Poker Pet Peeves

As you all know, I enjoy playing Texas Hold'em. If I were granted a 'Make a Wish' type thing, my wish would be to be flown out to Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker's big game. It's, like, $10000 to get into that game, but it's huge. Lots of celebs and pokers best players get together for a gianormous tourney that usually lasts days. I'd get my ass kicked, but at least I'd know if I was as good as I think I may be. A few weeks ago I turned $13 into $130 and last night I turned $20 into $144. Am I that good, or are the people I played just that bad? I think it's a combination, but mostly the latter applies. Needless to say, I am happy that the past few games I've played have put me in the plus in the money department. The best feeling in the world is when you know that you have the best hand and someone else initiates the betting. I swear that I could hear the opening cash register sound inside my head. Anyway, I have several pet peeves when I play poker, and I experienced some of them last night:

Loud Players. I can't stand being at a table with someone that thinks that they will get a read off of me by talking loud being irritating. Not to sound racist, but this tactict is usually is a black thing. One game I played in, there was a guy that would literally talk (loudly) for five to ten minutes before making a bet or a call. You aren't going to read me, just play your fucking cards. I was thankful when he was taken out of the game.

Table Talkers. This is slightly different from Loud Players. Table talkers are people who show their cards to other players that have already folded in order to get their opinion, people that encourage other players to make a call, or that give playing advice in the middle of a hand. They'd kick you out of a game in Vegas for pulling that kind of crap. A memorable case of this is a game I played when I bet big on a bluff (I knew the other guy in the hand had nothing and was going to fold) and someone talked the other player into calling me. I lost.

Chasers. A chaser is someone who has an OK hand, but stay in the hand all the way to the river card to try to catch a hand. This is acceptable sometimes, (like if you already have a lot of money in the pot and don't want to throw it away by folding) but there are some players that start out with crap, the flop gives them more crap, and instead of folding, they stay in the hand until the end. The worst part is when they get the one card that helps them on the river.

Criers. Now, this doesn't actually mean that people break down and cry. A crier is someone that gets beat and then whines about it. Usually, they whine because of a bad beat (which means that they had the best hand going in, but get beat by a lucky card coming up.) but I feel that, if you are willing to bet money on a game of chance, you shouldn't whine when the cards don't fall your way. For example, last night one of the players was talking about someone else whining about a bad beat and he said something like, "It's happened to everyone before. Don't play if you aren't prepared to lose. So play or go home." After saying that, this guy started losing and then whining almost every time. He'd get angry, he'd get sarcastic about the best hand losing, and sarcastic about "the best players always win". When he said that, I wanted to say, "Yes, the best players DO win. You just aren't one of them." What irritated me the most wasn't that he was whining, he was getting bad beats all night, I was irritated that he complained about whiners earlier in the night and then was the whiner. Don't play if you aren't willing to lose. I don't feel sorry for him at all.