Poker Perambulation

In ring play, I am seeing a lot of people going off. My earlier post talked about not tapping the glass. Some people are going beyond tapping and trying to shatter the glass.

There’s always been some of that. The worst of them are people that play the worst poker. Sites really aren’t interested in loosing customers – especially right now. But, it was also that way in the heyday. You could do all the documenting and the guy gets a warning. The worst I see is the most egregious getting their chat privilege suspended for a brief period.

Sites don’t go out of their way to make it easy to report. Over the years, I probably reported a half dozen of the most egregious. Nothing really happened. I’d see the same people doing the same thing.

I don’t remain silent when these guys take off on someone. I probably should; but, I’d as soon be his target than the ‘fish’ he’s after. I’ve always had a more caustic tongue than is prudent. I can make fun of idiots with – on a good day – some nasty humor. It tends to loosen the table’s disposition – which can break a decent table if something isn’t done.

There are extra pressures on all players these days. It is hard to fund. People are more protective of their roll. A nasty beat could be a major blow these days. I’m sure that is a contributing factor to what I’m seeing.

As my last post mentioned, we need to retain the player’s that are visiting the tables. More than at any time in the past, we need to help retain players. It would behoove us all to become more proactive.

If you hang around poker long enough, you will beat and be beaten by just about every hand possibility that there is. At limit the pot odds will often dictate chasing. In tournaments, it often gets down to any two cards play. There are valid reasons for sucking out. Others are calling stations that will do more sucking out because they hang around. Most of the time they are just pot builders and should be treasured.

We all see some self-worth in the game of poker. If we didn’t we wouldn’t be at the tables. One someone strikes at that worth it strikes at the reason we play. We’re all a shell of the real individual. We sit miles and even continents apart. That can attract actions that we’d never consider in person. It helps to imagine – in very unflattering terms – the guy going off. The image lets you laugh at the puss.

It is a game. Help keep it light and attractive.

ADDENDUM:

While cooking Sunday dinner, I turned on the TV. John McLaughlin was holding court – that isn’t my normal cuppa. But, it was interesting. There were guests that were analyzing the newest generation. The conclusion is they are far more conservative than their predecessor. They seem even more conservative than my generation – at least as the current analysis goes.

It seems we run in cycles that we can’t get away from: Victorian era morph into the Roaring 20’s; the Greatest Generation morphs into Vietnam; mine (I’m a cusp one.) morphs to the boomers. Everything changes and everything stays the same. In politics we go from the New Deal to Eisenhower Post War Boom. We get the Great Society followed by a Contract with America. Then we come to now and that somehow lacks clear definition at this point – overspending conservatism. A very dogmatic time that seems to defy description.

Conservative and Liberal – along with Republican and Democrat — are really poor names. They both, typically, embrace a huge cross section of interests. I’m not sure what a ‘conservative generation’ is going to mean. Orwell’s 1980 created a conservative picture that trampled rights. Will this new generation drift toward that? Or will it have a Libertarian mindset that heads in a new direction?

One of the disadvantages of my age is that I won’t get to find out. Damn!

Politics is a matter of inclusion. The Democrats labored under a mix of New England Liberals and Southern Democrat conservatives. Big business Republicans walked in lock step with the Rockefeller liberal side. The one trick ponies like the Greens or Libertarians will never have a true base. They remain resolute minorities. It really seems silly for the average person to associate themselves with a particular party beyone a specific moment in time; but, we do. So, many we deserve the UIGEA and all those other bits of silliness that politics produces.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 11:46 am and is filed under Journal, Poker Thoughts. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.