Ethical Question

[ricdaman]

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It seems like what you did was outside the scope of playing cards. You probably feigned being a nice guy and otherwise appealed to his emotions to convince him to fold. Seems like a con to me, rather than a bluff.

My gut tells me it's not ethical, but it's definitely not very smart:

It won't work very often, people will hate you for it and take great pleasure in seeing you lose. It's better to be the guy that people like to lose to than people like to beat.

If you do it to the wrong guy, then he might just wait in the alley for you w/ a sock full of quarters.

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Excellent point in all regards. If only I hadn't gotten all excited and flipped over my cards this post would never have been made.... if only.

Most of the people in the cardroom enjoy playing with me, but there are those who hate the way I play and refuse to sit at the same table as me. Right now, I'd say it's about 50/50 amongst the regulars. Almost all of the non-regulars enjoy playing with me, but that's probably because they haven't seen the times that I tricked someone into folding. I have always pretended to be nice, while really only caring about taking people's money.

What I need to start doing is actually being nice instead of pretending to. In the long run, it's the only way to go. After all, who wants to play in a cardroom where everybody's out to get them? It's always a lot more fun when people get up from the table busted and shake my hand and say, "It's been a pleasure playing with you. I had a lot of fun." Needless to say, nobody said it on the night referred to in this post.