Diablo, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.

It sounds like no-limit isn't the game for you.
If you don't want to play for stacks, and you want to just relax and have fun, why not play fixed limit?

It wasn't available at that particular time. I usually try to play around 5-10 limit.

I don't mind no limit, really. (It isn't my preference though) I think I didn't focus enough on telling how much life this guy sucked out of the game while we were there. It wasn't so much the constant raising and shoving as much as the smug demeanor and gruffness just killed it for me.

I felt like I was way behind in skill level and I had no other weapons to combat it since his stack was 4 times mine.

But what I took away was how upset the guy was that the table was breaking. He was mostly the reason behind it. The game would have most likely broke even if I stayed and played, because the other 2 new people left as well. I think that would have made it 3 or 4 handed.

I don't think I'm trying to say for someone to change how they play, cause that isn't my decision nor do I care, but why continue to act in a manner that is going to chase away the people you're trying to make money off of?

I understand as a recreational player I am way behind in skill then a typical reg player. I called it flipping because in this case it was AK vs 89 (not a flip but like 65-35ish)

I think I've messed up what I wanted to convey. I think my point was trying to say that people shouldn't try to chase away players - it was annoying to me how he questioned why I would leave and trying to goad me into playing more.

I consider myself recreational because I only get to play in a casino once every other month or so. I play a bit online when I can, and I would probably be a B- to C grade player in all honestly. I understand the math and have some instincts but a lot of this GTO and advance range stuff just slips my mind. When I play, I usually profit more than I come home a loser but I've never really had any big wins or losses. I think the $203 I made in this 1/2 game might be the largest I've made in 1/2 NL ever in a session.

Why would you play no limit if you aren't prepared to lose a buy in at any given point. Play limit hold em or any other of the limit games and it'll be much better.

I'm ok with losing a buy in if it happens (I was in for $300 that night because I tried a river bluff/raise and got snapped off for about $120 bucks at my previous table).

I'm not prepared to play for my stack every single hand over and over and over.

Pretty much my only adjustment to make was to wait for premiums and get it in against him. Which is fine if I have all day and can play whenever I want.

It wasn't fun for me to potentially sit there for hours and play 5% of my hands. I do play limit when it is available. Unfortunately at that time there was 1/2 NL or 2/5 NL. My other 1/2 table which was fun and entertaining got broken up and we got moved to this one.

EDIT: I'm sure some of my thinking is wrong here, its just kind of hard to explain. Thanks for all the comments on it though, I do appreciate them.

Snipers,

I get your point. You wanted to splash around a little playing low stakes poker, and this guy forced you to play your $500 stack like a nitty shortstack. So even if it was +EV having him in the game, it made it a less fun, boring game for you to play. Plus the added EV came with much higher additional variance than was worth it to you.

Sounds like the guy wanted to be the 1/2 badass and got his wish. Lots of better ways to generate more action and get the game to play bigger than the way you describe this guy going about it.

Thank you, you said it better than I could try to say it.

lol this reads so trollish, it makes me laugh and i dont know why, as its accurate info!

WB:

Also accurate info:

What if you always spot the sucker but are always wrong. AFAF. Please respond before PLO game kicks off at 4PM.

Hearing old men say "That's why they call it poker!" every 10 minutes as the answer to some random unrelated point, comment, or question.

EX: "I almost tripled up earlier but the board five-flushed."
OM: "That's why they call it poker!"

EX: "I was down a buy-in, but just about back to even now."
OM: "That's why they call it poker!"

EX" "These chairs are uncomfortable."
OM: "That's why they call it poker!"

All right I made up the last one, but you get the gist. I swear, I was at this table as one of two people under 60 and it was filled with typical inane poker chatter, and it seemed for almost any comment vaguely related to poker (particularly comments related to luck), the old man sitting across from me would pipe up, "That's why they call it poker!" like this was some kind of epiphany.

WTF. I don't get it. Is this some weird inside joke that only old men get? Is there some secret meaning to "poker"?

Also, another gem from the same old man. I told him I was new to live play but had played millions of hands online, which, being a live player, he dismissed as meaningless experience. At some point I corrected him about some minor poker thing I don't even remember and he responded "Son, I've been playing this game since before you were born. I know how to {whatever}"

I wanted to say "You've been playing live NLHE for 30+ years and you're still a break even 1/2 player? Yeah, you're clearly a poker expert"

But...I remembered not to berate the fish, even the cranky ones, so I just nodded and smiled. Ironically, same old man called the maniac to his right a donkey, an idiot, and a moron repeatedly. I couldn't believe it. This maniac was just spewing cash to the table and the old man is insulting him, to his face. Maniac left after about an hour of this and I got stuck at a 100% OMC table (minus me).

