Loose Lips Sink Ships (More on Bad Beats)

(taken from my blog)

Why do people feel the need to bitch at others who are playing badly at a poker table?

You know what I'm talking about - some random fish draws out to an inside straight or something after making a ridiculous call, beats another guy's two pair or trips or whatever it may be, and then the guy who suffered the bad beat immediately goes off on a tirade about how the fish has no idea how to play and should go back to the playchips tables or something.

It's just beyond me as to why anybody would do that. I mean, yeah, I understand that they're pissed off that they got a bad beat and they're taking it out on the person who's to blame, but it's just a dumb move. The fact that the other player is making bad calls without the correct pot odds is a good thing. This will make you money. Thus, you want every single person making plays like that.

So, when you get what you should want and have other players making bad plays, why would you alert them to their error? Why would you tell them that they just made a bad move? What if they actually listen and start playing more carefully? You just ruined a bit of a +EV factor for yourself, because you couldn't handle someone else getting one bad beat on you!

Also, though this doesn't tend to happen, what if they actually decide to leave? I mean, it's unlikely, but if it were to occur, you'd be the fish. Getting a bad player to go away is possibly one of the dumbest things you can do in a ring game.

As for me, if I see this sort of situation unfold, I always side with the fish. You should too. It has two benefits:

It makes the pissed off guy very likely to go on tilt if he isn't already. I mean, he gets bad beat by some guy with four or less outs, calls him out on it, and now some other dumbass is defending the play? How can he possibly not see the error in that move? What right does this guy have to call him the fish?! Incidentally, he may start to play way too aggressive against you after you "call him out" on insulting a "normal play", because now he's out for blood.

It also tends to give the real fish more confidence in his bad plays. It's a bit underhanded to encourage somebody to play badly by telling them their bad moves are good, but such is the nature of internet poker. I wouldn't do it to a friend in a live game, but if it's somebody I don't know, I'm going to try to extract every cent I can from them. This means commending their bad plays that end luckily, and also means sympathizing when they get hit with the big losses they deserve. Anything to keep them in the game and keep their money headed in my direction.

In poker, it's all about maximizing the profitability of the situation you're in. This goes beyond the cards you play. Encourage bad play by others, seize the opportunity to put an angry player on tilt, do what you must. In situations like these, I see a huge opportunity and I don't see why anybody would choose to be on the losing end of it - by being the one that tells off the fish for bad plays. Let it be, and take the money.

Some players are more interested in inflating their ego than the are in inflating their bankroll. Even to the point of making a complete fool of there self.

Most times these players are not nearly as good as they think they are.

More easy $ for the rest of us.

I just laugh it off and proceed to keep owning the said noisy player.

Theres a good part in super system 2 about exactly what you are talking about. Boils down to why would you want to improve a fishes game.

When somebody starts ranting at play I just say, "Please don't rile the fish and scare them away." Usually stops the rant.

I think sometimes people use this as reverse psychology sometimes...a fake tell if you will.....They WANT you to believe that they are tilting. They want to upset the fish, and while the fish may tighten up...maybe others who think you shouldn't upset the fish will loosen up a bit in hopes to nail him.

Personally I agree, especially online....but, I think Phil, Mike and the others who do this live do it all for a reason. They're trying to be the bad ass know it all pros....even though, they've all gotten a suckout here and there....

There will always be a 'fish' in poker, because there are some who don't understand and realize the odds that they're not getting. I remember a long time ago, when I was just starting to play poker online (at this point, I was playing PokerRoom) and someone went on a similar tirade because I caught an inside draw. I didn't realize I had roughly a 12% chance to hit on the turn or river. I was a rookie back then. I learned from it not to get into too many of these situations when they didn't work out...which is a solid majority of the time anyways.

Then...there's the players who are playing, online or live and are just there to have a good time. They know they're getting bad odds and their opponent(s) are purposefully giving them bad odds, more so in NL, but the fish wants to gamble. I may not defend the fish for gambling, but I don't berate him/her...I just sit quietly and hope another opportunity comes up and hope I don't get outdrawn on him/her the next time around.

don't tap the tank , fish are a good source of food , chips lol

I have to say I get angry when I loose money OBS! Why I get mad at people for playing like DONKS. I've lost over $2000 in the last couple of months on bad beats (I keep track). The crazy BS that has gone on makes me want to quit this wonderful game of poker. Just today someone called my all in with a pair of 3's (53u) vs. my flopped flush and got runner, runner 3-5 to make his full house. This was for A LOT of money. He CALLED my all in with low pair and no hearts in his hand with a flop of 3 hearts. BIGGEST DONK MOVE EVER and it paid off for him. I'm sure he called off his money to someone else, but that other person isn't give me back some money cause he feels bad!

I have to take out the anger on someone and that is usually the person that just hit his lotto ticket vs. me.

I once threw all my chips at a guy at Foxwoods. Some DONK raised up half his stack pre-flop vs. my AKs. I called. The flop came out K73 he didn't have much left and went all-in. I called. I worried about AA, but no he didn't have AA, no not K7, no not K3, the jerk had 73! He was playing like that on every hand. He would raise up big with complete BS and get luck. He then would do it again and again and finally get busted out, rebuy and restart his crazyness. I never got a chance to win my money back, cause I got kicked out cause I threw my chips right at the guy.

Reason why I get mad at people for playing like SHIT! RANT OVER

Did I talk shit to the guy afterwards? HELL YA. It cost me a ton of money. I ask him if he was bluffing? He said no he thought he had the best hand...

Also do players know they only have something like a 7% chance of hitting a flush with 2 suited cards? I see people playing every suited hand when the suck out there flush vs. me. Qd2d vs. my flopped trip jacks some jack ass sucked out his flush on the river.