Sunday, March 27, 2005

Alright... quickie little post as I run out the door here. I just busted out of a cheapo SnG. I was playing basically to kill an hour before I had to leave - and didn't want to risk a lot of cash killing that hour.

So here I am, playing a $5 SnG. It's early in level 2. I'm up 400 chips or so. I've got A5s in the big blind and see a free flop with it. This table has been folding to most bets on the flop - all of which have been minimum bets of 30 or 50 thus far. Flop comes A-Q-x, rainbow. I'm 2nd to act (SB is still in the hand). SB checks, I bet out a feeler of 100 (2xBB, 1/3 of the pot). Player after me calls, as does the button. Turn comes a rag, killing my backdoor flush draw. I bet out the pot (500). Girl after me calls. Hmmm. I'm feeling a trap, or an Ace with a better kicker than mine. I knew it. This is exactly why I have playing Ace-baby, in ANY position. But I've been trying to mix it up a little, and it was a free flop... Anyway the third guy in the hand folds, and it's me and the other girl. River comes a rag, no flush or straights onboard. I'm down to T1300 chips at this point - not awful but I don't want to risk much more of my stack on this hand, because I think I'm beat. This girl has been playing tight thus far, and isn't running from my bets. So I bet out 250, figuring - if she's weak, she'll call or fold, and if not, I'll do the folding. She re-raises all in, which was another 450 to me. I was probably pot invested at this point, but calling her raise would leave me with 600-ish chips, a pretty unplayable stack. If I fold now, I've got 10 BB left - close to short but with a little wiggle room.

I laid down my Aces/5 kicker.

You may think I'm writing all of this to ask, should I have called? What would you have done in that situation?

Well, sure - go ahead. Answer those questions, if you would. Considering 9th place pays the same as 4th, 5th, 6th, etc, I probably should have called on the off chance that she was holding A2, A3, or A4. Not likely, considering she'd only shown down big hands to that point, and folded very easily, but hey. I probably should have called.

But that's not really the inspiration for my post.

As soon as I made the laydown, the button in that hand (who'd laid his cards down on the turn bet) goes,

"LOL!" in the chat.

There was no conversation going on, so presumably he was laughing at my play.

I wanted to ask him when his book was coming out, since his chip stack was actually less than mine, but I refrained, thinking - maybe I should give this guy the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he typed into the wrong chat window multi-tabling or something. I've done that accidentally once or twice.

I said, "Something funny?"

(OK, maybe I was only slightly biting my tongue.)

He replies, "Yeah, that means laughing out loud!"

I said, "No kidding, thus my question."

Then another player started asking me about the origin of my screen name, and I politely chatted. Ignoramous said nothing more.

A few hands later, Ignoramous raises UTG pre-flop a minimum raise with AJo (a GREAT hand in early position), and is re-raised 5x that amount by the button. He calls, which left him with a few hundred chips. Flop came a Jack, and he checks (cunning slow-play), and the button puts him all in. He calls with his monster TPTK, and the button shows AA. The Jack doesn't improve, and Ignoramous is out.

Shellmuth made a very unclassy move, but I couldn't help myself. I typed into the chat, simply:

"LOL!"

It scrolled quickly off the screen with the reports of the hand winner, and I wondered if he saw it. 8:55pm came around a few minutes later, and I was planning to leave by 9pm, so I decided to push all in with my 67 suited on the cutoff. I ended up pulling the dummy end of a straight, but someone else held QJ and I was out (which was my plan anyway, so big deal).

As soon as I was beat, Ignoramous (who had stuck around a good ten minutes or so as an observer), types into the chat,

"LOL!"

Tooo-shay! (Or however you spell that)

Now - I find it amusing as all hell that my little LOL pissed him off enough that he cared to stick around to sic it to me. He's probably some punk ass sitting around telling all of his friends how he was going to get me back. As if I actually care (he obviously did).

But - it made me think: what is it about online poker that makes people think it's OK to ridicule other people's play? If you're SO great at poker, why slum it at the five dollar table? And where's your book? It's one thing to have a conversation about strategy, or give solicited advice. It's completely something else to LAUGH at how someone else plays.

I've seen SO many times where a play will go down, and someone will say, "You called me with THAT crap?" or "Nice raise, idiot!" or "Wow, I guess any two cards will do...." Now, of course, half the time I'm *thinking* those things about my opponents' plays, but is it just me, or is it completely rude to say things like that? I don't know - maybe it's the attitudes proliferated by the Crew and their stellar egos.

