Should You Chat?

I’m sitting at a $0.10/0.25 NLHE $25-max table this morning at FullTilt when I start getting flamed, and so the question comes: should you join in and defend yourself, add fuel to the fire, or ignore it all?

Full Tilt Poker Game #1155725159: Table Ballinger – $0.10/$0.25 – No Limit Hold’em – 6:47:38 ET – 2006/10/27
Seat 1: Blinky0116 ($18.70)
Seat 2: csquard ($21.20)
Seat 3: NE2Sooted ($33.95)
Seat 4: PapaPress ($7.40)
Seat 5: Pack It Up ($56.60)
Seat 6: Madestr8 ($27.20)
Seat 7: AKA_Nev ($68.95)
Seat 8: kimchi_chiga ($8.40)
Seat 9: IrishMafia ($22.05)
PapaPress posts the small blind of $0.10
Pack It Up posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [8d Ad]
Madestr8 folds
AKA_Nev folds
kimchi_chiga folds
IrishMafia raises to $0.75
Blinky0116 folds
csquard calls $0.75
NE2Sooted folds
PapaPress folds
Pack It Up has 15 seconds left to act
Pack It Up raises to $3.50
IrishMafia folds
csquard calls $2.75
*** FLOP *** [2h Ts 8s]
Pack It Up bets $5.75
csquard calls $5.75
*** TURN *** [2h Ts 8s] [8c]
Pack It Up checks
csquard bets $11.95, and is all in
Pack It Up calls $11.95
csquard shows [8d Ad]
Pack It Up shows [Qs Qh]
Pack It Up: lol
Pack It Up: lol
*** RIVER *** [2h Ts 8s 8c] [3h]
Pack It Up: lol
csquard shows three of a kind, Eights
Pack It Up shows two pair, Queens and Eights
csquard wins the pot ($41.10) with three of a kind, Eights
Pack It Up: lol
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $43.25 | Rake $2.15
Board: [2h Ts 8s 8c 3h]
Seat 2: csquard showed [8d Ad] and won ($41.10) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 5: Pack It Up (big blind) showed [Qs Qh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Eights
This was the seventh hand at the table, irishmafia had raised my bb from the button a couple hands before, and I popped him pre-flop with A2 and watched him laydown. On this hand, I figured he was stronger but then didn’t want to be bullied by Pack It Up, so I called his raise. The flop call on my part is weak, I agree, although I’m trying to play middle pair more than I used to. He’s smitten by his overpair, which works out nicely on the turn. So nice, I double up early and crack queens. Pack It Up then goes on a nice diatribe, lol, did you see that, lol, on and on. I responded once, to his question of did you see that, with an “I did” typed in. That kept it flowing, followed by the standard don’t tap the glass type comment from the 1s.

I don’t play enough to deal with metagame concerns (meaning the overall image that you portray over weeks and weeks of play), so I can only concern myself with the here and now. On the one hand, it’s natural to want to defend your personal honor even when the other person is pretty much correct in what he’s saying.  I do believe you have etiquette considerations and table image considerations.  Here’s what I normally do:  chime in once or twice then shut up, normally tightening my play a bit in the process.  Chiming in ensures that you’re table image is fixed in the minds of those at the table and the Hero in particular, but I think it’s important to play tighter.  I find that you can’t bluff as much successfully when you’ve donked it up, so you better have a hand as you proceed.  This doesn’t mean you can’t widen your pre-flop play; on the contrary, you can be speculative in position when you have a couple folks gunning for you.  Just be solid after the flop.

