You people have no skill.

Something I have noticed. When playing online, I find people are quicker to classify other players as "Donkies, idiots, don't know what they're doing" than they would at a live table. I find this not only in my experience but also by obseving friends play both online and in person. Once I realized my tendancy towards this type of classification, I have taken extra efforts to evaluate others play more objectively. Has anyone else noticed this and if so, why do you think this perspective exists?

[Xhad]

Yes, I think we all do this to an extent. Probably a by-product of the competitive/internet gamer mindset, along with the fact that without fish we wouldn't make money so we want there to be fish.

Lately I've been making a conscious effort not to start thinking of someone as a "donkey", "fish", or "clown" based on one or two isolated plays. Better to just objectively notice what they've been doing in isolated situations and concentrate on adjusting to those.

[benkahuna]

I think you're right. Thanks for mentioning this tendency so I can adjust.

I think it may come from the lack of dimensionality of online players versus live players.

:P

[TexArcher]

This is of course true, and I think it's common on ALL internet sites, not just poker sites.

Everyone is a tough guy from a thousand miles away...

[pudley4]

3 points:

1 - You get more hands in a quicker period of time online, so you've got more knowledge on a player, thus allowing you to accurately describe said player as "donkey"

2 - The players online are more aggressive, and it's much more likely that a player will remember an opponent bluff-raising the river (online), than it is he'll remember a player calling down with bottom pair (live). Thus the tendency to label the opponent as a "donk"

3 - The players live are much much worse (at the same limit), so we should be labeling them as "donkeys" from the moment we sit down, and then adjusting our view as they make better plays. So it's kind of implied that in a live game we're facing a "donkey". Online, we know there are good/decent players at almost every level, so we need to differentiate between the good players and the "donkeys".

This is very true, actually. Just thinking back, most of the notes I have on players consist of "sucks". I read this post last night, and when I played last night, instead of just putting 'sucks' in their notes, I put things like "cold called a raise with K6off from MP". This is a more useful thing to do, I think.

[bernie]

Do you mean openly saying so to the 'fish' or just classifying them?

I don't know, I classify them pretty much the same way whether live or online. A poor player is a poor player. You can usually tell this pretty quickly. But since there are more people playing online, it's going to be more prevelant. For instance, the fake money 'pros'.(or even the micro 'pros' for that matter) Gotta love when they're telling everyone how great they are and how bad everyone else is.

Now if you mean openly berating them, well, ego is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Btw...it is carrying over into live a bit. There seems to be more of these idiots berating play than before.

b

[lotus776]

I agree, people are way quicker to criticize play online than in person perhanps b/c you're not actually looking at the person play stupidly and they can't take you out back and stab you as a result of you being a jerk. People criticize way easier when not in person and this leads them to believe they are playing against a "donkie".

[gobboboy]

GUYS.

PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET ARE JERKS AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT.

Maybe we could make MONEY off of them.

It's so crazy it just might work...

I disagree... I'm just as likely to call someone a cum guzzling donkey in person as I am on line.

Luckily I weigh about 250... so I can get away with it.