Quote:
Originally Posted by OnTheRail15
Don't seat change. Dont quit to play smaller. Start games. Keep the game going when it's short. Let them button you. When you have to leave a short handed game, give notice. Don't squeeze every cent of EV from non-playing situations (seat changing, game selection, etc)
This is so basic. Even in cardrooms, most of this is correct. (It's OK to seat change occasionally, so long as you aren't obvious about what you are doing.)
When I play poker, I'm the one who wants to keep the game going. I can't count the number of times I kept 15-30 games going 3-handed at Hollywood Park because we knew people were coming. I was a terrible 3-handed player at the time. (I'm only slightly better now.) I made a ton of money in that game, and I'm sure I lost money playing 3-handed.
Except, you know how much easier to get a bad player to sit down if you have a game going than to get people to stay around and then round them up to start a new game? I suspect I actually made a lot more money from the games I kept going than I lost playing 3-handed.
It all comes back to you anyway. If you are a nice person who everyone wants to play poker with, if you make the game pleasant, and yes, if you don't come off like someone who is trying to wring every penny out of the game, people will like you-- and they will like you even if they know you are a better player than they are.
As for learning to talk to people-- this is a really important skill anyway. How do you meet people to date? I assume you talk to them and try to make yourself interesting to them. I assume you learn what they are interested in and try to get interested in those things too. I assume... well, maybe I assume too much.
But if you know how to talk up a prospective date, you know how to talk at a poker table. Do the same things-- learn their interests, and then talk about them. And even if you are lost in the conversation, be nice and friendly at all times.