Felt Bad After Taking Old Guy's Money...This is a 1st for me :(

David LoPan · #1 05-21-2007, 02:03 AM

Yea...so I'm a pretty callous guy to say the least. My usual response is 'whatever' to any $hitty occurence. And I've never felt bad about taking anybody's money before and I've played for about 5 years now at various stake levels.

However this is a first...I felt bad after taking about $500 off some old guy at a local LA casino. This poor guy probably went through his entire monthly expenses. He was down at least 2k in less than 3 hours. I felt really bad for the guy but of course I didn't give him a dime back. Although I wanted to talk to him before he stormed out and offer him some advice or whatever (like don't play poker).

I don't know, he was about 80, crusty wearing dirty clothes and didn't even understand the game. I know this thread has been done b4 but I'm just so surprised it happened to me I had to post it again.

yea I'm teh ghey and I'm feeling pretty crummy about myself right now...like I said I've never felt bad for a player ever in my life.

jfk · #2 05-21-2007, 03:04 AM

He was in a public card room of his own free will. As he's 80 years old it probably wasn't his first time.

Casinos and card rooms are grim places. People with self destructive habits can be found there and have their shortcoming on display.

In many other instances these people can cause you a lot of grief. Poker affords dedicated, winning players to profit off the failings of others that the winning player don't happen to share.

Try to think of card rooms as a clinical environment. It isn't your job to vet the opposition for the proper economic means to play. All that's required of you is to play honestly and well.

luckyjimm · #3 05-21-2007, 04:52 AM

Here's a good column from the Guardian newspaper by Victoria Coren on this subject:

Poker is cruel. It's deceptive, aggressive, antisocial and expensive. Don't get me wrong; I love the game and many of its players. But (even in these days of social poker revolution and home games on Desperate Housewives) money is lost, pride is damaged, trickery prevails and individuality is all. Poker doesn't even have the partnership spirit of bridge, let alone the team spirit of football.
Recently I've been re-reading Jesse May's 1998 novel, Shut Up and Deal. One of my favourite things about May's wonderful book is its honesty about poker's brutal nature. He writes: "People always want to know what's going on, and what's going on is people are going broke." He writes: "There are no guys and there is no peer group, just a bunch of desperate lonely souls trying to make a few bucks for themselves by [censored] over others." And don't get Jesse wrong; he loves poker too.

Home games can be even worse. There may be banter, laughs and pizza, but somebody will always get screwed over; and friendship can be compromised by the embarrassment of financial defeat. To paraphrase Woody Allen on sex: is poker horrible? It is if you're doing it right.
Tournament poker, which this column has discussed for the past few weeks, can sometimes seem like a healthier social option. Sure, it hurts to get knocked out - but you're only losing the fixed fee you paid in advance. In cash games, people can find themselves sliding helplessly down the greasy tunnel of uncontrolled loss. I saw this happen a few weeks ago to a charming old Chinese fellow who kept losing his sit-down money and buying more chips because he didn't want to go home.

I saw a flop with K8; and it came down 388. I bet; the Chinese guy raised; I re-raised; he went all in for his last £400. Could he have A8? Could he have 33? While I was thinking about it, he looked at me sorrowfully and said: "I'm losing thousands."

I had to call. He showed 87 and, failing to improve on later streets, found his pockets empty and was forced to go home.

I truly wished that I had folded. I was winning in the game. I didn't need his money. And I didn't need his plaintive, disappointed face fixed in my self-loathing mind. But compassion and pity are weaknesses in poker. And they are disrespectful weaknesses, too. Every adult has the right to put his money at risk and lose it.

But still. It is a cruel game.

SkinnyLittleTwig · #4 05-21-2007, 09:05 AM

poker is horrible.

play online?

Overseer55 · #5 05-21-2007, 01:07 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I truly wished that I had folded. I was winning in the game. I didn't need his money. And I didn't need his plaintive, disappointed face fixed in my self-loathing mind.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have every right to make whatever you play that you believe is best at the time...if folding and feeling good about yourself is worth more than the money in the pot, then go ahead and fold.

[ QUOTE ]
But compassion and pity are weaknesses in poker. And they are disrespectful weaknesses, too. Every adult has the right to put his money at risk and lose it.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I sit down at the poker table, I want to see every (insert favorite expletive here) chip out there become part of my stack. My opponent's past, present, or future financial concerns/obligations/problems do not count for one iota in my decision making process. However, I don't fault you if they influence yours.

MTDog-7 · #6 05-21-2007, 02:33 PM

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I don't know, he was about 80, crusty wearing dirty clothes and didn't even understand the game. I know this thread has been done b4 but I'm just so surprised it happened to me I had to post it again.

yea I'm teh ghey and I'm feeling pretty crummy about myself right now...like I said I've never felt bad for a player ever in my life.

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Hmm sounds a lot like a client I had a few years ago. He would dress in old ratty clothes, walk the alleys with his little dog picking up cans to recylce. Outward look like a poor lost soul. His Estate was worth over $2.8 million, only of few of us knew the truth. Don't let looks fool you many of these old guys have money.

PattdownManiac · #7 05-21-2007, 05:56 PM

Yeah every grubby old man that looks homeless is probably actually a multi-millionaire cause that one dude you knew was.

MTDog-7 · #8 05-21-2007, 06:23 PM

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Yeah every grubby old man that looks homeless is probably actually a multi-millionaire cause that one dude you knew was.

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NOPE, but you never know, I know a number of millionares that don't look the part. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] If he's playing the game he's taking his chances don't let it bug you.

Lurker. · #9 05-22-2007, 04:35 PM

ever stacked a retarded guy? yeah, come back when you have and talk about feeling bad.

Peter McDermott · #10 05-23-2007, 02:06 PM

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ever stacked a retarded guy? yeah, come back when you have and talk about feeling bad.

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But this isn't so bad at all. After all, the guy is retarded, so he's hardly going to spend much time fretting about his losses, is he? Give him a lollipop and he'll be over the moon again.