Re: Don\'t talk
 

[ QUOTE ]
Whenever I chat, it seems my results suffer.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this... At the very least, it offers a convenient excuse for my poor finishes in the Trout tournaments.

Re: Don\'t talk
 

If you play a lot of live games as I do, the chattier the person, the more likely they are to bluff. A quiet person is concentrating on the game and is probably a solid player.

Basic poker tells theory.

Re: Don\'t talk
 

Occasionally I see one player really go after another in chat, and often the attacked player plays poorly in an attempt to show him up, or something of the kind.

Do any of you guys ever intentionally insult other players to force them into poor play?

The idea is a bit distasteful to me, but I can see how it might be +EV in the correct situation.

Re: Don\'t talk
 

Good point. Sometimes I have chat off, but if I have it on I inevitably end up paying some extra attention to people who chat.

Re: Don\'t talk
 

This wasn't meant to be a "don't educate the fishes" post. There are hundreds of those threads.

It was meant to show that by going out of your way to make yourself unique (i.e. chatting in the box) you are drawing attention to yourself, attention that could lead people to conclusions that they may be able to use against you in the future. You want people to know as little about you as possible.

So I suggest, that you keep the chat on for observation purposes, but don't actually chat in it, friendly or otherwise. It's something I will be forcing myself to work on.

Re: Don\'t talk
 

occasionally, after a bad beat when blinds are still low, I will say something to the effect of "I can't believe this site", or something else that looks like I'm tilting. That way when I push the JJ+ I get hopefully get soon, fish are more likely to call. Too tricky? It seems to work, and then if I don't get a hand like this, by push/fold mode they realize I'm not on tilt...