He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

Hello everyone,

Thought I'd share an unfortunate experience I recently had online at a poker site, and I may blather on for some time.

So anyways, I play 25-50 online shorthanded games on a very regular basis. Players come and go as you'd expect, and recently a player who i'll call 'Glen' bought in and sat down. He immediately made an impression on everybody by going absolutely ballistic any time he was beat.

And he wasn't beat very much, he's pretty good, and was winning quite a bit, but the guy just hates to lose. If anyone saw the turn for one bet without the stone cold nuts and won, he'd go on and on and on calling them 'fish' and/or 'chasers' etcetera... And I mean he wouldn't stop, just relentless, regardless of whether the person under attack tried to defend their play or not.

I'll move it along. I had basically no interaction with him in this regard, because I play in such a way that is not conducive to putting people on 'bad beats'. (I'll take a moment here to say that in an aggressive 5-player game I don't think it's possible to put a REALLY bad beat on someone, because half the time people are betting with nothing....) However, in one hand I had AKd, and it was capped all 5 ways preflop, and again on the flop. The flop was Q high, with 2 diamonds. So obviously I like my chances. Missed the flush, but hit a king on the riv and bet it and won a pretty huge pot. Glen had AQ, and I didn't hear the end of it. I tried to explain that it was a multiway pot, with plenty of odds to chase the flush and the overcards, etc.... and he got so mad,

he called me a "n". ("N" is short for a racist word which you can all now guess.) I was floored. I mean call me a moron, an idiot, a fish, a chaser, I don't care, but that to me was unacceptable. So I told him I was about to email the site to complain about what I felt was excessively profane and ignorant language, and then I went ahead and did just that.

The site emailed me back saying that they would look into it, and I guess they did because for the next week I didn't hear one word out of him. I assume he temporarily lost his chat priveleges. However, last night he was chatting up a storm so I guess the probationary period is over. And he was the same old Glen. Just evil, bitter, and berating every player every time he was beat, in a legitimate manner or 'otherwise'. He could always find something wrong with the way a hand was played... any hand, by anyone. And people just started leaving, and the game broke, and I know it was because they were afraid to play against him for fear of reprimand.

He also mentioned the "N" word incident, saying he was only joking. But I am absolutely positively sure he wasn't. He said it in anger. And I guess my question for you, if I have one at all, is:

Does it really matter if he was joking or not?

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

I tried to explain

Never try to explain.

Does it really matter if he was joking or not?

No, it doesn't. I'd still ignore him. I just think it's sort of weird to call someone you can't see a racial name.

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

I don't play internet poker, but I thought one of the advantages over B&M play was not having to put up with the assholes. I guess that's not true.

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't play internet poker, but I thought one of the advantages over B&M play was not having to put up with the assholes. I guess that's not true.



[/ QUOTE ]

Andy, most sites have a "Disable Chat" feature where you are able to blank out any particular individual. The posters site may have one as well but he made the choice to participate in the chat so I fail to see his complaint having any validity if these are indeed the circumstances.

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

No, it doesn't matter if he was joking, and it is shocking that that's all the site did. Whether or not he has the right to type it at all, allowing something that offensive to be aired in a poker room, virtual or not, is hugely destuctive for the game. Obviously that's not the only reason I'd be outraged, but you'd think that reason would certainly be of conern to the site and all of its customers.

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't play internet poker, but I thought one of the advantages over B&M play was not having to put up with the assholes. I guess that's not true.



[/ QUOTE ]

as my friend would say. no one gets punched in the face over the internet

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

"I fail to see his complaint having any validity"

Wow. I wasn't expecting that. OK Wake Up CALL, let's say I do turn off the chat. He's still going to be an idiot to the other players. So let's say they all turn off their chat too, as you suggest. Well what do we have now? A situation where the idiot has the freedom and the luxury to speak at will, but everybody else is handcuffed and mute? Something here doesn't quite add up Wake Up CALL, and I think u can see what it is.

I enjoy chatting with the players. They are for the most part nice people, and what I find most interesting is that they come from literally all over the world. I'm not going to deprive myself of what is usually a positive online poker experience because of one bad apple.

An extreme metaphor: if everyone who was ever mugged never went outside again, what kind of world would it be? Extreme yes, but u can see the point I'm trying to make.

As for the site's muting capabilities, they are as follows: if you load the nice-looking version of their software (mellow lighting, nice aroma, ambient music, nice waitresses...) then u can either turn the chat on or off. Meaning if you don't want to hear one person you don't hear anyone at all. What I discovered after this incident is that if you load their "light" software (flourescent lighting, hard chairs, smokey air, no waitresses...), then u can 'mute' any individual player u don't want to hear.

So I play the light version now, sacrificing ambiance in favour of maintaining the social healthy poker environment I've grown to know and love.

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

It wasn't me I swear! :cool:

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

ambience is an issue for *online poker*??

put a cd in the stereo while you play, man...

Re: He called me a \"N-----\": online poker.
 

all_aces I do believe I was misunderstood. I suggested you turn off the offending players chat not your own. Where I play there is a feature to turn off chat individually and I qualified my answer as being applicable only if the site you were playing on had said feature. Is this more clear? Sorry if I caused confusion earlier. Personally if I do not like what someone is telling me I don't listen. I find children have turned this skill into a finely honed art form! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]