How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

Yesterday, 4th time at a b&m. There was one guy at the table who seemed to enjoy criticizing my play. He didn't do it in a friendly helpful way either, more of a nasty "you suck because" way.

Example, I am UTG, he is to my immediate right in the bb. I look down at pocket queens and raise (4-8 limit). It is folded to him, he looks at his hand, reaches for chips, thinks and then mucks. He then says "good for you!" you won the minimum, sarcastically.

He says, keep raising your hands preflop and you will keep winning the minimum. I don't feel like discussing strategy, defending my play, etc. so I just ignore it. I am fairly quiet and keep to myself but am not unfriendly either.

I think he takes my lack of reply as free reign to start telling me what I did wrong every hand I am in almost. You should have check raised there, etc. etc. etc.

On one hand against him, he raised out of the sb (I was in the bb) and there were already 5 people in. I had 10 J suited and called, and flopped an open ended straight and flush draw. He bet out, I called, etc. I rivered the nut straight he bet, I raised, he called, I beat his set of queens.

He went completely off for the next half hour, how do you call when you KNOW you are behind (forgetting the fact the pot was huge here?) if the board paired you would have gone broke, etc. etc. The thing is, he made it uncomfortable for me. I few others kind of told him to shut up politely, then a guy at the table finally said, why don't you play your cards, and let her play hers in an angry tone. This is the only guy that seemed to intimidate him and shut him up at all.

Is there any way to politely tell him to shut up without justifying my play? I don't want arguments at the table, but don't want to put up with this stuff either. I had earlier told him that if I wanted advice I would ask (the second time he did it), but tried to do it in a friendly joking tone. It seemed to make it worse.

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

you are a female who is old enough to play poker in a b&m. you have spent your entire life dealing with men who act like idiots and will do anything to get your attention, and surely you have a variety of strategies for dealing with these men (play dumb and twirl your hair, get a bigger man to take care of this loser, KITN, make a withering remark about his manhood, etc.).

if you can remove your ego from the equation and just ignore him, you will make a lot of money off of him. otherwise, use one of your go-to strategies. otherwise, table change.

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

I would table talk right back at him something like...good for me you had picsh and i can pick the blinds up again huh [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

I can see your dilemma. You don't want a confrontation with the guy, especially if he's a bad player. But you don't want to just sit there and be uncomfortable, which is definitely no fun.

I go around this by putting on my headphones. People tend to talk less to you when you have them on. Sometimes my ipod isn't even turned on. I just have headphones on.

If that's not an option, you can try just kindly saying that you play your way, and he should play his. But most idiots don't get it.

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

The B&M equivalent of


*** You are ignoring this user ***


works for me.

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

Some variation of "excuse me, could you wait til I'm done stacking my chips" or "shhhhhhhhh, I'm stacking your chips" should get the point across.

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Some variation of "excuse me, could you wait til I'm done stacking my chips" or "shhhhhhhhh, I'm stacking your chips" should get the point across.

[/ QUOTE ]

This also has the meta value of creating animosity in your opponent's mind, hopefully he will start to call down lightly when you are in the lead which in turn creates greater profits. Its a good thing when he takes shots at you, you should encourage this provided you play well post flop.

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

Yea, I had the same problem today. I am a novice and was playing in a SST. A dealer from a different poker room was in the game. He twice berated me for not checking the pot down when someone else was all in.

If I am a fish, smile or do not smile at me but take my money if that is the case. I will either learn or go "tapioca". But get off my back. I am sure if I had been playing in Texas in the 60s, Doyle, Slim and Sailor would have been happy to take my money and would have kept me happy while they did it.

Re: How do you stop people from offering unsolicited advice?
 

i would always just challenge him HU for higher stakes, and call him a degenerate old man getting punked around by some kid.