First of all I give very little credence to this "I don't wanna piss of a fish". Remember they are coming to you with there B.S!! (I imagine for the most part posters here are not causing bad atmospheres or discussing strategy without serious provocation).

IME if you just give it back straight and let them know you think they are acting like a douche it actually lightens the atmosphere!! And in actual fact the rest of the table gets a little kick out of watching! The worst thing you can do IMO is start to create a quiet serious table where everone knows there has been a problem and everyone keeps there opinion to them selves. To say something sarcastic or bitting tring to show a superior intellect is equally as bad. You gotta get on there level and speak like a salt of the earth working man.

I would usually say something along the lines of "stop crying about your few hundred bucks!! nobody cares! you giant pussy!!" And I know these words sound harsh but I would be saying this right to his face and laughing and everybody will hear, its all out in the open and im ready to talk about nothing in particular again.

It's the same in everyday life is it not? I mean if you work for someone are you gonna let your boss give you unjustified ****? or are you gonna nip it in the bud call him a prick (or whatever your style is) and show him that you demand a certain level of respect! Im self employed and I have around 10 part time employee's and if I see them doing something outta line then i'm on it right away! I dont mess around with what I say because I fear they are gonna leave or rob me, I just get it out in the open and we move on or they move on simple!

So to sum up I play it straight! I let them know and try to enlighten them to just how pathetic they sound, they just lost a couple of hundred bucks and now they are crying!!! And I also let them know I could not care less!!! And its time to have fun.

No rule, but it's mostly just common sense. Let bad players vent and continue to donate.
If it gets way too abusive or obscene, you can call the floor. But keep your own cool and sense of humor.

Let them bla bla bla and even agree with them unless you feel like provoking them.


If I get berated by some fool who says Im easy and only play abc nitty bla bla bla after I stack him I say something like
" we cant all be Gus Hansen" and usually that reloads the fools ego and hes happy again.

I am a long way from the kid i use to be, but i could tell you as I have mostly spent my 10 years playing live, i dont remember the last time I have interrupted someone venting or trying to prove a flawed point.

In the end, the less they know the more you make.

I just ran into a hand last night where this regular kept saying i called cus i had top pair and he showed his flush draw

Well the hand board was ace high and the guy showed his kq clubs, the other guy calls his all in with 7 or 8 as the pair so he had middle pair and was actually behind but why change that logic ?

With whatever money is in the pot, "being behind" doesn't necessarily mean this is a bad call. Like, if there's 600 in the pot and it's another 80 to call (for whatever reason for the sake of argument) and I have the nut flush draw on the turn, I'm getting it in.

The weirdest thing about poker I've found is that there are spots where both people can end up all in and no one made a mistake.

Don't tap the glass.

"Are you complaining?"

Yea i get that but this was not the case about 30-45 in pot and got pushed on for 170 ish, my point was merely the use of top pair when he was middle pair

if it's a losing player let them say and do pretty much anything they want

if it's some nit regular say whatever you think you can do set him on tilt. a lot of these guys never play a hand so who needs them in the game anyway.tilt them or get them to leave. win win.

either way the point isn't to educate someone. I see people who think always being right is important at the poker table "actually i had 2 over a gutshot flush draw and your range was xyz". it's not. getting people to give away their money is.

bc he thinks in the real world being knowledgable at poker matters. it doesn't. the point of playing poker if you're a winning player is to make money not let everyone know how smart you are.

the really good players generally want their opponents to think they suck. the marginal winners tend to want people to think they're great which makes no sense.

i saw this the other day in plo- guys has a huge wrap and nails it when all in vs a set. set goes off "how the **** could you call me on a gutshot " for some reason the guy who won decided to point out he actually had a wrap and 13 outs not 4 and the guy who lost calmed down.
the guy who won is an idiot for doing this.

no actually don't do this. let the person who keeps stacking off think they are unlucky not stupid. if you were sufficiently witty you would never do something so foolish.

just suck it up buttercup. at the end of the day bills don't care about other people's feelings. just let them vent while they let you stack their chips.

This is just part of a live game imho. usually the guy is frustrated and is losing his mortgage money in the game. I never take it personally and just stack my chips quietly.

This.