And I'd love to see how many of these Vocal Majority Morons would actually say those things out loud in a live game or a casino. Not too many, I'd imagine. Life is all safe and cozy behind an avatar, bad ass screen name, and the glow of the computer monitor.

So, I guess Ignoramous's LOL did get under my skin a bit. So much so that I'm now 20 minutes late heading over to Randy's house.

Here's the second question you can answer for me - am I being too sensitive in thinking it's rude to berate people's plays in the online chat? Is this just normal behavior? Usually I just ignore it, and disable the chat for these people, but there have been so many lately that I really just can't believe people are that rude.

But I guess they are. Kinda sad.

OK I'm leaving I'm leaving!!!

7 Comments:

  1. Slayre said...
    I prolly would have put out a smaller bet on the turn, with the A5 and a tight player calling....

    small losses, big wins...

    I ignore the chat.. 99% of the time... some do that to get you on tilt... some do that cuz they are just stupid... some are just not knowing any better.... its one thing to think it, its another to actually type it....

    I had AA beat by 63 once... I was on the button, everyone folded, I figured a big bet would net me a whopping 45 chips, SB+BB, so, I just called, and hoped for a favorable flop.... flop was 2 4 5...,, I bet 2XBB, SB folds, BB calls... turn is a 3, giving me a NUT straight 'IF' he didn't have a six, and what would he be doing in the hand with a six....... anyway.. point is... I was angry with myself for letting him see the flop for free.... and my guess is, alot of people that make berating comments are just feeling the moment and commenting before they think things thru....

    or, they are just idiots.
    Gary said...
    I've had similar thoughts on this topic. I think it's a combination of many factors, some of which you mentioned. Anonymity makes it easy to be rude.

    I have to think that "Tilt" and some televised antics like Tony G. or whatever his name is on WPT last week might make people think that trash talk is part of the game. That's too bad.

    There are literally thousands of people playing online, so a certain percentage of them will be idiots. I try to ignore them as best I can. Happily, I've found there are also nice people playing online. When someone sucks out a hand on you and expresses a little sympathy, for example, it shows they have a touch of compassion because they know what a kick in the stomach that feels like.

    For me, online poker is largely a learning experience. If someone berates my play, I'll think about it a moment, forgetting the rudeness, but examining if I did make a mistake, and if so, how can I avoid doing it in the future. That's all that really matters.

    With obviously too much coffee this morning, I'm reminded of a line from the classic Henry Fonda movie, "12 Angry Men." (No, I'm not on Social Security, I discovered it on TCM on cable.) Someone is asked, "Why are you so damned polite?" And the response is something like, "For the same reason you are not: It's how I was brought up."
    Anonymous said...
    I think there are a lot of kids that play online. Kids meaning 14yrs-18yrs. If someone's acting like a moron, either they are a kid, or have the mentality of one so I just ignore them. I could give a shit about what some little punk thinks.
    Anonymous said...
    That last one is ChiefBigtoke btw. I always forget to sign my post.
    -EV said...
    I'd just ignore the horribly rude chat -- happens all the time and really nothing you can do about it (other than ignore), unfortunately.

    A quick word regarding HEPFAP by Sklansky. There was an interesting discussion about the book on 2+2 recently that you should check out. The bottom line in the thread is that the book's recommendations flat out do not apply to today's small stakes games. Page 10 in SSH goes into this a little. TOP, on the other hand, should be quite applicable. Here's the link to the 2+2 thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1992215&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1

    Take care & good luck with the SnGs!!
    -EV said...
    I'd just ignore the horribly rude chat -- happens all the time and really nothing you can do about it (other than ignore), unfortunately.

    A quick word regarding HEPFAP by Sklansky. There was an interesting discussion about the book on 2+2 recently that you should check out. The bottom line in the thread is that the book's recommendations flat out do not apply to today's small stakes games. Page 10 in SSH goes into this a little. TOP, on the other hand, should be quite applicable. Here's the link to the 2+2 thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1992215&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1

    Take care & good luck with the SnGs!!
    BadBlood said...
    As with anything that gains immense popularity, eventually the children get involved. You know, the 14 year olds with no real-life experience getting their asses handed to them by someone who doesn't appreciate their commentary.

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