You're absolutely allowed to vent, sure.

You have had a pretty peaceful, flowing poker existence if this is the worst table talk you've experienced.

I don't think it's the worst, if we're being all-inclusive, but it's the most egregious in the narrow category of a player directly targeting another player and speaking about his hand while a pot is being played.

Best response is to make a comment loudly that effectively calls him out as a douche/moron without saying that directly. eg
"Well I'd tell you what that means but I don't think you're supposed to comment on hands when there are still players to act behind you."

Yup, and people like you fold to my cbet if you don't beat AA on the flop.

I should've called a waitress over and loudly announced, "I'd like to buy a drink for that gentleman. Please bring him a tall glass of shut the **** up."

You might have said, "Well, it could mean that I have a monster, or alternatively that I've gotten bored sitting here folding garbage and I'm bluffing. What do you think?"
But really, although this guy's behavior is poor etiquette, it's pretty trivial. Stuff like this happens in low-level games a lot, and always will. He needs to be told (after the hand) that it's inappropriate, but you need to relax and stop worrying about it. Fantasizing about assaulting him (or his car) may be fun, but it won't really get you anywhere.

"It means I raised x, and now it's your move, tough guy."

Emphasize "tough guy."

He probably didn't do anything to affect you, so let it go?

There's no one playing at your table who didn't deduce that you are tight already (remember, these are human beings at your table who also have brains). If you seriously think that his comment alerted someone about your range that they didn't already know, you really must think you are god's gift to poker LOL

The thing is, people know you probably love your hand, but people are also gamblers and will call to try to hit regardless.

The only time a comment like that will bother me is if they say it in a way to berate others for calling me when they KNOW I'm strong. Because then, they might fold next time out of embarrassment. Like if I play no hands, then raise, then a guy flats, then *******s says "only an idiot would call his raise". Now the idiot is less likely to flat me next time because he doesn't like looking like an idiot.

Like I said though, over the years I've found that people aren't as clueless as I once thought, they are usually just bored and want to gamble. So ya, bad poker players, but not oblivious.

Clearly I'm not just letting it go, as evidenced by this thread.

Moreover, I think you're giving the players in this game too much credit. I can tell you, from having been there, that a lot of them weren't paying attention. And even if most of them had been paying attention, but just one of them wasn't, this douchebag may have made a big difference in how the hand played out.

But more importantly than anything, IMO, is that he was out of line to say what he said, and especially in the way he said it. Just as in most poker decisions, it doesn't really matter what the outcome was; what happened leading to the outcome is what matters. He held up the action so that he could effectively give the rest of the table advice on specifically how to play against me. Whether they heeded that advice or not is of no relevance to what he did.

Yes, what he said was out of line.
Perhaps (!) no one else at the table would have noticed your play without his comment.
But once said, there's nothing you can say or do to un-say it.
And, most importantly, letting it bother you this much is -EV for sure.

man, stop saying donkfest in every tourney related thread here on 2p2. Grow up internet kid.

Honestly, this is the least important thing. There's nothing you can do about people saying things like this in live poker. The only thing you can do is move on and forget about it (I guess you can play less nitty so no one will say anything like this about you).

But there are two important things to keep in mind. One, people are going to do this whether you get mad or not. So you may as well just not get mad. I haven't had someone call me a nit in a while, but when I have the best thing to do is just laugh it off. This will make things more enjoyable for you as you wont be pissed off at every little thing. Also, people will notice it less if you don't make a big deal of it.

Second, and related, is people are paying less attention than you think they are. Whenever I've heard someone say something like this, it doesn't really seem to have affected the action. It definitely hasn't seemed to past the one hand in question. So, calm down. And play poker.

Loosen up, both literally and figuratively.

Wow--if you are going to win at this game you can't even be mildly annoyed by this comment. Many players purposely say things to tilt others--especially the marginally competent regulars. I have seen this move so many times it's silly. Player X has been playing tight--largely invisible--most people probably don't notice. Player Y makes a snide remark about player X's play. Player X feels like player Y has violated the code by letting out the secret. Player X tilts. Player Y continues playing as if nothing happens. Player Y has made this comment many times and usually gets this response from player X.

Solution--first don't be surprised by these comments. Don't try to right the world when they are made. I have found the best responses are mildly self-deprecating in a way that clearly shows you are not bothered. The bully will see that and usually find an easier target.

Correct response: say I have a big pair--that's all nits like me like to play. Everyone laughs. Next hand.

