No More Chat!

I'm posting this in the strategy section, because, in my opinion, that is what this is. I payed a heads up last night at Full Tilt against some chump named Fenix13. About the third hand in I picked up a pair of 2's and just went all-in with it. What happend was what I hoped would happen. He folded. I showed my dueces just for fun and he immediately went off on me. "Gay hand!" "You must be a fag!"(Not that there's anything wrong with that). My game definately went down from there. I was convinced, that everything he did was an intimidation. As it turned out he was acctually better than I gave him credit for. I eventually picked up top pair, queens, with an obvious flush in his favor after the river. "Just call and give me your 5 bucks Faggot, I haven't got all night". I felt so violated that I had to call.

Why don't you just report him to the site? (PS Pair of Queens, now THAT's a gay hand!).

In heads up 2 2 goes in as fav anyway. Of course its not an all-inner but in heads up you gotta take ur chances

It's gotten to the point that I only want to play "closed" events for reasons just like you spelled out. The rudeness of some of these folks is beyond belief and they go off if they lose a single hand. That's why I have been pushing so hard to get a CardsChat private table and private tourneys going. Turning off chat is an option but I like to converse while I play as you would in a live game. This is why I enjoy our Saturday buy-in tourneys so much. Good poker played with good people and it's always an enjoyable event whether you win or lose...

LOL

I agree about that Dave however, even friendly chat can be a distraction.

You can't take those kind of players seriously. I just ignore them and focus on my game. I usually let somebody else knock him/her out and thank whoever knock them out when he/she leaves. The key here is to pay attention to your game and not listen/read to what other players say/type. To you, they should be viewed as obstacles on the path to the prize.

In this case, it was heads-up, so there wasn't anyone else to do the dirty work. It's hard not to get steamed up about this and I really believe that this was an effective strategy on his part. But I have to wonder, is any strategy short of cheating acceptable, or is there a line which shouldn't be crossed?

I use to be the same way Four Dogs and it cost me lots of games,then a couple of years ago as soon as i saw someone writing something to distract me i tuned them out, now once in a while i let it get to me,but then i say to myself What am I doing, then i tune them out and dont even look at the chat box. To be a good player you have to tune these people out,just play your game, if you close your chat box its like giving in to them. I know your a good player so try to tune these people out WITHOUT having to close your chat box and DONT let them get to you. It is possible to tune players out, i do it if i dont like what there saying and if your heads up finish the game by beating them, then play somebody else. gl >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> buckster436

I wouldnt go as far as blocking out all chat. The chat feature is the only thing that adds a personal touch to the game when you are playing online. If someone is harassing me, I either tune them out or just type a few faces to make them mad. They usually shut up if they see it doesnt bother me and I'm laughing at them. Talking to a few friendly people at the table when you find them also makes playing the game more enjoyable. If you block out all chat, you probably arent going to enjoy playing as much (I know I wouldnt)

I like chat. I usually block chat on the asses. Usually near the end of a tournament or something I will find someone to BS with.

Yesterday or day before(I forget which) I was in a tournament and there was about 200 people left so we were all in the Freeroll money. One guy mentions that I have been in 1st place for over and hour and we get to bsing. Rest of the time I folded if he was in a hand where he reaised. He usually had a good hand. Only times I played against him I had AA KK QQ AK and AQ. But of course I lost on the KKs to someone else with 78 and lost half my stack lol

I now think he mentioned that to kill me. Like if you tell a pitcher hes throwing a no hitter lol

All good advice, but it's not in my nature to ignore this crap. I either mute the MoFo or I hunt him down and kill him. I think I'll do both.

well i dunno about chat...but talking to your opponent can be a huge help sometimes
in one of those prolessons emails form FTP Erik Lindgren has one entitled "ask and ye shall receive"
its all about saying things to get information out of your opponent
or even just listening to what kind of things opponents are saying
ex: a player is jokingly complaining every 2 or so hands about how the dealer sucks and he is not playing any hands...then he stops saying it and starts to play hands more frequently
this would mean either he is getting sick of folding all these hands, and he's too impatient so he's playin mediocre hands instead of waiting for monsters
or he is finally getting monster hands
In Lindgren's article, he talks about how 1 guy was getting hammered by everyone at a table, and was getting frustrated...finally one hand he flat calls in early pos. and E.L. raises with A10. The guy immediately pushes and erik starts thinkin..ok he finally hit a monster hand...
then he thinks a while and (obviously lying about his hand) asks the guy "can you beat Q hi?" and the man says, with relief, "yea i can beat Q hi" and erik immediately calls - the man shows K10s and tells Erik " good call" and Erik wins the pot. Read up on it at fulltilt.com because i'm sure i told it wrong but talking to your opponents can help alot sometimes
if you don't like chatting i suggest at least leaving it on for information purposes even if you're not chatting...sometimes it really doesn't help and can put you on tilt or get you pissed.. but others it will help alot