A nice guy

Twice this week I sat next to a guy in my game that was having a run of "bad luck." On Wednesday it was "crazy." It seemed every time we were both in a pot he either won a small pot on the flop or lost a big one on the river, usually the later. I was having "great luck" on Wednesday.

On Friday I sat near him again and it seemed that I was his "bad luck charm" because he was losing big again. It wasn't that bad on Friday though because he did manage to drag a couple of pots on the river, but it still seemed like he just couldn't win. He had a bad case of "bad luck."

Later in the day on Friday I dragged a rather large pot that he and another guy were in and he was a little frustrated.

"Nothing holds up. I'm just having the worst luck. At least I lost that one to you though. I don't mind losing to you because you're a nice guy."

This shows that your sympathy showed, he appreciated it, and was more willing to give you his money than others.

sweet gig! follow this guy around like a hommos platter with falafel and tzatziki sauce and you'll be raking in the matzo in no time!!

Mike Caro talks about making friends with the player on your left so he won't use his position over you as much. This wouldn't work in a game with good players but in low limit games it can work. If you can strike up a friendly conversation with the person on my left, it has been my experience that they will still raise you with a good hand, but then if it is heads up they will often (depending on how much they like you), check it down all the way. If you are their friend or someone they see as their friend, they often feel badly about extracting more money out of you if it is heads up, and will check after you check, whereas if they didn't like you and they had a good hand, they'd be betting. Or if they have a monster you can sometimes kind of hesitate and half smile at them, and they'll wink and say something like "throw away," etc. I admit to even falling victim to this myself, once I was sitting to the immediate left of a really sweet older lady, and we were conversing the whole session. Once when it got heads up and I had a lock, and she meekly checked into me, I felt bad about betting into her heads up and just checked it back to the river, turned my hand over, and smiled. The point is we are not computers, and human nature does enter into it. So if your opponents like you and think you are a nice guy, they tend to go easier on you.

I guess this is also why men tend to go easier on attractive women in a poker game, they feel bad about check raising a pretty woman who may be flirting with them (often for this very reason).


Tim

I think Caro's point was along the lines of "use this on others, but don't let yourself fall prey to it". Unless you're a world-class player, your advantage is razor-thin to begin with; why cut someone a break unless it will add to your EV somewhere down the line? "feeling bad" about using your skills against a weaker opponent should never enter into your thinking. I completley agree, on the subject of attractive women at the table, men are really stupid -- do we really fantasize we're going to get sexual favors just because we let some cutie-pie off easy?