PokerWorks

How many times have you sat at a table and listened to players talk about the hand they threw away while the hand is in progress? Or listened to them openly discuss what the best possible hand is after the River card is on the table and the action is in progress? Or even had them question you as to what you have when they are facing a bet from you and there is a field of players behind them yet to act? “Do you have two pair?” or “Did you flop a straight?” or any number of questions in which they are trying to gather information about your play.

You could be thinking that this really has no bearing on the game or any effect on the hand so why even get into it. What if the 5-6-7-9 of spades are on the board, it takes one card to make a straight flush and you have it? Yoo Hoo! A loose player that has been raising every hand leads the bet and a tight player raises. You are licking your chops. You have them right where you want them. But a player that is not even in the hand pipes up with, “Who has the 8 of spades?”

Ouch! It is possible that neither of the players even thought about the possibility of a straight flush until loud mouth had to alert the world that it was possible. You have finally made a huge hand and have people betting and raising into you and while they may not believe you have the card, they have been alerted to the fact that it is possible. You just lost action on your hand.

And what about the player that cannot wait to announce to the world that he threw away 8-4 when the board comes 8-8-3. Perhaps you were in the Big Blind and check raised the Flop trying to run a bluff and make your opponent put you on an 8 but now the big mouth has told the world that he threw an 8 away.

There is another kind of talk at the table that should never happen but it does all the time. It goes like this: “How could you make that call?” or “Just keep playing that way!” or some drivel where they are implying that the player that beat them is an idiot for even buying chips and taking a seat in the game. Amazingly these players that try to belittle a player for winning a pot are the ones that consider them selves to be ‘pros’. This kind of talk is very bad for a game and can cause a new, inexperienced player to leave the game. No one wants to be the brunt of comments just because they won a pot.

And what about the player that wants to give poker lessons while the game is in progress? They are everywhere, instructing, teaching, and pointing out the folly of a player’s ways at the end of a hand. “You should have raised with that before the Flop!” or “Why didn’t you check, you could have gotten more money by check raising than by betting?”

Poker is a social game. Conversation is part of the game but that conversation has boundaries.