Some Reasons to Keep It Clean

by Matt Lessinger

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It bothers me - and it should bother you too - how much foul language and abusive behavior occur in the chatboxes of online poker rooms. Sadly, there's not much we can do to police it. But, given how many people are guilty of such behavior, the law of averages tells me that some of the readers of this column are among the culprits. Therefore, I've decided to list some of the ways you are hurting yourself by acting this way, in the hope that it will convince you to change your ways. Yes, I'm being optimistic, but one never knows.

1. You're no longer paying attention to the action.

I make the same argument to those who multi-table at too many tables simultaneously. There is no way they can keep track of their opponents at each table, and it unquestionably hurts their results. The same is true if you take the time to talk trash in the chatbox. While you're talking, your focus is on what you're typing, not on the actions your opponents are taking, and that puts you at a disadvantage.

In general, it's difficult to get a read on your online opponents. You can't uncover any physical tells, and unless they love to type in the chatbox, it's unlikely you'll pick up any verbal tells either. That means the only information you will pick up from them is through their actions while playing - their betting patterns, calling patterns, and the hands they show down. And the only way you'll notice these things is to pay attention, which you simply can't do if you're busy cursing out your opponents.

2. You're not thinking logically about the hand you lost.

Very often a bad beat causes a storm of chatbox profanity. No matter how bad of a beat you take, verbal retaliation is never justified. But it also hurts you because it prevents you from looking at ways the beat could have been avoided.

Sometimes a bad beat is truly unavoidable. If you hold A-A, your opponent holds K-K, you get all of the money in preflop and he rivers a king, so be it. There was nothing you could have done differently, and you just have to suck it up and move on.

On the other hand, let's look at this example: In a no-limit cash game, SoreLoser raises preflop with A-K and one opponent calls. The flop comes A-K-7, and SoreLoser decides to slowplay by checking the flop. His opponent also checks. The turn is a queen. Now SoreLoser fires, and he gets raised a moderate amount. SoreLoser moves all in, and his opponent calls instantly and shows J-10 offsuit for the nut straight. SoreLoser receives no help on the river, goes broke, and immediately goes into a tirade in the chatbox against his opponent for calling a preflop raise with J-10 offsuit.

Besides the fact that he should learn to be a better sport, SoreLoser's reaction to the hand shows that he won't improve as a poker player. Instead of criticizing his opponent, he should be critiquing his own play. He gave his opponent a free card on the flop, rather than making him pay to draw to his gutshot, and he moved all in on the turn with a hand that could easily be beaten. If he wasn't busy cursing at his opponent, he might realize these mistakes, and possibly learn to not repeat them. Instead, SoreLoser's energy is being wasted, and therefore he will continue to stunt his poker growth.

3. You're probably chasing away new players or live ones.

It's simple logic. Winning players would need something much worse than words to keep them from continuing to play and win. Experienced players have probably seen all forms of abusive chat over the course of their online careers, and if they've decided to deal with it to this point, they will probably continue to do so.

On the other hand, losing players often have their feet halfway out the door anyway. Most people can stand only so much losing before they want to quit. And having hateful chat directed towards them can very often be the breaking point. Why should they deal with losing money and having to listen to jerks?

Meanwhile, new players may still be deciding how they feel about online poker. A lot of them are not necessarily playing to make money - they just want to have an enjoyable experience - and having to deal with jerks will not appeal to them either. So by typing profanities, you are most likely driving away the two types of opponents you would most want to have. That seems pretty dumb to me.

4. Other players will assume you're on tilt.

I've had people tell me that they purposely type profanities in the chatbox, even when they're not truly angry, just because they want an image of tilt, in the hopes that their opponents will give them more action. I just can't see why anyone would want to appear to be on tilt. For one thing, they are then at the mercy of their cards, unable to bluff because their opponents will assume they are on tilt and will call them down. Maybe if they got lucky and picked up a big hand soon after their chatbox tirade, they'd get paid off more than usual. Otherwise, they'd have to wait and wait for the premium hands that may never come.

Tilt is just not a winning image. In general, I'm much more focused on getting my opponents to fold rather than getting them to pay me off. The simplest way of looking at it is that if you never get called, you can never lose. I'd much rather have an image that would cause my opponents to fold strong hands. As it is, there are enough opponents out there who call with weak ones, anyway.

Besides, I don't think it is necessary to be abusive in order to gain an advantage, which leads to my final reason for not misbehaving in the chatbox:

5. You're being a jerk.

Would you cry like a baby and curse like a sailor if you were invited to someone's home game? If so, you probably wouldn't be invited back. There are many such players in the poker world. They would otherwise be considered strong players, except their poor behavior undermines whatever poker skills they have. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't think you want to be put in that category. I know I wouldn't.

Being online gives you anonymity, which in turn gives you the freedom to say whatever you feel like saying, but why abuse that privilege? Just think about how your online opponents view you, and then think about whether they would ever take you seriously if they then saw you in person. If the answer is no, then you should strongly reconsider your behavior.

That's it. I've made my arguments. Now I can only hope that some of you will lighten up a bit and make the online poker world a friendlier place to play. And to those of you who already exhibit class on a regular basis, I say, "Thank you," both for your show of class, and for reading an article that didn't apply to you.

Matt Lessinger's Book of Bluffs is now available everywhere. You can purchase it at www.cardplayer.com by clicking "shop online." You can also find other articles of Matt's in his "Bet With Less" column in Card Player magazine.

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