In this thread there are a lot of pet peeves that I agree with. There are, however, a lot of other things that aren't all that important, and in some cases, are in your favor if you're a serious player.
I recently watched a video of a Ted Talk from Dylan Evans. Evans interviewed what he called "expert gamblers" to see what made them different from casual players. Using poker as an example, he talked about how some poker players become very rich.
He said that the expert players aren't in it for the rush. There aren't in it to have fun. Evans said that for the experts, it's about "a cold, rational pursuit of profit."
I love that phrase. That's exactly the way I look at it. As long as the other players at my table aren't holding up the game, I don't really care what they do or say, or even how they smell.
I said earlier that a case like that can be in the player's favor. It can be, if you're not the one who tilts. If you're on Smelly Guy's left and you're tilting, and the player on SG's right doesn't tilt, the guy who stays focused has an edge over you. Last year I had a player yell at me for several minutes after I knocked him out of a tournament. I ignored him. I won the pot and eliminated a player. That's what I'm there to do.
What if the player is an obnoxious jerk, or a racist, or is leering at the women? I don't care and neither should you. If you're black, you shouldn't care if he's a racist. If you're a woman, you shouldn't care if a guy is staring at your breasts. If you worry about those things you're not paying attention to the game.
I though about whether there is anything another player could do to tilt me and I couldn't think of anything. Then I thought, men don't like their family insulted. What if that happened? To use an extreme example, what if someone said that my wife was a whore?
As soon as I had that thought, I had the answer. I would ignore it.* When I go to a poker room, I won't let anyone or anything distract me from playing my best. It's not my job to defend my family's honor. My job is stay focused, get a nice cash, and bring home the money.
Here is the Ted Talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jyokhjUCyk
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*When I told my wife that, she was shocked. But after she thought about it, she decided that I was right. It's all about the benjamins.