[flopton]

[ QUOTE ]
" poker is a game played amongst adults and some times adults use adult language."


I really think this is just an excuse that supposed adults make to act incredibly immature.
I wouldn't mind if anything even resembling innappropriate language were taken away. It is supposed to be a friendly game afterall so all this stuff of "you suck" etc only serves to potentially irritate the table.

I want the game to be welcoming and playable to 60 year old grandmothers with nothing better to do but the atmosphere of mostly youngish males calling each other d-bag's is simply too intimidating for them imo.

I don't think my vision of senior citizens and more women playing is incredibly unrealistic when you consider how many play games like bridge or cribbage or hearts, etc.
But with the culture as it is now I think those expecting a more polite and friendly atmosphere would be more likely to be run-off by the occasional foul language.

just my opinion. I'm kind of aware that it isn't a particularly popular one.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is an important point that will become more relevant with the changing demographic. A higher amount of the population is retiring, so they have a new chance to become a big part of online poker. The responsibility is on the current players to make the game inviting and encourage increasing or at least maintaining the pool.

In Barry Greenstein's book he notes how he was surprised that Doyle and Chip weren't as intimidating as he thought they'd be, that they were nice and tried to get along as well as possible. Then he realized, a good player wants to keep you there, find out what your weaknesses are, and continually exploit them. They don't try and scare you off, and they definitely don't try and give you tips to improve.

The reverse happens all the time online, from players who imply they're savvy poker players by calling their opponents out. Though by definition a savvy poker player makes as much money as possible, and I can't see how 'calling someone out' improves the bottom line. Rather than just saying 'nh' when someone makes a bad play, and in your head being like OMG that's so exploitable, noted.

Quoting Sharkscope stats, drawing people's attention to their weaknesses "to make them feel bad" (or does it make them want to improve?) is not a long-term approach. Celebrate the lag-tards, and the bad-beaters or all we'll have left is the out-players.