Hey all, quick question if I was ok in this spot last night at parx. Some guy started berating another player in a really cruel way calling him a scum bag. Situation was this: seat 1 was in hand against 9 seat and bet 40 into turn and seat 9 tank called. The dealer ended up mucking seat 1 hands and he started asking for half the pot and called seat 9 (a quiet Indian man who wasn’t doing anything wrong) a scum bag and spazzing about karma etc. later on I told guy he should be mad at dealer and other player doesn’t owe him anything. He started going after me when I said this and was very aggressive almost wanting to start a fight it seemed.

Should I just shut my mouth here? I felt it was player 1s fault for not protecting hand and the dealer f’ed up so idk how he gets mad at seat 9 in this situation.

The only time I intervene when somebody is melting down is if I like them and want to help them get focussed on playing poker. And even then only if they are receptive to my help. So later on, before I said anything, I would ask the guy if he wanted to hear my opinion on the subject.

Also, telling him he should be mad at the dealer isn't going to get the job done. Wouldn't he then start calling the dealer a scumbag? I would advise the player to pay attention and protect his hand because in the end it is his responsibility not seat 1's and not the dealer's. But again, if the guy doesn't deserve it in my mind I wouldn't be wasting my time trying to help him.

FLOOR!!!

I would:

* Stay out of it if the other player is defending himself or doesn't seem to care or is a reg who you know can defend himself or is a jerk you don't want to help

* Draw the other player's attention on you or otherwise defuse the situation yourself if you can and you feel up to it

* Call the floor if not

Note that dealers generally cannot defend themselves, so I would skip right to the floor call if someone was berating a dealer.

Need to be in the moment, but your well-intentioned blame deflection was probably not the right 'first' tactic.

1) Was this taking place before or during the next hand?
2) Did the Dealer explain the situation?
3) How did Seat 9 'accept' the pot ... with attitude?
4) Some casinos wouldn't allow this chop, but doubtful it would be stopped either.
5) Although I stick my nose in plenty .. in hopes of deflecting Dealer angst .. Players may not want an outside party stepping into their spot.
6) Were both of them regs?

... I'm doing less and less of Player-Flooring. What I do see is that the Dealers are less inclined to call the Floor over when they create the issue. GL

Seat 9 was just an older Indian man not talking or being rude. Idk why the guy kept going after him. I said something an hour later when the guy kept going after seat 9 after he left. Seat 1 ended up busting seat 9 anyways and went into speech mode about karma and calling seat 9 a scum bag.

The floor was a joke. Guy must be a reg or known there bc they didn’t say anything to seat 1. I just think it’s bad to berate players in this manner. The guy (seat 1) didn’t say anything wrong or confront this guy. Just wonder what people think?

The guy sounded like he wanted to fight me which was crazy. He told me to shut up after I said be mad at dealer /‘yourself and the dealer ended up telling me to stop. The guy was an ass to me. Side note if he hit me, I would have gotten killed lol.

I normally try and not get too involved but if you think it's over the top you can step in and say something or even get the floor involved.

Poker is supposed to be fun. If someone is making poker not fun by being a jerk, then you are allowed to try and make poker fun again, whether it is acting yourself or calling on the floor to do something. It's up to you to evaluate whether doing something will work or is worth the trouble.

Silly story...

7 years ago, I was playing 1/2 at the Sands in Pennsylvania. A small time poker god got into a pot with an older lady (50's or 60's) and got sucked out on the turn. It wasn't a crazy play by the woman, she had outs to a straight and backdoor flush but this guy could not let it go after she hit vs his TPTK. The next two rounds, all that was heard from poker god was "you luckbox" or "you sucked out on me", it got to the point where he was constantly berating this woman regardless whether either of them were in the current hand, very annoying.

I just wanted to tell him to shut up in a nicer way so I said, 'why don't you let it go and leave the lady alone?'.

He replied with... 'you bet with QJ so you cant talk'... I won that hand that he was referencing. I replied with 'yes, and you lost yours', which set him off a bit... started going on about he does MMA, implying that I should be scared and intimidated. A little more back and forth and he says:

"If there weren't any security guards here, you wouldn't be talking."

Mind you that poker god was very much so on the smaller side, about 5'3 and stick figured. I'm 6'2 at 210 lbs. I wasn't intimidated. I look around and let poker god know that I didn't see any guards by the poker section which shut him up. He busts 2 hands later bluffing for 60 on the flop (lol) and leaves.

Moral of this silly story, don't take poker losses personally and never make a promise that you cannot deliver on. Also, short stacking 1/2 is a an easy way to lose your rent money.

when this happens i try and deflect the negative attention towards me and away from the other player.
someone doing this is ALWAYS an idiot who thinks they're good at poker and knows just enough poker to think they lose because of bad luck. they are never going to win a war of words with me and i'm great at tilting people like this into spewing off all of their chips.

I have been using Tony G's "If you go the podium they will give you a form to complain" it is really effective.