Why People Who Berate Other Poker Players Suck

One of my pet peeves when playing live poker (not-so-much when playing online poker) is when a decent, yet egotistical, poker player belittles, berates, and insults other players for what they perceive as poor play.

The worst thing you can do is berate a poor player for what you perceive as a bad play.

Here are a few reasons why it’s generally a bad idea to berate others.

1. The negativity is asinine and will make the entire table feel uncomfortable.
2. If the player being insulted is a decent player, he will undoubtedly try to play better against you.
3. Bad players make poker profitable for good players. Berating poor players may result in them leaving, which is the worst thing that can happen.
4. Maybe you’re wrong and you opponent played the hand correctly. If other players know that you were the one who played the hand poorly and still feel the need insult the other guy, they’ll think you’re a douchebag (because you are).

I certainly understand the frustrations of losing a big pot to a bad player. I recall a past hand I was in during a live Limit Hold’em game.

I limped in with a suited ace and several others limped as well. The button raised and everyone called. I flopped the nut flush and decided to check to the raiser. The original raiser bet and maybe one person in front of me called. I check-raised and the woman to my left cold-called two bets, which left me scratching my head. Everyone else folded.

I bet the turn – she called. The river paired the board and I bet – she raised. I called and she showed a full house. The frustrating part was that she called two bets cold on the flop with bottom pair, made two pair on the turn, and rivered the full house.

As frustrated as I was, I mustered the best “nice hand” that I could.

From now on, try thinking of worse players as “customers”. If you’ll start doing that, you’ll realize that berating them is just bad business.  If you work at the casino where you play, berating players is just plain stupid.

Here’s a personal example about how one poker dealer will permantely lose money from my wife and I.

A poker dealer we know got off work and started playing at the low-limit table we were at. Knowing that we are friendly, tipping customers he still berated my wife openly for outdrawing him with a flush draw in a big pot.

I feel like she played the hand well, but he could only talk about how that was the “worst hand he’s ever been beaten with”. He continued spewing these comments until we both decided never to tip the toolbox again.

Is there ever a time when it might be good to berate another player? Maybe, if you’re trying to put other thinking players on tilt.

If you can say or do something, like showing a bluff, and cause another good player to get angry and play emotionally, it will cause him or her to make more mistakes.  I don’t like attacking other players personally, but I’m in full favor of showing a well-timed bluff when I think it will tilt my opponent, or talking smack in a heads-up tournament on Pokerstars.

What do you think? Is it wrong berate opponents at the poker table (live or online)?