If you're a professional poker player, you're basically operating a business, and all other winning players are your competitors.

I've been playing live poker in CA/FL for some time now and I've sensed hostility from some regs and pros. Sure, some of them have good sportsmanship and respect other winning players, but I know every time I'm involved in a hand with fish everyone at they able is rooting against me.

I've seen some pros form mini "gangs" where they talk strategy together and soft play each other, it seems like that's the only way they can tolerate each other. If I choose to be a loner and not join in on the soft playing bandwagon, I'm seen as the enemy.

Hell, often times when I walk into a card room, other regs and pros snarl cause they hate having me at the table. No eye contact, no hello. If I say hello I get a fake friendly hello back.

It's kind of a sad way to live.

Imagine operating a lucrative beer stand at the beach, then all of a sudden 20 other guys started opening their own beer stands next to you.... Of course these guys aren't going to like each other, unless they cooperate on pricing or market strategies at least.

Most of the pros here in Arizona seem to be generally friendly towards each other, towards me, and towards the rest of the player pool. When I've traveled and played elsewhere, most of the good players there also seem friendly. I mean sure, they'd rather not have each other, me, or other winning players at their table but this isn't enough reason for hostility. The pros are used to encountering other winning players frequently at the tables they play.

There are a handful of regs who are critical or generally unpleasant towards the other players but these don't tend to be the best players. Now if you heard them speak, it's clear that they think they are top players and everyone else is an idiot. And who knows, maybe some of them are trying to make a living playing. But they are generally not the best players.

There are also some regs that soft play each other but again, I don't see pros doing this. I also sometimes hear other people discuss strategy at the table but again, it's rarely the pros who do this.

I see your location is S. Florida. Where do you play? Im in S. Florida also and have never experienced anything like what you describe. There are a couple regs/pros that I may act like that around but its because I generally dont like them. It has nothing to do with their poker game or them being another reg/pro.

Well maybe your right.... maybe they don;t like you because your "a winning player". But did it occur to you that maybe they don;t like you for other reasons? Just something to consider

Both poker players and beer stand operators only hate each other if their business and inferior product is too weak to deal with competitors.

The end result of that is a sad way to live, because those people have no money and no friends.

Not sure about rooting for the fish aspect, but I think it's like being brothers. It's OK (and pretty much expected) that you fight between each other but when an outsider starts to pick on one then the others rally around him. We 'never' root for the fish since the fish may not bring those chips back to the table. Certainly we want the fish to 'have' chips to donk off during his session, but in the long run we want him to leave broke thus keeping the chips in play.

It's natural to have issues with folks that are in the way of your goals. I see it from lots of the regs I'm around.

As far as teaming up there is a lot of strategy talk away from the table, but as far as 'teaming up' I don't think there's too much of it for cash play in my area. There are plenty of tournament swaps and stakes but I don't know of any cash groups like Chad Power's group out east. That group has recently moved their 'home' from Maryland Live to Harbor Town. I think it would be very interesting to see when 2 of 'them' are at the same table .. if they even 'allow' it within the group.

Do I like 'my' regs? To a certain degree I like them too much and may play them differently when they are running bad. I think it's more a manner of how they treat me at the table. I have some that will talk strategy and then admonish those plays later so that's confusing.

Watch the progression of DNegs and PHell relationship from way back. They had both sponsorship and style conflicts and yet today the 'old' dogs are in a much better place.

Poker is a social game. The table needs to be full and if you are part of social conflict then you risk breaking down the very entity you need to move on. GL

I play professionally. I like and dislike the pros. I like and dislike the recs and the fish. Same goes with dealers and Floor people. Naturally I'm not going to "love it" when there's more pros in the game vs. that weekend gambler, but I don't "hate" those guys, just hate them in the game! And there's a difference. I don't congregate with any particular group, and I actually don't talk strategy with anyone(my player pool is way too small for that), so because of that, I can hang, talk, go to dinner with all player types(pros, fish, recs, dealers, whoever). I probably bite my tongue a little bit more when it comes to the really bad players, but, I don't tolerate a disrespectful or rude person regardless of their pockets.

That was my exact thought. If you walk in and all the pros start bristling like a pack of dogs, chances are it's not just because you are capable of grinding out a living at the tables.

This post, and others ITT, are spot on.

I used to play regularly in the FW 20/40 LHE game. It was basically all regs and pros.

Some players were aggressively mean and saw it as an advantage to keep other regs and pros off balance and intimidated. Several players told me they refused to play in the game because it was so unpleasant. One was a pro who told me he would get sick to his stomach as he approached the room and so he quit the game.

I saw it as territorial. And as time went by I got accepted into the game. Even my arch nemesis said something nice about me after 6 years of torment. When he saw a newish player try to intimidate me he said "you are not going to get anywhere with him. I've never seen anybody with a thicker skin..."

I made it a point to always be nice to everybody. I want to enjoy the time I spend playing otherwise it becomes like any other job.

