What Is Angle Shooting In Poker?
2 minutes
Last Updated: December 16, 2023
Angle shooting in poker refers to a set of techniques that some poker players use to exploit the rules of the game to gain an unfair advantage over their opponents.
While angle shooting techniques are not illegal, they are considered unethical and are frowned upon in the poker community.
Most common angle shoot moves you need to avoid at the poker table:
- String betting – involves placing ships into the pot in multiple small motions rather than one smooth motion to gauge your opponent’s reaction and potentially gain information about their hand.
- Slow rolling – involves taking an unnecessarily long time to reveal your winning hand to make your opponent feel uneasy and potentially tilt.
- Going south – removing your chips from the table in the middle of the game to illegally protect your stack.
- Trying to see your opponent's hole cards, intentionally hiding big denomination chips, acting out of turn, and similar things.
Angle shooting is mostly done in live poker games, so apart from not doing it yourself, you should always be on the looks for players you are trying to angle shoot when you just start to play in a new casino.
It is different from than direct cheating some players do when playing poker online, including ghosting or chip dumping.
With this said, depending on the casino, some floor managers tolerate angle shooting while others do not, and they will remove players who try any of the mentioned angle shooting methods.
Poker Angle Shooting Example:
Let’s say that Player A is in hand against Player B on the river, the pot is $1,000, and it is Player A’s turn to act. Player A has two “standard stacks” remaining with $1,000 each (20 x $50 chips).
Player A has a strong hand and wants to jam and put all the money in the pot but is unsure how much Player B is willing to call on the river, so he uses string betting to gain additional information.
Instead of pushing both of his $1,000 stacks to the middle of the table, he first pushes only $1,000, and when he hears Player B verbally announcing a snap call, he then pushes the second $1,000 stack into the pot.
This is a clear example of string betting, and depending on the rules of the casino, the floor manager can decide that only the first $1,000 stack that Player A has pushed towards the middle of the table counts as a bet and Player B is only required to put an additional $1,000 into the pot to make a call.
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