Quote:
Originally Posted by YianniM
We've all been there. A really fishy, totally unbalanced player sits down. You profile them perfectly in like 5 minutes, usually they either have way too many bluffs, or (more typically) none at all. They win some big pots against various people at the table, you run cold for like 3 hours, and right after you suffer a big loss they suddenly start telling you how to play the game, mistakenly thinking that all that time they've spent playing Pokemon has somehow made them a Pokermaster.
Typical comments:- "The money should never have gone in the middle." The situation was a coin flip and they just don't know the odds.
- "If you're not getting good cards you just have to make more bluffs." Wrong, you should make bluffs when the situation calls for it, and not just because you're getting bad cards.
- "You're raising too many hands, try to make a hand before putting money in the middle." Except that if I do this, the same exploits I use against 90% of my opponents will be usable against me.
- "It's better to bet small so they can call you." Typically this player has made full house like seven or eight times this session and has barely managed to double their buy-in.
etc.
Like, do you just nod sagely at their "timeless wisdom"? Do you somehow pretend not to be irritated? Personally I mostly just sit there gritting my teeth, but it's honestly quite tilting hearing this crap and not saying anything about it.
I actually haven't been there and I have been playing for over 17 years.
I think the problem here isn't that the fish is telling you how to play. The problem is that you have taken a devastating loss.
When somebody who doesn't play well starts talking about strategy almost always somebody puts them down and tells them how dumb they are. I on the other hand, will always defend their strategic approach so they will feel good. And so everyone else at the table will think I am dumb.
If I was in your situation though it is incredibly hard to do that if I have been running cold and just took a huge loss. Still it's an opportunity to go from being down to feeling amused.
OK in fairness I was sort of here once I just didn't remember it until now. It was about 10 years ago at Foxwoods in a cheap evening tournament (so $120 or $160) on like a Saturday night. I had AA and a guy c/r'd me all in on the flop with top pair. I insta called and he sucked out on me. He then started telling me that in the future I should just fold rather than lose. I then said "but I was ahead when I made the call" and he said "yes, but you lost didn't you?". In reality I didn't tell him "you know you have a point there". Instead I said something like "have you ever played poker before?" and fortunately I bounced in the next 5 minutes because I have a feeling I wouldn't have been nice to him. For me though the essence of this experience is the pain from the loss not the stupidity coming out of an idiot's mouth.
