Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

Just curious if anyone had an estimate on what they thought the percentage of people that are at a table who are only there to literally blow money. Not someone who is just horrible and will lose money in the long run, but someone who is playing with no intention of making money.

For instance, when I transfered money over from one site to another, I was left with like 2 bucks, and just completely messed around at the .02/.04 NL table. Pretty much just random all ins and such.

Obviously as the stakes are higher, people are less willing to just "give" money away. I don't mean bad players by this question. More of people who really are just playing to waste a few bucks and minutes. What percentage at the penny stakes, $.25/.50, $.50/1, and $1/2 do you think really don't give a damn about the money?

I know this may seem like a ridiculous question, but just curious to see what people thought.

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

bump

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

I think most are there to win, it's just that they have no ability to. They watch too much WPT or have no knowledge of poker so their play is atrocious. I think the percentage that is there with the intention of actually just donating is infinitessimally small.

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

I've run into people who normally play higher stakes (because I searched for them next time I played) playing 25NL who are throwing money away to blow steam. That's about it though.

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

I know a few people that play higher limits, but go down to the penny limits to blow off some steam after a bad beat, or to loosen up after playing their A game for hours at stakes that matter. That might explain some of those players.

The rest? ... Well they probably saw poker on tv for the first time and saw Gus Hanson make outrages plays, or Danny Nguyen lunchbox his way to a WPT title, and naturally assume that is how poker is played, without excepton.

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

I know that there a lot of guys that come in to my games and just throw money away just for the heck of it. I recently had to withdraw a huge part of my bankroll because of personal things so I'm at the .05/.10 NL games playing with a 200 dollar roll. Today for an instance I raised a pot in late position with 5 callers to .70 cents and a new guy raised me to 10 dollars and i had aces, he has 27 hahahah. I mean I'm cool with it. I'd say a small percentage are these guys but over 15k hands the play is pretty bad regardless.

Verbal

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

A LOT. A lot more than you would think, at least.

A lot of people make a lot of money and they simply like to play poker, even if they lose. Also, some just want to tell people "I play poker online", because people automatically assume they must be a winning player to be so good that they can play online (GASP...with no reads!).

A lot of people simply don't give an F about dropping a couple hundy a week at their hobby. It's entertainment.

I'm one of those people who doesn't care about picking up a couply hundy a week. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

I've only seen 2 truly donating LAG's in the past 2 months of 25NL I've played. By that I mean overbetting nearly every pot and trying to win them all, like all-in on the flop 5 straight hands.

One I buddy listed and saw him playing 6 1000NL the other day, so he was obviously just blowing off steam in the kiddie pool.

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

I don't think anyone sits down with the idea of intentionally donating money, or at least very few. I would say the majority could care less if they win or lose, they are just there trying to have fun and the money is of no importance. I would also say there are very few who are actually trying to win, and by trying I mean actively enhancing their game. JMO

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

I'm sorry, lunchbox? Does this mean he kind of had a set strategy for how he was going to play out his tournament?

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

IMO, there seems to be 3 major classes of players. It reminds me a lot of golf in that the vast majority are just hobbyists. Then there are a small number of good players who take the sport seriously and actively practice and improve their game. There are then a very small number who are capable of playing professionally at some level.

~ 95% - Players that are just there to have fun. They don't take the game seriously and have no intention of improving their game in any meaningful way. They consider it gambling and are just hoping to get lucky. To them it is little more than a a hobby. Some of these players THINK they are good players because they watch WSOP or learned the game from a family member or friend, but they are not. They will never be winning players.

~ 5% - Players that take the game seriously. They are actively trying to improve their game. They study and practice. This player is a long term winner to some degree as long as they are mostly playing against the 95% who are just there to have fun.

< 1% - The professional quality player. Either makes a living playing or is fully capable of doing so.

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

I assume these people who are throwing away money usually play to (try to) win but have gone on tilt and don't care about the money anymore. I think its very, very rare that people log onto a poker site and don't care about the money from the start, because thats the whole point of playing poker.

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

This is probably more true of live than online poker. A lot of live players are there to socialize/have some fun/have some drinks and don't care to much about losing. This also probably applies more to limit; any totally incompetent or maniacal player is going to lose a ton of money (by almost anyone's standards) playing 25NL or higher.

Re: Small Stakes - People who literally throw money away
 

[ QUOTE ]
I assume these people who are throwing away money usually play to (try to) win but have gone on tilt and don't care about the money anymore.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point. Everyone but tilt proof players throw money away from time to time.