i saw it posted in a forum and thought it’d make for a good post title…
so yesterday i had a ‘lovely’ encounter with a reg in my games and figured there was a little something that could be learned from him, hence, i’m posting. i’m pretty sure he doesn’t read this, and if he does, i don’t see it hurting me at all.
anyway, so i was watching the lobby for an hour or so while this guy registered for every game. i checked his sharkscope to see how many games he had played in the day and it was close to 400 already so i figured he must be at the end of the session and is either A) tired or B) close to quitting and maybe me showing up is just the motivation he needs to shut down. sure enough, almost immediately after i start loading, he disappears. good deal.
then he comes back.
immediately after our first confrontation he starts chirping at me. i think i called him light on a blind vs blind shove. he begins telling me that he was about to quit, but then he saw me loading and decided to get back in the games. i can’t remember if i responded at this point, but i knew the next hour or so was going to be more entertaining than usual.
so i call him light a few more times and he continues chirping. becoming seemingly more frustrated, he tells me to continue loading. i oblige, not because i’m looking to prove anything, but because it’s becoming clear that he’s unravelling and he’s the only other reg loading, so the games are still profitable.
he starts telling me how i’m easier to play than a fish and how he loves playing with me, blah blah blah. so at this point, it’s 100% clear this guy has quite the ego, which really isn’t a shocker because about 99.9% of poker players do.
i give him the benefit of the doubt and decide to do a little research to see if, in fact, he is doing well against me in the short sample of games we’ve played together. below is the result.
now, i won’t say that these results prove me to be the better player because the reality is that 149 games is way too small of a sample size to make such a claim. i could show some stats that suggest i’m doing a little better than him but the more i play, the more i realize that results are just bullshit anyway. besides, i’m not interested in claiming to be better than anyone else.
the point is his ego is getting in the way of him playing more profitably. no matter which one of us is the better player, the simple fact is that it’s better to avoid each other because neither of us is as bad as some random fish that would otherwise fill the seat. on top of that, his ego is blinding him from everything else that is happening on the tables. he chooses to chat me up, meanwhile, i’m picking up all sorts of information about my opponents and focusing on making good plays. sure i’ll chat back occasionally, but it’s only when i’ve dropped a couple tables and only to continue distracting him. afterall, he did tell me that the chat distracts him…
so what should you and i learn from this guy?
first, be confident, but don’t have an ego. if you just keep telling yourself you’re better than everyone, you’re going to miss out on a LOT of key information. you’re going to blame their ‘bad plays’ for your losses and learn nothing from them.
second, table select. it doesn’t matter if you’re better than two of the regs already in the game. if they’re winning players, or even break even for that matter, you can find a better game to sit in. and if you are sitting with a reg, do what you have to do to avoid confrontation with him. you make your money from the weak players, not the winning ones. don’t let your ego tell you otherwise.
