[/ QUOTE ] Why must they be fools if you outplay them at the table? Can't they just be some regular folk who likes to gamble and have a good time?

[/ QUOTE ]

I play online. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I think that most recreational gamblers play at casinos and other brick and mortar establishments. Most online players, in my opinion, believe that they either are or can be winning players.

So no, I don't think a poor poker player makes for a fool in general. Many people play poker poorly and are wildly succesful in other things. I think what makes for a fool is someone who thinks he can beat a game without putting a little effort into understanding it.

[ QUOTE ]
Your post sounds more like venting, perhaps from some other frustrations in life. And you THINK you're successfully making up for that at the tables.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I won't argue. Every day that I'm not on vacation jeeping in the Rockies is a day of frustration for me. People frustrate me generally, and I don't particularly like or respect most that I meet.

Do I think I'm making up for this frustration by playing poker? No. It's just a bit of a safety valve. The only way I could "make up for it" is if I felt free to say exactly what was on my mind in every situation, every day of my life. But you know, job, societal niceties, the other sex and all that. Every f'n day you have to censor yourself. Maybe if I were Paul Phillips.....

The more I read about different personality types, the more I'm convinced that certain things are just hard-wired into you. I've worked a lot on my anger and frustration and have come a long way since my early twenties, but there's always going to be a small part of me that is itching to choke the sh*t out of some a$$hole because, well, just because he's being an a$$hole.

[ QUOTE ]
I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should continue loving and beating the game, but show some respect for your opponents. Trust me, they're not as dumb as you think.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I never berate someone in a chat box or exhibit otherwise rude online behavior, but at the low limits, yes, they are as dumb as I think. And I just can't help my petty, spiteful little self, but I cackle everytime I run circles around someone who doesn't understand how or why he's getting beaten like a rented mule. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]