As to the beer stand analogy. Yes it is competitive. But at some point I realized that if I am not going to win a hand then at least I can be happy for the guy who does. Especially if he is someone I know and like. So now when I say "nice hand" I mean it. And it helps me get past the bitterness and disappointment quicker.

In the end I try to keep it simple. I treat everybody else at the table the way I want to be treated. I try to make it as enjoyable an experience for myself and everybody else as I can. As a pro I want non-pros to keep coming back. As for pros you never know who is going to befriend you. I always help other pros when they ask me questions. And I have been rewarded with good friends who have helped me with my game.

Full disclosure: I have never soft played anybody except for one time in a LHE game I didn't make the last bet which would have felted my opponent. Somebody had once done it for me and I considered it a professional courtesy.

They snarl at you? Like, actually snarl?

Its called fear and hatred,fear of what u do not know and understand.

im guilty of it myself,i hate and despise some of the players at the live games i go to......mainly the good ones and the established regs.......because i know im weak and im not the best around,i feel threatened and my ego is bruised.they are huge competition to me,they make my life harder if poker wasnt hard enough already and they bring down the quality of the game.ultimately poker is a game of money after all,even the fish is out to get ur money.if theres less money in circulation,things have been declining lately,tensions are going to rise.

of course sometimes u form a bond and camaradie with some of them after a while but u can never shake off that feeling.

They subconsciously bare their teeth as they make a comment about my arrival. Like "Great, just what this table needed.":



Sometimes it's a cross between a snicker and a snarl

"Here comes action":

I'm sure some % of that subset of unpleasant players dislike me for other reasons. But some of them don't like me because I'm not good for the game and I play hard against them, increasing their variance. Nits hate that.

I get along with the majority of my coworkers. I'm close friends with a few of them. I don't particularly care for a few of them.

Most of the people I know have similar experiences where they work. Including the professional poker players I know.

territorial !!!100%
I drive all over the country and have played in dozens of card rooms
doesn't take long to figure out who's staked out a game and DECLARED THEMSELVES
table king.
playing against tougher opponents just means it's a tougher game and yes the verbal abuse to rattle your cage can get intense.

I always root for the fish to win an all -in against the pro as if he/she doesn't get up and leave , it's easier to get the chips from a weaker player than a tough one.

I agree with this 100% (I'm from Melbourne, Australia).

I like to make a distinction between pros/competent regs and **** regs. The **** regs are hostile towards other people, extremely arrogant about their own abilities, love to talk strategy (but hate to listen lol), get mad at the fish when they get sucked out on, etc.

The pros/competent regs are generally always friendly, never talk strategy at the table, never try to talk themselves up, are lenient with enforcing rules against the fish, rarely get tilted, etc.

I always root for the fish. I want them to be as deep as possible with someone else's money before I felt them.

I play at many different casinos across Canada and I'm often the new guy. My approach is just to treat people as they treat me. If they're nice, I can be a saint. If they start being verbally aggressive or giving me dirty looks I'll put in my headphones and turn into a cold, angle shooting sob. It's that simple.

The guys that are rude and mean are the miserable players. Usually they have something going badly in life and that is why they are like that. Sometimes, it is that they aren't as good at poker as they think and this makes life bad and in turn makes them anger and hostile towards others.

Most of the good players I know enjoy playing poker because it beats most other jobs and they are happy to do it. Plus, since it is their work environment, they make it as pleasant as possible so they try to befriend their coworkers and the people they will be around.

I think most people would prefer a positive environment versus a hostile environment to spend a few hours at.

For the most part, people who are playing 20+ hours a week have figured out that it pays to be a decent human being at the table, so as a result, they're pleasant to play with and get along with people.

Nobody likes whiny jackass pros/regs.

[quote] Never thought about this perspective. I'm always rooting for the fish. The way I see it, any chips won by the pro aren't coming back either. Unless he has a total meltdown. And that probably won't be caused by winning pots.

I hate regs who are miserable to be sround,berate fish are anti social etc.

There are players I like as people who I know are better than me bc of how they handle themselves at the table.

I've gotten the snarl. One reg who apparently plays often on the days I usually don't came in when I was playing. He thought I was another customer, and was friendly, conversational, social (he was to my left). He saw me stack off with aces when somebody called a 4-bet with 99 and hit a set, and I bet he was licking his lips on the inside.

Later in the session when I started outplaying and leveling him into making bad moves, he started showing visceral hate on his face. Ever since that day he just gives me dirty looks, because he knows he got outsmarted. LOL

It's a jealous type of hate they have for you, OP. You should be happy, it means A) you're winning, and B) they perceive you as a real threat.

Once a hater, always a hater.
Once a hypocrite, always a hypocrite.

Both are signs of inferiority.

You'll find 1-2 of these types at the poker tables. If majority is like these you have two choices:

1- Don't play with them.

2-Play and endure the situation. Mind your business, play your game and be as quiet as possible.

[2-Play and endure the situation. Mind your business, play your game and be as quiet as possible.[/QUOTE]

No reason to be quiet as possible!
just don't talk to that player.
being friendly and social cheers everyone up and happy players don't mind coming back again and again only to leave minus their money!

I said when majority of people is like that....