Online poker etiquette?

[Ironic]

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hell, I would show. At this level you are there to have a good time and enjoy playing poker, just like everyone else. No one is going to lose their house. Just have fun and enjoy the game and be friendly to the other players.

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When I sit down to play I am opening up shop for the day, others can play for fun, I'm there to make money.

[Poker Clif]

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Like someone said, a serious player doesnt need to use the chat function.

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I like to make an exception to this, and when I'm playing, I consider myself a "serious player." However, I find that on PokerStars, I'm up against many other "serious players." So, to help put the table at ease, I use the chat function to start friendly chat about non-poker topics.

On one table, I got several people involved in a chat about stand-up comedy. We were reciting Mitch Hedberg jokes back and forth, and they hardly noticed as their chips were slipping away.

If you're going to use the chat function, try not to keep people focused on poker, in my opinion.

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Chat can be very useful at microlimits. Sometimes you can even tell from the chat when a player is on tilt, and showing at the right time might send him off the deep end--and his chips onto your stack.

If you have time (not 40-tabling) you can learn all kinds of things from chat. I struck up a casual conversation with a girl who told me that it was her first day, and she was scared to lose her bankroll.

Other things I have learned from watching chat:

One guy had never seen a 3BB raise before, and didn't know that there was such a thing as a standard rasie.--Fish list!

Or, someone said that he was 16, and that he was playing with a certain amount of money that he was allowed to play under his father's name.

Pay attention to chat, and maybe stir some up. You can learn some very interesting things.

[gedanken]

One of the canonical texts talks about chat, more in a live setting. The point made is that any pro is living off the steady-losses players. What do these guys get out of the deal? Entertainment. He considers himself a professional entertainer.

He says talk it up. Congratulate them on their suckouts, watch your all-ins like they were loads of fun. Give out tips, whatever feels good to everyone.

If you're just a morose jerk or technodweeb to your opponents, they might not have fun, and therefore not keep playing. Obviously this is attenuated in the online world, but an interesting perspective.

[cougar62]

Doesn't matter if he shows every single hand. You're not obligated to give up any information

[doctorjae]

i agree w/ poker clif and gedanken...just to add a little to the topic, i have found that in addition to gaining valuable info when i engage in friendly banter online, lots of times the guys/gals i'm chatting with soften up when i'm in the pot. in other words, the may check down a hand rather than being aggressive, or may give me a walk in the SB/BB, stuff like that. i've even had the experience of being one of the poor souls struggling to make the money in a tourny and they'd (the befriended opponents) either give me a walk or fold their questionable holding so that someone bubbled before i did. that may be a form of collusion, but i didn't ask them to do it, they just did it...so, i try to be as friendly as possible at the table...unless of course someone hits their 2-outer and sucks out on me, then i throw every curse and insult at the little donky-fish that i can think of.. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img].JK...
my two cents worth...

[PALaf]

Standard reply for being asked to show my hand when they fold, "I'm sorry the going rate for that information is X" with X being whatever the bet was they folded. Poker Etiquette has nothing to do with I showed you, you show me.

If you tell someone you'll show, then show. If you make a deal (live only really) to show your hand if they show their fold, then show.

But him showing you a hand whenever a go doesn't mean you have to show now. In fact, you shouldn't just because he wants you to so bad. You are also getting information on him, he thinks when you bet like that that you have a bigger hand like AK. File that away and use it later against him.

Be a civil person out of the hand, be a snake in the hand. It's how the game is played.

[silver book]

lol this bluff just sounds sooooo bad