I work in a cardroom and play NL about 10 hours a week. I read a lot and try to improve my game, but don't have anyone I can talk poker with live.

The other day I was at a table sitting next to an obvious 2+2 player. I think he was playing lower than his usual limit (this was 2/3/5), but he was going on and on about poker strategy.

He was a cool guy and I enjoyed the conversation, but it felt weird talking about the game at the table. I try to never do this, but I have never been at the table with someone I knew had a similar view of the game as I do.

Anyone else have similar situation happen?

Yeah but I usually try to steer the conversation away from poker and failing that, pretend I'm a donk by spouting off donk-wisdom or pretending I know nothing. Like dismissing check raise with OESD+FD and hitting as a bluff that got lucky "but I just knew he was going to fold!" Or "spades were pretty hot tonight, figured I was going to hit." Stuff like that. I don't like talking poker at the poker table.

I also work in a cardroom and run into these people sometimes. Luckily, since I work there, I can usually get into a conversation with them when we're not playing. So I'll talk strategy with several of the customers at my club, but when they and I are playing against each other at the table there's little or no discussion of strategy. Usually we keep it to jokes, or sometimes like Frank said we talk donk-wisdom and fit in with the rest of the guys.

I agree with the above two posts. It's best to play dumb, even if it would be fun to have a real conversation about poker strategy with someone who can maintain such a conversation. I hate to say it, but having fun at the poker table is different than always being a winning player at the poker table. If you are not concerned about maximizing win rate, go and talk but it's best to get a drink with someone like that later away from the table and exchange strategy advice.

Generally I find all table conversations boring and I dont care..

I dont want to hear about your wife, how your home remodeling is going, what happened at work, how bad that guy is, how you lost your 14 outer, how you hit your 3 outer, how hot the lady dealer is, what you shouldve done last hand, to know that you wouldve made a straight this hand, or how you folded the best hand and that guy is a donk for betting with A high.

Its all the same crap. Although, I am open to a conversation, I barely start any or get carried away with one. Sometimes someone will talk about something that has nothing to do with poker, like cars or the drive to the casino, or where theyre stationed...thats fine. I just dont wanna talk poker at all.

Talking strategy is something i get into on the way home, with my buddy i drove with, we will review some hands and go over what possibly was the best course of action.

One of the positive things about internet poker..... A couple of us used to play together and talk strategy while playing.....We all played at different stakes/networks so NO we werent colluding.

Talk about whatever you want to in order to have an enjoyable time. If you don't feel like engaging in strategy talk, just change the subject or be vague when you respond. There's no benefit to strategy talk but there's no real detriment either, nobody is going to run home and suddenly get much better at playing because they heard you mention SPR.

Exactly, fish are fish and they think that their way of playing is right. Also, elderly people usually won't change the way they play just because some young kid is talking strat. Some of these people have been playing poker their own way for 10+ years and nothing will change the way they play.

2+2ers usually know better than to talk strat at the table

Just don't worry about it. If you don't want to talk strat, ignore it or say something non-substantive. If you want to talk strat, talk strat. It really doesn't matter what you do.

In the 5/10 games I play in there is a lot of strategy talk but it is mainly instigated by the reg fishies. In the 2/5 games, there is very little strategy talk but when it exists it is normally instigated by the semi-good nooby aspiring pros. When I play 5/10 I join in on the conversation to spread as much disinformation as possible. At 2/5 I try to squash the talk.

Good players don't talk strategy at the table. The reason is that they know that any other good player is listening to get a great insight to their ability. That said, you want to encourage such players to keep talking. Open ended questions work best. That said, most discussion groups of players start at a relatively low level and just continue as they move up. They break up at some point when they are up against each other too often.

There are lots of 2+2ers that don't stray beyond NVG and BBV4L because they "know it all" in the strat forums.

Just remembered, another thing I like to use to divert from strat talk at the tables is sports. The cardroom I play at has a bunch of TVs playing sports, sports news, re runs, etc. A controversial statement about any trending topic in sports is a good way to start a debate about said topic. Like a couple years ago "I think the wildcat offense is just a fad" would've sparked a huge debate. Or "I don't think [insert team most locals would support] has a chance at making the playoffs this year."

Guys' guys or people wanting to seem like guys' guys. They're a huge demographic in poker. What else is expected of guys' guys? Sports knowledge and the ability to hold one's own in a sports debate. Divert the alpha maling from a poker knowledge dick waving contest to a sports knowledge dick waving contest.

They might not instantly get better, but someone who is spewing might tighten up and/or leave.

Virtually never happens.

I keep a poker journal and notice there was a very high correlation between my losing sessions and sessions where I was talking it up at the table, and this went DOUBLE for when I was talking poker at the table.

What became apparent is that players were MORE likely to make moves and bluffs against me the times I talked poker theory vs the times I didn't. And since a large percentage of my profits come from taking down uncontested pots with cbets, etc this hurt.

So, I instituted a STFU and play policy. I'm not allowed to do ANY table talk until I have the table clocked (i.e. reads and profiles on all players) and even then I try to keep it down to a minimum so I can pay attention as well as never talking while i'm in a hand.

I may have the occassional 5 minute conversation but I'm definitely not a chatter box going on and on all night.

In any event, don't talk theory at the table. It only takes 1 thinking player to hear all that and exploit it. Its not so much i'm worried about making fish better (though that is a concern) but rather I don't want to give away information.

Especially since i'm a minority and I love the fact that people assume I don't know what i'm doing. last thing I want is for players to figure out "Holy crap, that guy knows all the theories and poker mathz "