Why do we hate donkeys?

[chezwiz75]

Not to bring this up again or maybe I do but this is from Taylor Caby's blog which I think sums it up for me as well. I guess he doesn't know anything about poker as well.

When I play the regular tournaments, I am just so inexperienced. I don't know all of the proper times for squeeze plays, blind stealing (dos and don'ts, etc), and the worst part about my game is dealing with bad players. I really don't play too many bad players at 25/50nl+ and I'm not used to exploiting guys that clearly have huge flaws in their game. My game works much better against thinking opponents and it's hard for me to play against some of the players who are overvaluing top pair or making bets when they don't know if they are bluffing or value betting.

[aaokwitme]

First of all its (BOOBIES) hard for me to concentrate and read your (BOOBIES) post. 2ndly I have found it easer to take if you keep the pot small with these fools. hears Y, you will win 3out of 4 pots against them, so if you put more than 3/4 of you chips in a pot with them and lose that 1 hand it will take 3 wins in a row to get back. but if you keep the pot small you can chip away at them and win more easily with less risk, + when you get the nuts they will let you trap them or they may just doink off there (BOOBIES)stack to you

[VanHammersley]

Ideal table: 5 donkeys, 2 TAGs, 2 LAGs, and a shaman, in case you have to rez.

[demon102]

I dont hate donkeys, I get mad at them when I lose money but I seriously run the whole skalansky bux thing threw my head and after I realize I would been up money there a lot of times its no big deal

[justaPlayer]

[ QUOTE ]
Not to bring this up again or maybe I do but this is from Taylor Caby's blog which I think sums it up for me as well. I guess he doesn't know anything about poker as well.

When I play the regular tournaments, I am just so inexperienced. I don't know all of the proper times for squeeze plays, blind stealing (dos and don'ts, etc), and the worst part about my game is dealing with bad players. I really don't play too many bad players at 25/50nl+ and I'm not used to exploiting guys that clearly have huge flaws in their game. My game works much better against thinking opponents and it's hard for me to play against some of the players who are overvaluing top pair or making bets when they don't know if they are bluffing or value betting.

[/ QUOTE ]


If you can't exploit bad players you have a serious weakness in your game.

If any aspect of ego is involved while you're playing, you have no future whatsoever in poker, and any success you do achieve will turn into a menace that ultimately causes more pain than happiness. This is gonna happen to a lot of players who are enjoying success right now. Its a lot harder to keep it than to get it.

There are bad players at all levels. They are bad because they make a lot of mistakes. Mistakes are where the money comes from. Money is the only reason to play. Keep it simple.

Avatar is mesmerizing.

[justaPlayer]

The whole game is about adapting, not playing some set way.

If you're in the pot with a chimp, and you've flopped tpgk, and you know he will call with absolutely anything, and you have no real reason to believe his equity against your tpgk is any greater than, say 30%, why not just overbet, HUGE? EXPLOIT HIM. The animal MUST call, that is his compulsion.

This is not to be critical of you in any way, but I think you would do well to become better acquainted with the mathematics of the game. When you have an edge, any edge, push it. Bad players are bad players because they cannot help but to constantly be in situations where they are at a disadvantage. You, as a good player, will usually have a basic advantage in hand strength/showdown value, and be able to easily see when you don't. The more of the odds you understand, the more edges you will be able to exploit.

lol Play Money on Stars is a GREAT way to learn how to extract the maximum from tards.

[silver book]

THey get the fur all over my house, very annoying!!!!!

[James81]

Hey man I know what do you mean. The last 5 times I got KK I lost every hand with that cause the Ace hits, a runner runner straight comes up or a set which hits on turn or river bust my stack. But where is the problem. I care about that only when they donk of my money five times in a row at that table and the reason for that is almost a to small bankroll. So keep in mind what you already know, look at the the stock market - you make money only in the long run!

Take it easy and play simple poker.

[insyder19]

if the table is full of donks, you can really only play good hands, you cant bluff them because they auto call everything.

[jjshabado]

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From reading people think deeper than I do, I read maximum value plummets at poor player number six.

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Would you mind quoting your source there, Mike? I believe your claim is incorrect, and would always be happy to back that up by sitting at the 10-donkey table rather than the 6-donkeys-and-4-tags table.

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Mason had a couple of essays about this in The Theory of Gambling (not sure if the title is 100% correct) or in his Poker Essays. I think the point was mainly that after a certain number of loose-passive players your expectation doesn't go up much. After X number of donkeys each additional donkey doesn't add very much to your overall winrate, they mostly just lose money to each other (and you get a cut of it). However your standard deviation goes up fairly fast with each additional donkey. So a table of 9 donkeys vs a table of 5 might increase your winrate marginally, it will increase your standard deviation a lot, and the trade off is probably not worth it to most players.

*Its completely possible I misinterpreted the essay, but I think thats what it was saying.