Some live players are scum

[JJNJustin]

I am basically a friendly, nice person who likes to socialize and have a good time while I am gambling. I have run into many players who dislike me for one or more reasons and conduct themselves in ways that offend me or make me not like them. I am going to list a few that stand out, as well as their outstanding features. Am I being naive, or are most live players like this, or are these just a few bad apples?

1) This guy named Ahmed talks to me at the bar for ten minutes. He says he has seen me around and at other casinos. He asks me to borrow $100. I tell him no. He yells at me that I am just a typical American back-stabber and walks away. The next day, he asks me to borrow $20 for a pack of cigarettes. Again, I refuse, and he yells at me not to talk to him anymore. Lastly, I was seated next to him at a NL game, and everytime I bet he tried to bluff me off my hand by making large raises. My read was pretty solid, so I called him down with a pair of sixes and angered him so badly he slammed the chair and the table and ran out of the room. I had the feeling he was ready to scream at me and even come to violence. My only crime was not willing to loan $100 to him.

2)This guy named Steve was playing and got into a dispute with a female player over a pot where apparently the dealer had mucked her face up hand, then a player spotted that she had the winning hand, and her hand was declared live. The female kindly offered to split the pot, which was small anyway, and this guy remarked, "Go ahead and take the pot you effing c*nt." On another occasion, I was telling the dealer jokes between hands, and he remarked to me, "We come here to play poker, not socialize."

3) I have a home game and invite this couple Ken and Barb over. We cater dinner and have a good time. There is no rake. Next month, we have another game at an office building. We have a small tourney, Ken is unhappy with the blind structure, yells at me about it, says he wont come back, and slams some furniture. Later, we have a cash game, we are raking the pot $3, and I up the rake to $4 because we are short of our quota. Ken calls me out as being a greedy so-so. I ask Ken and Barb to leave the poker game. They take great offense and never talk to me again.

(edit) 4) There is this guy Joey who has been having a home game and inviting me to it. His table is okay, but I have a real nice table and offer to loan it to him. The game is lucrative, no rake, and it is worth it for me to be invited back. He comes over, we load it to his place. He ends up having a game where I dont attend and the players put 5-10 cigarette burns in it. I get upset and take the table out of there but dont say anything about it. We end up going to the casino, he goes busto and asks me for $300. Instead, I quit my game and take him home. On the way home he berates me for not loaning him the money, especially since I have been a welcome guest at his home game. I drop him off and we havent spoken since.

I get the feeling over and over again that many poker players are on short fuses and if you provoke them the slightest bit they will get furious and implode. Sometimes I resent having to play in an atmosphere that is anything but gentlemanly, mildly sociable, and relaxing. However, more often than not, the table is on tilt, different factions at war with one another about silly things.

My attempts to be friendly with fellow poker players is taken as some kind of front. This isnt really the case. My goal is to try to lighten up the table, because I almost cant tolerate playing in a hostile atmosphere created by some of these players and their actions/remarks.

Your comments, thoughts on this?

-J

p.s. I play at MCC and Greektown in Detroit. Does this have anything to do with this? Maybe Minnesota people have better manners?