Just make a 5 dollar bet on the fire bet circle and watch the money roll in..
Oh wait wrong thread....
i would call time and get up and choke him unconscious with the old savannah choke hold. no long term lasting effects and he may even wake up to finish the hand.
I HATE talkers at the table.

how about '...wouldn't be much of a game if we told each other our cards...'

You should have taken out your glock and popped him one right in the heart right there at the table then carried on with the hand. I mean, really, who should be expected to just sit there and take that?

I would have used it to my advantage later on.

One of the guys that plays in a lot of home games around my area is very knowledgable. The guy plays anywhere from .50/1-5/10. He is the only person in these games that has a clue and is the only other person I have ever met (that I know in real life) that is truly a level 3 thinker. He destroys most of the games around here and people don't like to have him at the games because of it. He 3 and 4 bets almost any hand when he has position on a fish, (which is all of them, so its all the time.) and I mean any hand, he doesn't need to polarize his range or anything for these window lickers.

Him and one of my buddies and I were at the casino last week playing 2/5 and he had been playing fairly tight. The action was always multiway of course and as such he had noticeably tightened up compared to his normal game. The first hand he had that made it to showdown (after a couple of hours) was when he had aces.

Now, live players are horrible. They kept ribbing him about only playing aces and he couldn't always wait for aces. Now they think he is a nit because after 2 hours he has only shown aces that one hand. He then goes on to 3 and 4 betting them and they keep throwing their hands away thinking he must have aces. He was stealing all of their preflop raises for the next 2 hours because of that image.

The live fish only remember one thing about you and base your entire play around it. That same day they had a similar "read" on me. I had checked down some missed draws and had bet my made hands. One of them made the comment that "He doesn't bluff. He only bets if he has it." When a couple of them agreed and said "yeah I noticed that too." Thats all I needed to hear. The next few hours I just bet every river with any missed draw or made hand and they kept folding and telling me I was getting lucky to hit every board. They did not once call me down. They truly believed I had the goods every hand I was in for the next 3 hours. We both crushed that game that day.

Sorry for ranting, but I wanted to throw that out there. No, I wouldn't have been mad. I would have been ecstatic that this fish just opened up the floodgates for me to 3 bet every hand in position for now on because he has enlightened the table to the idea that I always have a hand when I put money into the middle.

I carry a S&W, not a Glock.

Good points. The situation is a little different from the situation in OP, but yeah, this is how I typically respond to table talk. I still don't like it happening when I'm in a hand, though. If I have money (or part of a tournament stake) in an active pot, kindly STFU, please. One player to a hand.

I can't speak for anyone else, but you don't ever have to apologize to me, of all people, for ranting.

I don't think I'm a nit, but everyone calls me a nit, so I guess I are one, lol.


As for violence, usually it's the d bags that throw heavy objects at me, typically after I stack them when I call their obvious bluff-shove with second pair and send them packing.

Remember: the best revenge at the table is owning all their chips.

The thing is, when you play a tight-aggressive style, and are selective about the hands you play according to position, stack sizes, and other players in the hand, it's not all that hard to hit a stretch where you don't find a playable hand in 3 orbits. You might get KJo UTG, then you'll get AJs when the tightest guy at the table raises 10x UTG, and you keep getting 92s and K4o on your buttons. Never mind that any random fish at the table would have found a reason to play at least half of the hands you folded. To the rest of the table, you look like someone who's waiting for Aces or Kings.

And, your best retort to that was answering him? The table talking douchebag? That's the guy you felt obligated to?

No wonder you had such venom in your blood. Being your own worst enemy is a hard pill to swallow.

I say - get over it, the guy was right so play some more hands... Take it as a lesson learned instead of beating your head against the wall...

"Use your words."

Are you some kinda mouth-breather who isn't witty enough to think of something good to retort? I'd have said something like "uh oh! looks like phil ivey has me soul read" or at least something like "I guess it's true, a fool does utter all that they think"

you wouldn't smash a bottle over someones head, and if you would, you belong in an asylum.

It means I have aces. Dealer, please call the floor as this player is violating "one player to a hand".

By the way, I did something extremely similar in a cash game. "You haven't raised pre-flop in over an hour, so I'm going to get out of your way". The other player called me on it, I apologized profusely, admitted he was correct, and that I was wrong. I assured him it wouldn't happen again, and I learned a lesson.

Your assumption is that he's a douchebag for doing something he shouldn't have, but he could just be too stupid to know any better. I was, and now I'm not.

You clearly haven't played much low stakes poker. I get asked this question a lot and my answer is always "Well I got a big hand bud" while smiling.