Thought it would be fun to post and vent all of our pet peeves itt, and perhaps see if some things collectively bother us more than the dudes.

My number one pet peeve is when good players berate fish. It doesn't happen nearly as often as a weak player berating a good one, thankfully, but it drives me crazy that the good player wouldn't understand that we want the fish there, and want him to play poorly without punishing him for doing so!

Tied into this is someone sharkscoping the fish and typing in "well u lost 17k this year u soo bad". At which point, if I am playing a small enough number of tables to respond I type in "yeah I know I suck" so that the fish won't start thinking about how much money he has lost playing poker, pretending the reg is berating me. Usually the reg will "lol" and drop it.

YES! This bothers to me to no end. I'd actually take it one step further and say that I hate it when in public conversations on facebook or twitter or whatever people refer to their opposition as donks, fish, idiots as it creates a wider sense of poker as an unpleasant sphere. That verbiage is for close friends and Notes, IMO.

Some people play poker for fun or entertainment or have just started learning the game. Maybe they get their pleasure from sucking out on you. Some really smart people are terrible poker players. Also, I find that thinking of people as "idiots" or "donks" is damaging to my play because it's so non-specific. There are many different types of inexperienced or poor players so i would just prefer to get that lingo out of my head. I prefer "noob" FWIW, much less mean.

Does anyone disagree? Do you feel like thinking of people as fish, donks or total morons helps build your confidence up and get through swings? I'm open to diff. viewpoints.

Dear jenium (and hj314):

I consider it a bit of an oxymoron to characterize a player who berates (or criticizes) a bad player as a good player. If such a person were a "good player," he/she would be congratulating the "bad player" for spiking that one-outer on the river ("Well played, Sir!") while simultaneously thinking to themselves: "I can't wait until the next time I'm all-in with this noob and he's drawing to a four-outer inside straight against my flopped set!" Katie is right: If anything, players like that should be lavished with praise. Tell them how good they are (try to be "sincere" while pouring on the ketchup), stroke their ego really good, and they'll probably blow a huge stack. If a "good player" criticizes an obviously poor player (and the "poor player" doesn't immediately get up and leave the table), a player sitting right next to this "good player" should deliver a quick elbow chop to the ribs of the motor mouth - anything to shut him (or her) up. I listened to a radio interview where Doyle (or Billy Baxter?) was recalling the late Stu Ungar. They were all sitting at a table playing for very high stakes when a whale sat down with a huge stack. It was a dream come true as this rich businessman was a very poor poker player and was losing a lot of chips. A hand came up where the whale managed to hit a long shot draw against Stuey. Stu exploded in anger cursing and berating the businessman. This "contributor" immediately got up and left the table. Doyle immediately had words with Stu over what he had just said to the (quickly departed) businessman.

Another (related) "pet peeve" I have is the general tone and manner of some players at the poker table. I'm talking here, specifically, about rude behavior and verbal abuse. I just listened to an old "Pokercast" interview where Nolan Dalla said, as far as he's concerned, (paraphrasing) "insults, taunting, trying to get under another player's skin, et cetera" are all "part of the game" and he sees nothing wrong with such behavior. (Keep in mind that Nolan is the "Communications Director" for the World Series of Poker.) Nolan drew the line at "personal insults" - such as bringing a family member into the conversation - or behavior which "impedes the flow of the game," but otherwise he felt that everything else was just fine. This attitude on the part of Harrah's and Harrah's management may explain why Scotty Nguyen was allowed to carry on with his drunken tirade a few years ago at the final table in the WSOP HORSE competition. It was one of the most regretful incidents ever shown on ESPN and likely set back the general perception of poker (and poker players) in the minds of the lay public. (A casual viewer knowing next-to-nothing about poker, after witnessing that train wreck, might be excused for thinking: "Are all poker players like that?")

I wrote a letter to Gary Loveman, Harrah's CEO, vehemently protesting Scotty Nguyen's deplorable behavior and the fact that this "super star" of poker was not severely penalized. (Considering the deplorable nature of that incident, Mr. Nguyen should have been ejected from the tournament.) Mr. Dalla is certainly entitled to his views. He has more experience in the casino industry directing poker tournaments than I. If that is Mr. Dalla's (and Harrah's) attitude, then fine. So be it. I also have the option to never set foot inside a Harrah's-owned property - which I have exercised. If that means that I will never play in a WSOP event, then so be it. I am not going to contribute one dollar of rake to a corporation that condones rude and offensive behavior at the poker table. It does not advance or help grow our game when new players are exposed to obnoxious players acting like three-year-olds. Nolan Dalla (and his employer) may consider atrocious behavior at the poker table acceptable, but I don't. (It's amusing the response I got from Mr. Loveman to my letter. Rather than responding personally, Mr. Loveman flobbed the job off on one of his subordinates, Mr. Seth Palansky. Mr. Palansky sends me an email and the first thing he says is: "We have checked your records with us and you are not a good customer." (I'm paraphrasing only slightly. I would have to go back and dig up the email to get the exact quotation, but Mr. Palansky did note that I was not a good customer.) I guess the folks at Harrah's know what's really important. It's also easy to understand why Alan Boston believes that Harrah's has "ruined" the WSOP.

Those are my pet peeves.

Former DJ

Reflective sunglasses + DJ-style headphones

They always make me laugh a little inside.

People who have no idea what they're talking about telling you (incorrectly) what hand you have, and looking really smug when they do it. (live games obv).

