Calling yourself a professional & acting professional are two totally different things. The poker world gets this line blurred way to often. Why? I don’t really know. What I do know is it’s pretty tilting to me, and getting worse all the time. People who call themselves “pros” but act childish are not at all good for the game in my opinion. If you ain’t good for the game, your bad for the game. Simple as that. No inbetween. Every player is either good for business or bad for business.
So what is a professional poker player? Is a pro someone who sustains his or herself from an income in which 95-100% comes from poker? What about 80%? What about if you pay for your food, car, phone,& rent from your poker income? Are you a pro then? I’m sure most of you would say yes that makes you a professional poker player. I say not even close. That makes you a poker player. A very good, maybe even great poker player at that. But it don’t make you a professional.
What about if you’ve won a WPT title? What about two? Or the most coveted prize of all…a bracelet. Surely if your income comes from poker, you have a bracelet and/or a WPT title, you can be on the list of professional poker players right? In my best Waylon Jennings voice I’m saying “WRONG”
Conducting yourself in a professional manner goes farther in making you a professional poker player than any amount of skill does. Acting like a jerk, doing unprofessional things to people at the table ruins your reputation & the overall credibility of the industry in the eyes of the amateur players. There are a couple things I’m seeing a lot of lately that we as so called “pros” in the poker world should make a conscious effort to stay away from. It certainly would make the live poker experience more inviting to new players, which in turn boosts your profit margin.
Remember when your momma would tell you “don’t run with the scissors!”? She wanted you to be safe for sure but also she cautioned you against this because it’s pretty damn stupid to do so. A lot of people in the poker world recently are doing things just as stupid & it is causing me to secretly hope they’ll trip.
So many people both “pro” & knowledgeable amateur alike think it’s their place to educate bad players at the table. Somebody please tell me why? If you genuinely feel you are the better player at the table or in a situation vs an opponent, why in the hale would you try to make that player closer to your level of skill? Last Week I get dealt A233 playing limited Omaha8. Flop is K-3-K. I lead & get called in two spots. Turn card come a 8. I lead again & got called by dude in middle position. Given the nature of the way the game had been playing I knew if my hand was no good I would have been raised on the turn, & the old dude had raised with wired pairs of any paints so I wasn’t worried about quads. I was prepared to bet the river for value. Then before the river card he did “something” I can’t explain it, just something about him told me he didn’t have a king. I figured high pocket pair or maybe A2xx. The river card come a 9. No low possible. I bet with my low full. He raised. I’m a firm believer in going with your read no matter what. That’s the best way to learn to improve your reading skills. Well, that & reading Zach Elwood’s book “Reading Poker Tells”. So my read told me I was good on the turn, he didn’t have a king, so that would make me have the best hand. I pump it, he reraises & now I know my hand is no good. Easy fold right? Yes of course it is. But if my read was correct, my hand was still good, & I made a very stupid amateurish move by calling the river. He turns over 2-99-J rainbow. My read had been perfect, (THANKS ZACH!) and I had been two outered by a dude calling all the way down with what was obviously a hand that needed a miracle to win. I said “nice hand” and killed him very creatively in my mind. As the dealer was pushing him chips, one man said “I reckon you thought your hand was good on the flop” speaking to the old dude who had just beat me that pot. The guy then showed how fishy he was by saying “I don’t understand what you mean.” That was obvious to me he had no clue, had been a holdem player just learning Omaha8, & the type person I want in that game. The other dude would not quit with his “education” and telling the fish how stupid his play had been. He proceeded to announce to the table he was a “pro” who played everyday and had never seen a worse play. If you call yourself a pro, act professional and don’t berate the fish. Make them feel comfortable at the table. I went out of my way to make the old feller laugh, and get him talking about other things than poker. Later on in the night, I have AA23 in a heads up pot against the same old feller. Flop come A-6-Q all hearts. I fired and he turned his hand over 288K all clubs, and said “I guess my hand is no good on the flop” looked at the “pro” who had made him feel stupid earlier, and mucked his hand. My creative ways of imagining people meeting their demise in hunting accidents changed focus to the table captain. In a NLHE game, lets say you connect on the flop, bet, get raised, then 3bet your good hand, & get called by Ace high who then spikes the Barry Greenstein. How would you react? Can you control your emotions? Or would you tell the person how stupid they are, call them a horrible player, etc. Who cares if they suck out on you? Those are the people you want at the table. You want people calling huge amounts of money in bad spots. You want them folding correctly in that spot so you win $25? As the better player your money comes from you forcing your opponents to make bad decisions. Don’t tell someone how stupid they are in that spot. It’s unprofessional & in my mind makes you stupid as well for lowering your EV in that game.
