing dead. And they are often betting with weak draws and top pair no kicker.

Stronger players have a “poker face.” It’s much harder to tell when they hit their steam point until you see them show down a hand that you know they would not have shown down earlier in the game. But there are a few ways you can tell they are steamed. A lot of times, they will habitually sip their drink. They will bounce their leg up and down under the table. They start to shuffle their chips at a much faster tempo than they did before they got steamed. It’s hard to control these things. That’s why I don’t play with my chips or chew gum, and I only sip my drink when the cards are being shuffled. I do the leg bouncing thing now and then…still working in that problem because I do that at home watching TV too and it drives my wife nuts.

I think when a player gets steamed, you just have to alter your read on him to know that he’s usually on a weaker hand than you would have put him on earlier. A weaker pair or a weaker draw. I’ve also noticed that a lot of times, if a steamed player picks up the nuts on the flop or turn, or he wakes up with AA or KK pre flop, he calms down all of a sudden. It’s like he was angry at the bad beat before, but the poker gods have now paid him back for his suffering and he can relax and play this amazing hand that will even out his run of bad luck for the night. If a pissed off player looks at his cards and looks like he just got a shot of valume….look out!

I try to find someone who's "close" to his steam point, and play somewhat unorthodox (as long as it doesn't take me out of my game), trying to take him to his boiling point. Good players may have shorter steams than the weakies, so it's imortant to take advantage during that time period.

Those time periods are filled with potential profit... look for, and capitilize on them!