People in the poker community often come up to me and ask about whatever is on their mind. Some of these questions are good questions, and some are bad beat stories in disguise. I’ve been through quite a few things in my poker career and I like to help whenever possible, and in this new Card Player series, I’d like to share my experiences and knowledge. Feel free to ask any poker-related question, and I’ll do my best to answer it in the space below.
Question: At my local casino, there are a bunch of players that love to discuss strategy at the end of every hand. Some of them are good and some of them aren’t, but I still get annoyed when they discuss hands at the table. Is there anything I can do?
Gavin: I just had a discussion about this exact situation the other day. People were discussing strategy and a guy who in the past has been very talkative about his thought process, but much less so lately chimed in. He asked me something about the hand and I gave him a dismissive comment. Something like, “I don’t know how I would have played it, I wasn’t in the hand.” Then he whispered a confession about how he used to talk strategy too much and has gotten better but can’t help it sometimes.
I don’t like to discuss strategy at the table. Nor do I like to hear it discussed, even though most of the time the strategy talk is flawed on a fundamental level. For instance, I just saw a hand where player A raised to 4.5 times the blind on a straddle, I called, player B made it 24x and player A called. The flop was Q-Q-J rainbow. Player B checked, player A went all in for a pot sized bet and player B called with 9-9 and his hand held up. Another player at the table said, “It was a good try, it would have worked if he didn’t have a pair.” Some more ridiculous things were exchanged and I just cringed a little, though not as much as I would have if two good players had a discussion about the hand.
My least favorite form of post hand deconstruction is when someone wins a big pot and then decides to go on a five-minute diatribe about how good they are or what a tough spot it was, but you played it really well. My opinion is that you should just take the money you won and keep quiet about it, but I tend to be a little more quiet and a little less intense than most.
In this situation, I’d say the best thing to do is not get involved in the strategy discussions at the table. There’s no reason to give away the information you have gained through hard work without getting paid for it. Then, if someone you respect is talking more than you think they should, take them to the side and let them know that you respect their game and how they think about and discuss poker, but that you think it’s detrimental to the game because it makes people think about things they may not have in the first place. Offer to be his sounding board if he really needs to talk strategy, but make sure that it’s when you guys are away from the table.
Question: There’s a regular in our game who is quite good for the game, but he’s a real jerk when he’s losing. He says derisive things to other players who beat him in a pot, especially if he considers their play suspect. The other day, he really started laying in to this other guy who is quite good for the game as well. What should I do? Does it make sense to just ignore him?
Gavin: This is always a tough situation. You have a guy that’s good for the game, but he’s a jerk to the other players. If he’s doing it in a somewhat fun way, being sarcastic and just joking around, but every once in a while says something a little bit over the line, I would just ignore it and maybe give him a few needles back if it starts getting worse. If he’s the type of guy that throws cards at the dealers and calls them names or starts to get really belligerent with the players, that’s when I would say something.
The players have the choice to respond or leave the game, the dealers don’t. They would be risking their jobs and their livelihoods if they talked back to a player or got up. When they get to the point of harassing the dealers, then it’s time to step in. Make sure you try to do it in a pacifying way. Try to ease the situation instead of escalating it. If that doesn’t work, it’s time to get the floor person involved. A big part of the floor person’s job is to handle conflict that arises at the table. When two players get into an altercation or one or more people are treating the dealers poorly, the floor should be the ones who come over and try to ease the situation. They can take a player aside and try to reason with them as well as they can. If that doesn’t work, maybe they kick them out for the night. If that still doesn’t work, perhaps the offending party or parties should receive a short ban.
Poker is certainly a game where you look for edges where you can get them and can be predatory at times so your first instinct is to protect an easy mark. It’s not, however, worth your other players and dealers being uncomfortable to keep this guy around.
If you have a question for Gavin, send it to editor@www.cardplayer.com.
