The Ultimate Fish - Morally Wrong?

[Hellmouth]

I have another analogy.

Would a 40 year pro poker player take it easy on a guy who was playing for the very first time and didnt even really know the rankings of winning hands?

The disadvantage might very well be similar.

Greg

[Grisgra]

Unethical to leave the table? What the hell are you talking about? How can it be unethical to leave a poker table?

[somapopper]

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I think I'd have to play hard to beat him! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] But really, I think I'd play my normal game except that if I was heads-up with him, I'd check the rest of the way.

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I agree with this. Table change is preferable, but otherwise I'm playing my normal game until it's headsup. If he raised all the time instead of called all the time, that would make things a lot more tricky. I'd probably just sit out till he went broke.

drunk people are definately fair game, and it's open season on gambling adicts (I'm happy to say to a guy, "I think you might have a problem" if I thought it would do any good, but if his money is going to me or the house, it might as well go to me).

[Mobi Mobbi]

[ QUOTE ]
I have another analogy.

Would a 40 year pro poker player take it easy on a guy who was playing for the very first time and didnt even really know the rankings of winning hands?

The disadvantage might very well be similar.

Greg

[/ QUOTE ]


I would have to disagree.

The differences between a mentally challenged person and a first timer are quite large. A mentally challenged person has a diminished ability to learn and/or process information. A first timer at least can learn the rules as he goes; a mentally challenged person, in most circumstances, cannot.

Although at first the comparison may be valid; after an hour or so, you'd most likely see some improvement in the first timer's play. That doesn't mean that he'd necessarily win more, but he may lose less.

I'd say the comparison (if one was to be made) is closer to that of a mentally challenged person and a drunk. A drunk, most likely, isn't going to change his play. He'll make unreasonable and illogical decisions, and he certainly isn't going to learn anything.

A drunk is fair game -- in fact, they almost deserve to lose their money.

Of course there's a difference between a genuinely mentally challenged person and someone who is just plain stupid. The important difference, once again, is that genuinely stupid people are fair game.

[DeanCarl]

Ok, here goes. First off a qualifier or two. Like a previous poster I worked with the developmentaly delayed for a number of years. My daughter is developmentaly delayed, my wife is disabled due to a mental illness, and I am physically disabled now due to a terminal illness. I'm the only poker player of the three of us but if my daughter ever takes up the game for real I'm gonna look into knitting!

Anyway, concerning the poster who was wondering about how this person had the money to play poker. A vast majority of folks with mental retardation live under some form of subsidized living depending on their mental and behavioral functioning level. The amount they pay for rent and the amount they recieve as spending money are mandated by state law. In California the spending money was around 90 dollars a month before I left the field (about 6 years ago).

And as long as they are not under concervatorship (sp?) or required to have a "payee" (someone who cashes their diability check and monitors their money), they are allowed to spend that money in any legal way they choose.

Whew..too long. But now to answer the OP's question. Please, PLEASE play this person exactly like you would anyone else. Even heads-up. You see, he's there for the very same reason you are. Because he WANTS to be. He wants to play poker and, I suspect, he wants to win. But most of all what he wants, whether it be at the poker table or anywhere else, is to be treated just like everybody else. Then if he does actually win a hand he'll know he really won it. And, as a previous poster mentioned, I'll bet there will be one heck of a celebration.

Dean