Was I too nice ?

[baggins]

[ QUOTE ]
i would never stop raising.

[/ QUOTE ]

you'll notice the poster DIDN'T stop raising. he raised and told the guy he had the nuts. how many times have you told somebody you had the nuts, just to jerk them around, or joke with them, or scare them off, or make them call, or whatever?

i think it was a good move. you took enough bets off this guy. let him save some dignity, and he'll probably softplay you sometime. (not that making a habit of softplaying each other would be good, of course...) or tell you how he plays. or at least keep playing. maybe stay in your game a bit longer.

nothing wrong with being nice to people at the table.

shear a sheep, but don't skin him. that's a good quote, whoever said it above...

[ThinkQuick]

I'm not sure I understood this concept until it hurt me...

I'd spiked a river A with my pocket aces on a really crappy board, and it was heads up with the button, a weak player for sure. We raised back and forth a whole bunch, and I finally just shook my head in wonder and called him for pity.
He showed 24s for the gutshot straight.
He had called a capped preflop, 2 cold on the flop with crap, and was the only caller on the turn.

Anyways the point is that he was hoping I'd keep raising 'cuz he had the nuts. He wanted my chips from me. In another situation with that guy I'd play him to the felt.

But against someone you'll play again - I like the raise and say 'I have the nuts'. Unfortunately I couldn't have done so, but maybe one day I'll learn to get the nuts on the river.

[exist]

i didn't say that he stopped raising.

however, it is clear that he tooks actions to stop the raising from continuing. the poster thought that if he just kept raising his opponent would back off after one or two more raises. if the opponent raises one more time, he gains 2 BB. if opponent raises two more times he gains 4 BB. lets say that half the time the opponent raises once more, and half the time the opponent raises twice more. thats 3 BB of EV. since this is a kill, its really 6 BB of EV at the 5/10 level.

say this guys wins 1 BB an hour, that six hours of EV lost because he told the other guy he had the nuts. he said he did this because he felt sorry for the guy, not because he was afraid the guy was going to leave or play better. if he is playing poker for money, then telling the opponent that he had the nuts was a catastrophic error. if he is playing poker for other reasons, well, that's his choice.

[baggins]

fair enough. i think we all know he left some bets on the table.

i think that if the poster was a professional, living off poker as his main source of income, then he wouldn't be asking this question.

as it is, he IS asking, and probably plays for more reasons than taking the maximum number of bets on each pot he wins.

[Luv2DriveTT]

Well you weren't totaly nice, you could have just called instead of raising that last time.... so you DID extract a bit more out of him then if you were being a total sweatheart.

TT in da club [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[jacki]

[ QUOTE ]
shear the sheep, never skin them

[/ QUOTE ]

Poster hasn't answered if this guy is a regular or not.

If this is your only chance at the sheep, then I skin him. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[TobDog]

Ok I'm probably gonna catch it for this attitude

[ QUOTE ]
shear the sheep, never skin them

[/ QUOTE ]

If you kill the sheep, won't there be room for a new one? Sure it may take some time to find one as tender as this one, but the harder you work, the better you get usually, right?

[TM1212]

I personally never soft play anyone. If my grandmother is sitting across from me with the last 20 dollars of her social security check, I am still going to reraise till every penny shes got is in the pot, show he the nuts and rake in my pot. Your definately hurting your profits if you soft play, but if profit isn't your main concern fine soft play every1.

For those who used the quote "Shear a sheep..." This doesn't apply, he is ethier gonna take this guys money now, or take his money later and another poor player will step in, Plus the sheep will probably be back.

[TM1212]

[ QUOTE ]
fair enough. i think we all know he left some bets on the table.

i think that if the poster was a professional, living off poker as his main source of income, then he wouldn't be asking this question.

as it is, he IS asking, and probably plays for more reasons than taking the maximum number of bets on each pot he wins.

[/ QUOTE ]

Theres another reason for playin poker then to make the maxium number of BB. What he needs to make friends? Come on there is no reason professional or not to soft play this guy on this hand. YOu also shouldn't feel bad for him. Your teaching him a lesson (never reraise me 20 times with out the nuts or any1 else for that matter), if you soft play him, hell expect you to soft play him next time. By soft playing your not helping him or yourself.

[MRBAA]

I would keep raising forever. I play everyone hard, but I also try to be polite and keep the game friendly. To me, that's the human level. The game itself is take no prisoners.