Table talk on Party

[fnurt]

I think you, and some of the other posters in this thread, are missing the big picture. Even if it is technically wrong for someone to guess what another player has, you want to encourage everyone to play a friendly, fun game. That is the atmosphere that keeps everyone coming back for more.

If you are the better player, table talk from other players will almost always be to your advantage because it gives you additional information. If someone likes to guess what their opponent is holding, you learn something about their ability as a hand reader, and you may be able to take advantage of it yourself.

If you turn into a rules lawyer in a low-limit game, you will drive away the people who are just looking to have a good time, and those are the people you want in the game in the first place. For egregious cases, you can make a friendly comment, but keep it low-key. And emailing support asking them to punish a fish who doesn't know any better is just not in your self-interest.

[MicroBob]

First - I think it's okay if someone is heads-up against me to say "So, you got the flush, eh??"
Not like he's going to get a read on me anyway. He's just trying to show-off his superior poker intellect.

There's a big difference between that and some guy not even in the hand anymore noticing the crazy-raising and saying "I bet Bob's got quads against Joe's full-house" when 3 of us were capping away on a pretty nice board. (I think I had QQ on board of AQQJT or something) I really think the guy's comment helped my opponent think "Oh crap...maybe I'm not best here" and slowed him down costing me a couple BB's on the river (but I don't KNOW this, he might have slowed-down anyway).

Obviously, this is EXTREMLY inappropriate and I have no hesitation in saying "Please don't comment about a hand in progress. It can effect the play."

I'm amazed at the number of times the culprit realizes the error of their ways and apologizes...and I say "NP" and we move on.

I've only had 1 guy take it to the next level "You idiot. It was obvious what you had!! Blah Blah Blah."

"But you still shouldn't talk about a hand in play."

The idiot tried to argue that by MY RULES it would be incorrect to say "NH" after a guy played well so I emphasized WHILE THE HAND IS IN PLAY. or something like that. And mentioned that it's in Party's rules (even though I've never read Party's rules).

Anyway, that was an isolated incident. Everyone else (probably 9 out of 10) has been surprisingly nice about apologizing and saying they didn't mean to mess anything up with the hand...etc etc. But the sample-size is too small to draw any reasonable conclusions. I'm sure I've just gotten lucky.

[lefty rosen]

Watch the WPT, guys that play with peoples minds and outright lie do this all day. Granted they don't say they just fold XYZ, but they say I got AA and they have AK or worse.......

[gliam]

Party does not tolerate someone talking during a hand they are not involved in. I have reported people for this (alerts@partypoker.com) if they dont stop when I ask them to. Once I asked party support to simply inform a player of this rule and warn him. They responded by banning his chat in 5 minutes flat. Party support seems to be starting to take things like this more seriously, I have even seen support show up at a table.

[LeapingGnome]

Thanks for everyone's replies. Microbob, you have it exactly right when you talking about helping your opponent. It's each player's own responsibility to read the board for themselves, if they don't notice there is three to a straight on the board, or they are just inexperienced and don't understand that me check-raising might mean I have a better hand, then some guy not even in the hand should not be spouting comments reading the board for them.

Bluffing heads up, fine. But talking in a multiway pot, stating what you folded or commenting on a hand you're not even involved in while it is IN PLAY, not cool and could cost me bets.

Thanks again to everyone, if they don't chill after the friendly reminders I know what my other options are now.

[Rudbaeck]

A good example came up during one of the PPM's. I think it was Negreanu who heads up against an inexperienced onliner flipped over his cards and proclaimed Straight, and the opponent mucked his hand.

Negreanu was playing the board.

If someone had talked during that hand Negreanu probably would have done a pretty good Hellmuth impersonation.