As bad as I think that is, a lot of the so called pros have horrific attitudes towards other players when they are losing, even when it is their fault. People may watch Tony G. on tv & think “oh it must be cool to do that at the casino.” That behavior is bad for the game. In addition to showcasing what an ass they are, & low amount of class they possess, it shows how little respect they have for the game. It shows selfishness, immaturity, & a complete lack of huggage given to them as a child probably. In the long run, that attitude lowers profits. How? Let me explain. No…let me sum up. When you exhibit that kind of behavior where you are calling names, being downright hateful to people two things happen. First, many people, including those who possess less skill, won’t want to play with you. People don’t want to deal with your attitude, and will just bypass your game. Poker is a social game. Even losing can be a fun time if the table dynamic creates a good atmosphere. If you are anti-social, the people who just want to donate & have fun want no part of you. So then you will find yourself with less fishy opponents. Secondly, the better opponents, will become pissed & come after you. Not as easy to consistently turn as big of a profit with a target on your back every single time you set down at the poker table.
Now there is a difference between table talking to tilt an opponent, & just being a classless asshole. Mike the Mouth has sometimes crossed the line but I don’t know of any instance where he insulted someone’s family, religion, sexual preference, or told a woman she is a bit looser with her morals than normal. From what I have heard Phil Hellmuth & Tony G are in this same category. But what I know for a fact is some other people that are looked up to because of their tv successes, consistently cross the line with insults.
Let’s keep in mind that words sting a lot worse than punches in many cases. What if someone is very self conscious about their weight, and you continue to jab at them about it. Is that gaining an advantage? I say no its not. What it is however is cruel and bullyish. What if a well known woman in poker just went through a breakup and you comment on that attempting to tilt her. Is that gaining an advantage? I suppose you are tilting them but also doing so in a classless, supremely shitty fashion. On twitter last week lots of stories came about how Will the Thrill Failla has made some awful comments to players, usually when he was the one who screwed up or played bad. This spawned debate about a lot of other “poker celebs” who behave the same & whether it is acceptable. I’m sure he’s not the only one that has told someone they should kill themselves, but probably the most high profile to have done so numerous times. No doubt some of you reading this have done the same. Why is that ok in poker? I’ve said that many times & will continue to do so in regards to things I hate outside of the industry but never relating to poker. I want to ask people “does that make you feel better about yourself?” Do you feel more like a man or more like a badass to say stuff like that to weaker opponents? What if you say to a woman “I hope you get raped & die of aids!” Yes, I was in the room when that was actually said to a woman. Is that ok? The pros that have said those types of things to others at the table are extremely bad for the game and furthermore should die violently in a fire. See that…works both ways. It is completely unprofessional behavior & in no way should you call yourself a “professional poker player” if you act like that. All you are is someone who makes their living at the game but you damn sure ain’t no professional.
At the heart of this lies the question of “why is this ok, & how did it become so?” My belief is that the majority of this behavior comes from younger people who grew up playing the game seriously on the internet, not experiencing the social aspect of the game, and playing live only in casinos where security will not allow physical violence. Some of us a bit older who grew up without internet learned the game as more of a social function. It would be much later before we recognized the fact that we can actually earn a nice living by playing it at a high level. For me, and several more like me, casinos aren’t anywhere close to us. If we want to make a living playing poker, you have to deal with the stresses of underground casinos and private games. To consistently pay your bills, it takes playing at more than micro stakes so private games may not be the safest. Takes a special kind of person to deal with all that goes on. Lots can go wrong. But what NEVER happens in private games or underground casinos is the kind of behavior and treatment of fellow players that exists in the public casinos.
When I played at Aria last there came a heated argument at the table behind me where a dude had been felted, with the winner of the pot slow-rolling. In many private games that’s a quick way to get a ride to the hospital. I’ve seen pretty severe beatings on more than one occasion & once a stabbing due to slow-rolling. Anyway the felted gentleman got up and said “You knew you had the nuts when you called you were supposed to just turn your hand over not slow-roll me.” To which the villain replied “no what I was supposed to do was take your money which is what I did.” Newsflash, that came from a dude who has been seen on tv several times. Why is this ok? Somebody go ask Doyle how that would have turned out back on Exchange Street in Texas? I PROMISE you if it ever happened at an underground casino is north Georgia they don’t call the floor to serve you a one round penalty.
Do those of us who make a living off the game even care? Surely some of us care more than most so the responsibility lies within us to better it by just being good examples. Maybe telling a fellow poker player privately how their behavior isn’t cool works sometimes. Even better, more in the industry can try earning the respect of our peers through leading by example. In order to grow our profits, we need new people coming to the game all the time. When they come, try to keep them around. Make them feel comfortable, have a good time, and leave wanting to come back. You don’t have to be friends with people you are going to war with, just be civil & show some respect for the game & your fellow players. Remember Amarillo Slim said “You can sheer a sheep many atime, but you can only skin him once.” Let’s keep that in mind and stop running with the scissors.
JC