Would you ever hear a football player say “wow, I hate the other team because we are so much better than they are?” Or a chess player comment on how pissed she was because her opponent sucked?
Yet I hear supposedly good poker players complain about bad opponents all the time!
Sure, it sucks when some moron who made lousy calls on every street winds up beating you. I can appreciate that sometimes they will take you out of a tournament or win a big cash pot from you. Hate the situation, but ask yourself:
Did I play the hand perfectly? In many cases when you lose a good hand it’s your own damn fault. Maybe you got too cute with a slow-play. When you get beat, look in a mirror: A lot of times you allowed your opponent to catch up, pricing them into calls that they should be making.
Maybe they played it right as well. In some cases, a person will be priced into playing a hand - in tournaments mostly but also in cash games. If you’ve been playing like a maniac, people will play back at you with less-than-premium holdings because the alternative is to let you run over them or wait until they get a premium hand which can take a while. If they happen to crack your Kings with a weak Ace because you’ve been raising with any two cards, well, that’s the price you pay for being so aggressive - people will make bad calls against you. Again, this is what you WANT.
And finally… Even if you play it perfectly and your opponent played horribly but still got lucky… Remember…
BAD PLAYERS WILL GIVE YOU MONEY IN THE LONG RUN!
Poker is a game where you need your entire life to keep score. If someone makes a horrible play to break you, don’t try and teach them! Smile and say “Nice hand” and play with them all the friggin’ time because in the end, you will break them.
When a bad player wins a pot they shouldn’t have ever been in, rejoice: They just got positive reenforcment that their bad play is profitable. I still am trying to break myself of some leaks in my game that have come about because I won some hands I probbly shouldn’t have. A bad player has no such awareness; it means they’ll do it again and be genuinely surprised when it doesn’t work. Unless you try and teach them.
So don’t.
Oh, and don’t complain about online poker in particular either. Crazy beats happen in live games all the time, you really don’t think they happen 5x as often in an enfironment where you can see 5x as many hands in the same span of time?
If you really think that online poker is rigged, don’t play it. And if you’re play despite thinking it’s rigged, get help for your gambling addiction.
In summary: Bad players are giving us their money. Let them. Encourage them when they suck out because all sucking out means is that they have more money that you can take when they don’t get lucky. Quit whining.
I recently found the answer to this problem. Largely I only play tournaments - from single tables up to the thousands of players (I am sure that winning on low limit tables is one for Snopes - but that’s another thread).
A while back I played a single table and by the time it started one of the players had got called on to work. He apologised and tried to get out by going allin every hand. But everyone would fold but if someone called their AA would lose to his 75. It was hysterical, after about 3 minutes there were only 5 left, then he lost and we settled down to playing for the money.
A couple of days later I was playing a freeroll with several thousand players and feeling bored started the allin routine. The first few times everyone folded to me. Then I got called by KK while holding something like T4…and won. Then it happened again and again. Soon I had a stack bigger than the rest of the table put together. I then decided to play every flop for the rest of the tourney…no matter what the preflop betting was I called and just played properly from there. About 90 minutes later I was chip leader with about 180,000 chips next best was about 20,000.
Anyhow what I learned was if you take a few risks and get ahead while the blinds are small you can play lots of hands with no discomfort.
And how does this help with loudmouths who criticise everyone…I play with them. I keep notes to remind me who are the bad guys and try to spot them in general play. In a freeroll or cheap tournament, if I have the chips, I will make idiotic calls against these guys because I know they are betting good hands and my bad beat will chew their guts out.
Two days ago I was bumbling along and call a preflop raise with my T7h. I know the guy has AK or AQ. Along comes the flop K97, no hearts. Now I know I’m only about 1 in 6 to win if I picked him right (worse if he is stronger) but so what…I raise allin. He calls…
And then I get what I want. Not the chips. The screams of outrage when I get the 10 on the turn. And when he asks “How could you raise with T7?” I can sweetly reply “Suited mate, they were suited.” And start another stream of abuse.
Other than said bad players, this is my favourite group of poker players to play against. Most of the time, they’re still playing way too many hands, and they may as well turn their hands up after the flop they play so obviously and textbook. One or two more bad hands and they’re completely on tilt. You ask these guys if they’d rather play Hellmuth or a Joe Schmoe, and they all say Hellmuth “because he knows when to fold”. Yeah, and he also knows when to trap you.
These guys seem to want poker to be a two or five card game. Is it frustrating to have your AA cracked by a miracle runner runner flush by someone calling your raise with 93s? Sure it is. But AA in the pockets doesn’t mean you win the hand. Luck is a losing strategy in the long run of poker.
I hate to play with bad poker players.
When I play bridge I hate to play with bad bridge players.
And I hate to play roulette with duffers who like cute bets and trying to use elaborate systems.
Even if they lose.
This is like BF Skinner yelling at the pigeons to “behave!” So you get smoked by people operating on instinct. Big deal. Heck, I’ve folded early a few times (logically) and had a winning hand at the river. Shit happens. Deal (heh) with it.
I was playing a couple of weeks ago against a guy who went by “Waco Kid”. I hit a straight on the flop, and bet it up. The Kid put me all in. He had a suited A in the hole and proceeded to suck out a flush on the river.
This just irritates me no end. He suddenly got “called to work” and didn’t have time to unregister from the tournament? Bullshit. Yeah, I suppose that one or two of the hundreds of people I’ve been in tournaments with who’ve suddenly been “called to work” really were called to work, but most of them are lying sacks of crap who’re looking to double up on the first hand with the “ooh, I have to go, someone call me because I have garbage” routine. It’s discussing your hand before the hand is completed and it’s unethical (whether you’re lying or not). If you really get called into work and you’re too slow or too stupid to unregister before the tournament starts, then just sit the hell out and get blinded off, instead of fucking up the table with the constant all ins.
Yes, I know they’ve paid their entry fee too and they can play their chips any way they want to; that doesn’t mean they aren’t still douchebags.
My brother plays poker semi-professionally. He loves bad poker players. He does not play in tournaments, but loves to play some of the people hanging around tournaments.
He makes a lot of money that way.
Me, I’d be a bad poker player if I were dumb enough to play.
Bullshit. There are rules in poker, and aside from blatant cheating like using an accomplice or a mirror to read your opponent’s hand, anything goes. If it’s not actual cheating, anything goes, including petty psyche-outs and instinctive play.
“Unfairly influence?” Isn’t a large part of the game trying to make your opponents believe that you have a weaker hand than actual, or a stronger hand than actual? Wouldn’t a bet, raise or check have this influence? If influence (I think this “unfair” label is crap, used by whiners) is verboten, you may as well have everyone throw in an ante and deal out all the cards face-up, letting pure luck decide. For that matter, just cut cards to save time, or flip coins.
It’s well within the rules to go all-in on every hand. How could it be unethical?
If you think you are ANYthing… you just bring it on! Left Ear… Right Ear… Whichever ear… whothefuckever you think you are! You want to play, little man? Bring your little game on… :rolleyes:
I bear him no ill will, and look forward to exacting my revenge upon him.