A poker player with a shred of decency ???

I just got back from Las Vegas today. I was very surprised by the actions of a fellow poker player. Tell me what you think ...

We are at the MGM Grand playing 2-4 Hold Em. The number of raises after the river is not limited.

The board reads 10-10-6-3-10. Player One raises, and Player Two reraises. Player One then reraises, then Player Two reraises. This goes on for a few rounds, and of course, I am wondering who has the fourth 10. Finally, Player Two just calls the bet. He had the 10. After winning, he tells Player One, "I want you to remember this. Someday you may be in the same situation."

Now, I was shocked that he let Player One off the hook. I imagine that almost anyone would have continued to reraise until the other guy got the message. I asked him why he let the guy off the hook, and he told me that he suffered an extremely bad beat once and didn't want to wipe the guy out.

Funny thing - Player One did all this reraising with 6-something, so he had the full house. Not only did he risk losing to quads, but also to a pocket pair greater than 6-6!

Player one obviously needs lots of help. But tell me -- what do you think of Player Two????

Here are my thought processes pertaining to this.

Player 1 = Donkey
Donkey = Source of wealth
Wealth = Good
Player 2 = Stupid

It's like going into work and saying "Hey you know what boss, you're paying me too much, I demand a pay cut!" Plus enough donkeys have drawn out on me in the past to make getting as much money from Sir Donkalot in your example essential. Besides, he obviously sucks at poker, and as such is going to go bust somewhere down the line - if I'm Player 2 why shouldn't I take as much as I can from him right here right now?

What he did was not "decent", it was stupid.

Letting him off the hook didn't teach him near the lesson that sending him home broke would have.

well said. player 2 is a nice guy though, must not make a living off of poker

If this was no-limit hold em, Player two should have went all in after Player One reraised his raise.

Gotta agree with the D man here as there was a lesson to be tought here. I have let folks off hook in our buy-ins before, not often, but I have. Playing in a casino against strangers is a totally different situation...

I totaly agree with diabloblanco and IrishDave on this> Stop and think what would the other guy do if the shoe was on the other foot to you? Those hands are hard to come by,I think anyway.

if you ask me the guy was/is a fool!!

The snide comment was a bit out of line... telling everyone to remember this. However, it may not be as bad of a play as it appears on the surface.
I play in an invite game at one of the hotels here in Vegas. Truthfully there is no weak seats at the game. But, the game is in public, so it is open to everyone. Usually 2 or 3 seats open around 9:00pm. Moving into this game are a few "soft" spots. A soft player often gets on the list, and in this game he is out of his league. But he loves it and we all think he is great. He donates 2 buyins has a great time and leaves. This went on for 6 weeks. Then a player ran over him for all of his chips within 5 minutesw of sitting down. We have never seen hin again.

Your opponents are customers. Treat them well, and they will pay your bills. Run over them and you'll never see them again. It sounds like he made a solid profit, and gave the guy away out. That player will be back with a few buyins and have a great time. Take their money, but it's ok to give them a little value.
A happy customer is a good customer!

Bill

Hey, Bill! Where have you been, man?

Cool story, although I probably wudda taken his last $10 and bought a drink with it.

i like to get none partial while playing poker, i treat the fish the way i need to, there will always be more, and i have been the fish at one point during my poker career and in truth had more fun but now i pay some bills with this money. fish are there to be eaten that simple. but i like bills perspective if you give them a good time and win 2000 he comes back good investment. but ill do it either way just a paycheck to me

This man is nothing more than a Genius...

Alright, I can absolutely buy Bills angle, however, think about this for a second; how many times do you think you can send that guy home a fairly big loser before he learns from his mistakes and gets good? At that point he becomes another one of the people you have to compete with for the available cash.

There's a never ending supply--at least right now--of dead money willing to hand you their money. Bust them out and another one fills the seat. You don't have to have that guy really. I would think this is true especially for a place like Vegas where there is an edless buffet-line of tourists with their wallets in hand waiting for a seat.