I did a bad thing....... - Page 5

NT! · #1 08-13-2006, 03:55 AM

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I just want to say that I still think it's weird that Bob gave some random stranger a book. Not because I don't like helping people learn poker, I do that all the time both on this forum and on AIM, but because I think it's weird to give people you don't know gifts.

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If the person is nice and appreciative this is any easy way to have a friend for life. Oddly giving things to strangers makes them appreciate you more than giving things to your friends, because you have so many other interactions with your friends and it's not so uncommon. That guy will see you a year from now when you're thumbing a ride after your car gets stolen, and remember you as the guy who gave him the book.

Then he'll pick you up and kill you and eat you. So maybe that's not such a good example.

Get your oil changed Bob.

NT

Justin A · #2 04-18-2006, 08:38 PM

I don't understand why this even deserves a post. This entire forum is built on people teaching others how to play. Teaching strangers how to play no less. Helping out a guy in real life is much less of an offense than giving strategy advice on a public forum.

AJackson · #3 04-19-2006, 10:25 AM

Reminds me of the time a friend asked me to recommend a poker book. I recommended Phil Helmuth's book and then invited him to our weekly home game.

Wongboy · #4 04-19-2006, 10:35 PM

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Reminds me of the time a friend asked me to recommend a poker book. I recommended Phil Helmuth's book and then invited him to our weekly home game.

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Hellmuth's book would improve the play of the average $4/$8 player, from my experience. Sad, but true.

krishan · #5 04-22-2006, 10:56 AM

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but i feel good about it.

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Me too.

Krishan

PokerBob · #6 08-11-2006, 11:07 AM

a regular last night asked me if i could now give this guy a copy of an advanced hold'em book so that he'd stop playing K2o and snapping off his aces. you can lead a horse to water.....

oakley77 · #7 08-11-2006, 01:10 PM

sounds like ur being used, fold preflop

JJNJustin · #8 08-12-2006, 04:55 PM

I have a good friend who plays very badly. He has good instinct but his math/basic strategy/discipline is horrific. He used to play limit holdem but now plays a big no-limit game and is losing big time. I feel bad for him because he is my friend and he is a very good guy, and I dont like to see him lose.

When he sits down at the big NL game he plays in, all the players light up and shout out his name and shake his hand and make room for him to sit down. This pretty much removes any doubt that I might have had in my suspicions about him being the sucker.

I have tried to offer him pieces of advice, and have offered to loan him some of my poker books (TOP, NLTAP) but he always gets extremely defensive saying things "I know how to play." When I go to pick him up to go to the casino (he always pays for the gas and more if he wins) I have been bringing NLTAP and making him read "weapons" out loud to me for "my benefit." Hopefully some of that will sink in for him, as well. He considers me a tight-grinder with little or no instinct. His nickname for me is "the mechanic".

My feeling about this guy is that he could be a decent-fairly good player if he had some firm ground in basic strategy and some better discipline. His tilt threshold is low and usually tilts away the rest of his stack when he suffers a bad beat.

However, I have seen him make some good reads, excellent bluffs, good calls, and decent laydowns.
I have also seen him play foolishly. My own feeling is that he would fair best in a NL tournament over a cash game, and I'm not sure why I feel this way.

Advice, how to help this guy? Don't bother? People shaking his hand and hustling him via false friendliness in the NL game really makes me cringe. I told him, "You realize they arent doing that because they like you..." He laughed.

-J

Joe Tall · #9 08-13-2006, 03:04 AM

I must have seen him at his peak w/9k in the 30 then eh? He's such a friendly guy. Tell him I said hello and to read the book and play good! Seriously!

bruceypants · #10 08-13-2006, 11:06 PM

Poker is about more than book learning anyway. You have to be willing to work hard the entire time you are playing and you need excellent emotional control. Just reading 2+2 books isn't going to make someone a good player if they don't have the discipline and the emotional control, so giving someone a book doesn't really mean a lot in the the grand scheme of things.