Tilt usually happens after several bad beats. All poker players have experienced it at one time or another. Your trip 7’s being beat out by trip 8’s, your Ace-high straight beat out on the river by a flush draw, and probably the most painful (but now the most desired due to meaty bad beat jackpots) your quad fives beat by quad kings .
Tilting Can Also Occur If You are Constantly Folding
You can also “tilt” over missed opportunities. This happens when you are playing way too tight and missing out on huge profits when say, the 3-4 offsuit that you folded in mid-position connects with the flop when the board reads 3-3-4. Have you ever noticed an opponent fuming or ranting about the hand they folded that would have given them a monster by the river? Pay attention when your opponents discuss this because you can take advantage of them later on. These risk-averse super tight players will usually fold directly to a semi-bluff. They may also be” tilting” from seeing the money they could have won stacked up in front of their opponent.
Using Implied Odds to See The Flop
Over this past Labor Day weekend, I went to South Lake Tahoe for a friend’s wedding and stayed in Reno for one night to play 3-6 limit poker. I “tilted” after folding a hand before the flop that I had implied odds with. Implied odds take into consideration the money currently in the pot + an estimation of the money you can win if you hit your draw. I ignored my pot odds out of fear of not hitting my hand. I was on the button when the player “under the gun” bet and a middle position player raised to six dollars.
I called and the blinds folded. When the action returned to the previous better, he raised it again to nine dollars and Ms. Middle Position capped the betting at 12 dollars. So I would have to invest two more bets to see the flop holding suited Q-9 of diamonds. When betting is capped, you are most likely dealing with players holding one of the strongest starting hands— A-A, K-K, Q-Q, J-J, A-Ks, or A-Qs. Knowing this information, I folded my hand. It was a big mistake. The flop came out Kd-Jd-4c, giving me a flush draw and a straight flush draw. My toes curled in disbelief and I had to leave the table highly frustrated when I saw my case diamond hit on the turn. The two players still in the hand kept re-raising each other. Mr. Under the Gun turned over pocket jacks and Ms. Middle Position turned over K-K for a set of kings. She raked in about $80 on that one hand. I would have won with a Queen high flush.
In poker, you are always dealing with incomplete information. If you fear losing money and are folding too much, you will inevitably lose all your money and allow your opponents to bluff you more. They will sense your weakness and take advantage of it. Calculating your implied odds can improve your critical thinking skills when making decisions and improve your profits when you are running well. Good luck at the tables.
Shuffle Master Table Games in Poker
According to website casinos.id, Shuffle Master’s largest business division Entertainment Products (60% of company revenues) offers proprietary casino game software with over 20 revenue-generating titles. These include industry-leading poker favorites like Four Card Poker, Let It Ride and Ultimate Texas Hold’Em.
The other division Utility Products (40% of revenues) sells, leases and services automatic card shufflers, casino table systems and automated roulette chip sorters.
Cost-Saving & Money-Making
Shuffle Master offerings enable operators to save money while improving casino productivity, profitability and security.
For example, Shuffle Master’s latest innovation iDeal is a single-deck, specialty shuffler with card recognition technology guaranteed to deliver a non-trackable, fully random shuffle. This protects casinos against significant losses from illegal card counting. iDeal is the latest addition to Shuffle Master’s patented suite of seven other single and multi-deck continuous card shufflers. Some 25,000 of the company’s shufflers are already installed in gaming establishments, with encouraging potential for future iDeal upgrades.
To defend against counterfeit casino chips, Shuffle Master has also incorporated radio-frequency identification technology into a portfolio of computerized roulette chip sorters.
Table Master
Shuffle Master’s showcase product is an electronic tabletop called Table Master that delivers the company’s branded gaming software on video. Table Master automates many of the manual tasks unique to table games like real-time result reporting, player tracking and bonus management. Featuring an animated dealer, the multi-terminal gaming product improves casino productivity since it nearly doubles the number of hands played each hour.
Stargame Acquisition Difficulties
Shuffle Master provides a case study for overly aggressive expansion into foreign markets.
In February 2006, Shuffle Master bought the large Australian company Stargame for US$108 million. Shuffle Master acquired a broad lineup of traditional video slot machines designed for the Australian and Asian gaming markets. The deal also gave Shuffle Master the Rapid series of live table games with electronic betting stations and the Vegas Star series of electronic table games.
Anticipating fervent growth on the heels of the Stargame acquisition, Shuffle Master has doubled its staff to about 600 employees over the past two years. During the same period, the company’s revenues increased by a more modest 55%. With expected revenues of about US$175 million in 2007, Shuffle Master’s one-year revenue increase has slowed to around 7%.
Prior to the Stargame buyout, Shuffle Master used to spend about 7.8% of its revenues on ongoing research and development. With Stargame now on board, R&D expenditures have swollen to 10%. Many of the increased expenses are driven by Shuffle Master’s struggle to integrate technologies from Stargame’s distinct Australian and Asian operations.
Vegas Management Crisis
Management has yet to prove that it can transplant its profitable Las Vegas style of business into the international gaming arenas of Australasia. Net income has slipped over 75% during the past year.
