Oh, the irony

[DrMega]

This is a long rant from a blog, and I apologize, but it's something that kind of amused me over the last week of playing live at a B&M for the first time in a while. I'm sure I'm not the first to make note of this...

What's interesting to me is a phenomenon I've noticed quite a bit out there playing limit poker in a brick and mortar casino. There are essentially three kinds of players - those who know how to play, those who *think* they know how to play, and those who just call anything because they don't really know when they're beat. The fellows who think they know how to play (this is starting to sound egotistical, I know, but bear with me) are constantly whining when someone draws profitably to a flush on the river, busting their weak top or middle pair. Conversely, they draw to ANY hand they call in with, thinking if they can just hit one of the two or three cards in the deck to save them, it will make up for it.

The clearest case in point was tonight. All night the guy was saying "People just keep catching cards on the river to beat me" and once, after being beaten in such a manner and loudly complaining, in the very next hand he says, "I can't catch a river ever. I keep calling down with my pocket pairs and never hit." This same guy drew unprofitably to a small pot at an inside straight to beat my top two pair, just after whining about another suckout against him (I smiled and politely told him "nice hand" and moved on).

These kinds of players miss the profound irony in their complaints/playstyles. It's one thing when someone's playing ABC tight textbook poker and gets outdrawn by a miracle. Those things happen. You steam a little and move on. But when you're already playing a loose calling game three things happen: 1) Your hands aren't as strong as you think they are - they're fragile and will be drawn out on; 2) you will draw unprofitably at four or fewer outs and get frustrated when your longshots don't hit and 3) no one will respect your bets. This is particularly true in limit poker but applies to pot- and no-limit as well.

So ends the sermon.

[ItzMrFish2U]

I guess stating the obvious is necessary sometimes.