How to play poker with unpleasant people

Sometimes, you won’t avoid playing poker with people who are unpleasant; this is the most irritating and difficult part of the game. You should never forget that poker is a social game, played for both pleasure and fun, unfortunately you won’t get the opportunity to always choose whom to play with, and apparently that is when you find people you don’t like or are particularly important.
It is therefore important to find a special way of conducting yourself when you find such people. Here are some three tips to help you handle unpleasant poker opponents:

Unpleasant People at an Online Poker Room - Handling unpleasant people at an online poker room is quite an easy task. All you need to do is basically turn chat off, as simple as that. Avoiding unpleasant opponents online is the simplest thing and one great benefit of playing online. You will play with them, yes, but you won’t have to listen to their insults or anything they will manage to say throughout the game. They might do such things as taking long to act or move all-in on every hand but these things are part of the game and you will have to tolerate them. Make sure that you play a good game in order to put them off.

Unpleasant People in a Live Poker Room - Live poker is a completely different story. If you are apparently sitting with an unpleasant person on one table, then it will be difficult, in fact completely impossible to shut them off. On the other hand there is an alternative, if the player’s behavior is irritating, like for instance throwing cards, shouting, or apparently touching other players’ chips, you can call the floorperson’s attention immediately, and he will be able to take action. However if the problem concerns such issues as poor smell or general grooming, it will be difficult to have them removed, therefore you can request the floorperson to shift you to the next table, this will apparently solve the problem.

Take Advantage - Never forget that you may want to balance how unpleasant our opponent is with his playing capability. Most often, the most annoying players never play poker well, since strong and pro players need a calm environment to concentrate on the game. Use such tactics as busting the unpleasant player, and in turn use the opportunity to play a true perfect game. You will find yourself winning the game without any doubts. But of course if the player is consistently putting you off and you end up loosing, then you should change tables immediately.

Poker needs patience at times but tolerating an unpleasant player is almost impossible. You need a cool and stress free environment in order to come out winning the game well enough. Therefore, make sure that you avoid any circumstances that might make you loose the game, like playing with unpleasant players. However applying the above tactics will help you a lot in getting away with such players, try it today on unpleasant players and you will be surprised!

Published on 12/01/2009