My poker pet peeve is of my own doing: Being at the end of an 8-10 hour session, and out of everything decent, but still left in ONE $4 tournament with a first place prize amount of $400. Being near the money bubble of said event is even worse (yes, people do in fact stall on a $4 money bubble).

This isn't really a pet peeve for me mostly because its always quite entertaining!

It does drive me crazy when other players berate ppl and quote their stats. My sister-in-law got me into on-line poker. She is a pretty good player and was learning. She took down a $40 live trny at our local casino and usually takes positive profit off live ring games. A few months ago, ppl really started calling her a donk at the on-line tables and were quoting her stats and lack of wins. I tried to get her to ignore it and move on, but it tilted her so bad she quit playing on-line altogether. There's few enough of us women playing, so sad to run one off. Bummer.....

booo sad story. She needs to know that berating a casual player based on a small sample size is incredibly silly--these people are usually insecure, unhappy/tilting and with a poor understanding of variance. Also even if she isn't immediately +EV jumping back into online games it would probably help her live play enormously at a low cost.

His behavior was disgusting imo.

@Jenium-- Interesting points. I have to admit that I am in the habit of using "fish" "donk" etc. Part of the reason is that I talk so much about poker that I think I would grow sick of using the same word all the time to describe a Noob. When I make videos, I try to be critical of the opponent's play as opposed to the person themselves (i.e. that play was very -ev, instead of saying that player sucks).

@ThatPokerGirl-- I used to have DJ style headphones specifically because I looked ridiculous in them (and the sound quality was amazing). However a "Working Girl" stole my purse my first night in Vegas, and My Dr Dre headphones were one of the few not recovered items. Somewhere there in Vegas there's a prostitute named Lily now looking dumb with massive Dj phones. Perhaps she kind of did me a favor.

ya disgusting

Oh, and people saying NH before it is over. Really annoys me.

Hotjenny, that sucks to lose your headphones. I actually wish had a pair of nice ones to use away from the table. Those noise canceling ones are super cool.

I just thought of something else that peeved me recently. Two Asians were in a pot, one was a little drunk (or maybe just obnoxious) and the other was taking good advantage of him. They're chatting like friends, making jokes and what not.

There's some big pot and big action going on and it ends up HU with the two of them. The drunk guy says come on! We dont have anything good, just check.

River comes (a great card for the old guy) and drunky checks and says "come on! We brothers! Check check!" The other guy thinks about it and bets out a healthy stack, puts his hands in front of him over his cards and looks straight up to the ceiling, like a robot. (this was hilarious to see, to me anyway)

Mr. Roboto wins the hand and drunky says we're ASIAN! We gotta stick together!

I was so irked by that comment I said out loud "what does that have to do with anything? " I'm Asian too and I don't feel like I should show mercy just because we're the same race.

I can't remember what my point was. It takes so long to type on the phone. Anyway, I just wanted to share that story. Mr. Roboto's stare up and freeze moment was priceless.

Serious petpeeve... anyone wearing sunglassing in a home game I make fun of in the same way if I walked into my house and my brother was wearing sunglasses in doors. Honestly if I didn't have mad respect for the pro's I'd make fun of them to.

Numerous times i've been at a table where some drunk fish is spewing chips, having a grand old time drinking his Corona, and bantering with the table when some crabby old man (who's seems to be a huge nit 100% of the time) complains and gets the drunk guy booted off the table. I cringe knowing all the dead money is leaving the table, most likely to be lost ten minutes later at the blackjack table, so some old nit can enjoy his quiet time at the poker table. Ugh.

I absolutely agree, especially when that drunk guy is me. All I'm trying to do is fold every hand and get free beer, for I can drink much more IPA than $4 worth per orbit ($1 for the tip of course) if the waitresses are speedy. Mmmmmm, IPA...

A guy complained that he didn't like the drunk guy going all in blind every hand bc he was "here to play poker and not to gamble preflop" ...really.

I can't stand it when good players talk strat at the tables. There's one guy (who shall remain nameless) that plays in a lot of my superturbos and has decided it's his job to "help the regs learn how to play better." At first it wasn't so bad when he kept telling regs that "wiz says that's a fold" or w/e, but the other day he was telling a noob () how he's supposed to use a big stack to dominate the bubble. Do these people not realize that we want people to make bad plays??? Not to mention that in that case it's borderline collusion...

Geez! That irks me too. But maybe you could give his name?

I have many, but just a few…

-players who become complete geniuses after winning a pot and proceed to give other players advice about their game

-when the most obnoxious player at the table takes 4 hours to act because he is too busy being a jackass

-when players announce odds and percentages aloud at the table pretentiously

-players who tank forever to a 3x raise and have 50bbs behind them

Yeah, that's why I didn't give it Though honestly I'd be glad if it got back to him, I've been meaning to say something next time I get him HU.

2+2 policy is that we don't use real names in identifying non-famous players. The rules are murkier for identifying someone by their SN. In most strat forums, the etiquette is to avoid doing so. My experience is that almost everyone at any significant poker level reads 2+2 or has a friend that does. Anything you say about them is almost certainly going to get back to them eventually.

Sorry

Blehh, everything said so far I agree with and can relate to X_X .

My biggest pet peeve lately is when someone simply auto-types in "ty" the very instant they win a pot (no not when someone else says "nh"). It's usually when they make the easiest call in the world, and anyway a good chunk of the time the opponent's bluff was a much better play then their....apparently genius call with the nuts >_> . I just always get such a vibe of ignorant arrogance coming from people when they say that one little thing. It just inflates their stupid ego, and assumes that their opponent is some ****** that deserved losing their chips to them.

This x 1000 esp when they say this live