[luckyme]

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My thinking is that as soon as you sit down at the table you're a player, and the aim of the game is to win.

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Games don't have aims. Games have rules and occur in a social setting. In business, I'd be nuts to play my A game if it jeopardizes bigger business deals, or if a fake sympathy talk lures an opponent into the hand and I'm looked at as a person that can't be trusted or as an emotional phoney. It doesn't matter what I think 'should' be the way we behave in the game.

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You maximise your winnings by limiting your mistakes and exploiting the mistakes of others.


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Sure. But in every setting there are boundaries and the above isn't unrestricted.

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This may be playing the best poker, being adept at reading tells, or in the examples discussed it may be researching your opponents so you know they'll never bluff or taking advantage of a player who doesn't protect his cards.

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Yes, but the key is "may be". All options are not on the table at any given time and which ones are depends on the context.

luckyme