I guess that's why they call it poker!

The reason they say 'That's why they call it poker!' is bec 'JFC! GOD DAMN IT TO HELL!' was already taken.

This thing is the alternate meaning of "poker", which would be especially painful to get poker by after being heated in a fire. So that phrase could be a joke that applies when someone is complaining about being tortured by the poker gods (or demons). Of course it doesn't make sense in some of your examples.

Solid strat

Counterpoint: I sometimes say 'yeah that's poker' to people in a monotone because hearing yet another totally standard bad beat story is unendurable (also, yeah, that's poker).

Why tell him you played millions of hands online? Why correct him on minor poker things?

I know talking about my online experience is not +EV, though most of the 1/2 fish think online players are bad.

I had just started playing live and this was literally the first table I sat down to. It seemed pretty obvious I was new, and some people were giving me lots of "advice" about poker like the old man across from me, so I explained I wasn't actually new to poker, just the live variety.

I guess I could have just sat there and acted stupid.

As for what I corrected him on, I don't even remember what it was. I have a habit of correcting people. Just slipped out. I'm still adjusting to table talk.

Also, "Yeah that's poker" is very different from "That's why they call it poker!" The first phrase just suggests bad beats happen due to the nature of poker as a gambling game. The second phrase, the way I've heard these old men use it, makes no sense at all. The reason the game is called "poker" as opposed to some other arbitrary name has nothing to do with whether QQ will lose to AK a lot. It's like a guy says "I spilled some ketchup off this hamburger" and you respond "That's why they call it hamburger!"

That is, unless chillrob's fire poker theory is in play

But this is what I found on Wikipedia regarding the origins of the name poker:

"The name of the game likely descended from the Irish Poca (Pron. Pokah) ('Pocket') or even the French poque, which descended from the German pochen ('to brag as a bluff' lit. 'to knock')."

So the way these old men are using the phrase makes no sense.

The average poker player (including many who consider themselves "good players") experiences poker in the same way that a slot player experiences a slot machine. They put their money in and are looking for a big score.

In no limit, this manifests itself as a hatred for short stacks, even though they are invariably donating. They don't create the jackpot double-and-triple up pots that players are looking for.

In limit, this manifests itself in the phenomenon where rather than folding to three bets and four bets, which is what one should do (especially if the three and four bettors have strong ranges), players call with bad hands because they want to play in the biggest pot of the hour.

LMAO if a dealer ever did this too me pushing me to make a snap decision, especially when half the people in my room telegraph there bets.

I like having women at the table, because it makes a pleasant change from the wall-to-wall testosterone and also because they tend to be even worse at poker than the men. Never stopped me taking their money though.

A few weeks ago, some lady was playing, she was very loose pre and then very passive postflop. I got a huge kick out of her running like God and watching one of the local heroes, who thinks he's the LAG king, spew off about 8 hundo to her before doing the walk of shame to another table. Was hilarious.

"That's poker" is in my list of pet peeves but I totally say it when I no longer wish to discuss something or other than someone is attempting to discuss with me. It's an effective end to the conversation... then.


But then that person usually will say it to me later on after I lose a pot as a favorite and then go on about it. I never ever freaking learn.

Shai,

Houston and Austin (and probably Dallas and San Antonio too, I just don't know them as well) are IMO WAY better places for a foreigner to live and experience America than Las Vegas. And Houston is a way more cosmopolitan and diverse place than the vast majority of American cities.

That's coming from someone who has lived in London, Oslo, Houston, Austin, Atlanta, Denver, New York, and San Francisco.

I've just deleted a number of posts consisting of posters bashing each other. If you wish to engage in that type of drivel, please do it elsewhere.

Yeah, such as high school.

One of my biggest pet peeves has to be players walking in to the room, seeing someone simply walk away from their chair, and instantly thinking that's their seat.

Every time some guy looks back at his cards when the action is on him. He's put money in on two streets, but now has to check his cards.

I've started asking them, "did they get better?" And I get dirty looks. I don't mind. It amuses me.