Postscript:  I’m now sitting on $65 at the table, and the guy who made the don’t tap the glass comment guy (Irish Mafia) has moved two to my right.  Just chased his K3o down by catching runner-runner straight (five way pot, checked flop, $0.75 turn bet by him on the button when it was checked around).  I had to min-raise him on the river, maybe should have bet more than his $1.25, but that will fuel the fire even more.  To wit:

Full Tilt Poker Game #1155783034: Table Ballinger – $0.10/$0.25 – No Limit Hold’em – 7:41:44 ET – 2006/10/27
Seat 1: fdlm ($46.45)
Seat 2: csquard ($69.25)
Seat 3: tracas ($24.40)
Seat 4: wezmcken ($28.05)
Seat 5: Pack It Up ($27.30)
Seat 6: Madestr8 ($18.60)
Seat 7: sito1966 ($22.80)
Seat 8: jwc467103 ($14.20)
Seat 9: IrishMafia ($23.15)
wezmcken posts the small blind of $0.10
Pack It Up posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [Ac 9c]
Madestr8 folds
sito1966 folds
jwc467103 folds
IrishMafia raises to $0.75
fdlm folds
csquard calls $0.75
tracas folds
wezmcken folds
Pack It Up folds
*** FLOP *** [As 5d 2c]
IrishMafia bets $1
csquard calls $1
*** TURN *** [As 5d 2c] [9s]
IrishMafia bets $2.50
csquard raises to $5
IrishMafia calls $2.50
*** RIVER *** [As 5d 2c 9s] [Jc]
IrishMafia checks
csquard bets $13.85
IrishMafia calls $13.85
*** SHOW DOWN ***
csquard shows [Ac 9c] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
IrishMafia mucks
csquard wins the pot ($39.50) with two pair, Aces and Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $41.55 | Rake $2.05
Board: [As 5d 2c 9s Jc]
Seat 2: csquard showed [Ac 9c] and won ($39.50) with two pair, Aces and Nines
Seat 9: IrishMafia mucked [2h 9h] – two pair, Nines and Twos

He rebought then split as I was trying to paste the hand in.

From our TiVo inventory last night:

• Lost:  still our favorite show, I think, but when you think about having to sit through five or six more years of all this nonsense, doesn’t it make your head hurt?  How many back stories are there, and can we stand all of these twists and turns?  I dunno.
• Survivor:  Major faux pas, giving us the never seen before scenes from the season to date.  Was this caused by MLB World Series impact on viewership?  We immediately stopped watching once we figured it out, and Sweetie turned over to fall asleep on the couch.
• Heroes:  Absolutely great, but again think of this show in seven years.  We’re going to have to watch and watch this, but it’s definitely a terrific addition to the Season Pass.
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip:  Sweetie was crying during this episode, and I thought it was just brilliant.  Alot of legs, and I really liked bringing back the ancient comedian whose name escapes me (and I can’t find) for a guest shot.  Ratings aren’t good, but hopefully they can weather the storm.  Rumor has it that Jessica Simpson will be the musical guest for an upcoming show.  That’s sort of like Sting from an earlier episode, except that it’s probably closer to Andy Summers.  Is there any more irritating warbler in the world than Ms. Simpson?
• MLB World Series:  I thought maybe they would cancel the World Series if it was rained out last night.  I mean really, does anyone care about this outside of Missouri and Motown?
• Fiddler on the Roof:  I think my mom had the album for this as every song in the first thirty minutes is ingrained in my brain.  “Tradition,” “Matchmaker,” on and on.  This is a movie which would be beyond unmakable now.  Poor Jewish people in czarist Russia, a musical, that is over three hours long, with no hotties anywhere in sight.  Although it does have Detective Dave Starsky from Starsky and Hutch fame.  I was only able to make it through the first thirty minutes when I realized every song I knew had already been sung, Topol continually talking to the camera was already beyond irritating, and I had no empathy for anyone in the movie except for the poor horse who pulled up lame so he didn’t have to carry the milk truck anymore.

Pauly has a brilliant 57-question poker blogger quiz.  I made it into the quiz, although I’ll give everyone a hint and say that I am not the correct answer.  My MySpace site is slowly happening.  I don’t really know how to do anything to the template (email me at csquard@gmail.com if you know anything), although Lynette did give me my first comment.  I searched on CC and found over 1300 other CC’s who had a site there, so I invited any cute young lady to be my friend.  Fairly creepy, I know, and I had some defense typed in that didn’t make sense, so I’ve deleted it and come to this.  Yes, it is fairly creepy.

Hope you have a good weekend.  I’ll be in Raleigh-Durham Monday and Tuesday AM, so I’m working to find a guest poster for my blog for both days.  Stay tuned.