"Playing" a friend.

[iash]

[ QUOTE ]
How would you like to be at a table where players softplay except when you're in the pot? Put yourself in others shoes. This isn't a team game.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are right. This would annoy me if others were doing it. Every man for himself.

[ QUOTE ]
At one point in the session, a few players criticized me for playing so cut-throat vs. a friend

[/ QUOTE ]

boo hoo. Welcome to poker. Guess what? It's a cutthroat game.

Not getting over this hurdle, and a simple one at that, you may not be cut out to play the game seriously. Serious players don't even give this issue a 2nd thought.



[/ QUOTE ]

I honesly never gave my play a second thought until people starting ragging on me.

Thanks for your um brutal honesty.

iash

[jar]

It's a common cliche, but has some merit: If you wouldn't check raise your grandmother when she's playing for her medicine money, you don't belong at the same table.

[Swampy]

I'm in a home game that is going into its 8th year, always with the same guys, and I can tell you that none of us lets friendship get in the way of trying to take every chip that's offered. When a couple of these guys and I ended up at the same table at the Trop a couple of months back, it was exactly the same. It'd be the same no matter what we were playing (golf, checkers, whatever), whether for $$ or just bragging rights. Anyone who doesn't understand the nature of competition shouldn't be in any game, plain and simple. Where's the joy in beating someone if you know he's taking it easy on you?

[MilkFish]

i have the same dilemma but we both kinda "know" it. so we would jokingly say to each other, we should play at different tables when we have a choice (we play low limit and no limit.) my friend would say, so we both end up winning more and not against each other. but i suspect my friend also softplays me once in an while, as i do too.

i play "normally" when we're in a pot with other people but i really do play different when it's heads up. i guess, we're both thinking the same thing. not profitable yes, but some friendships are worth more than a 2/4 or 3/6 pot. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Porcupine]

[ QUOTE ]
It might be better if you played limit with your friends. That way there is less chance that you will lose a large chunk of money to each other.

[/ QUOTE ]

True. Also, if you sit across (seats 1 and 4, for example) the table from each other, instead of next to each other, you should be involved in less pots with each other, but can still easily talk.

[The Goober]

I used to feel this way too - that its okay to softplay a friend only when its heads up - but I now think its wrong to do that. The problem is that both friends know what will happen, and it will affect their play on earlier streets.

For example, suppose its 3 handed on the flop, and my buddy bets into me. If I can raise and knock out the third player, then I know I can get to the showdown for only 1BB (since my buddy and I will check it down after the third player folds). This is, of course, really unfair to the third player unless he was explicitly told about our agreement, and even then, I don't think that friends softplaying is something that everyone at the table should have to take into account when trying to read hands.

I know most people wouldn't knowlingly make a play like this (and I think that anyone who makes this play *knows* that they are cheating), but I think that this sort of thinking could subconciously affect your play. So basically, you should never soft play a friend at the table.

Of course, having said that, I see friends checking down hands heads-up all the time, and I never complain about it. Why? Because I think that whatever small advantage they might have is outweighed by the fact that by speaking up I would make myself very unpopular at the table, and people would start to see a bullseye on my forward and start to play more agressive and tricky towards me. While a better player might be able to take advantage of this to win even more, I'm not that good and I like to keep the fish nice and passive and predictable.

[fireman664]

it would be unethical to play him any way other than you would play anyone else at the table. Plus, if you guys are good friends, loosing some pots to you wont change that (would you still be his friend if he rivered a Q vs your AA?? of course)...

[kyro]

i played a home game with my friend when i visited him at school. i took almost his whole stack. i then bragged about it. that'll teach him.

[gamblore99]

Your problem is complicated a lot by the fact that your friend is risking money that is to much for him. Normally the answer is a very simple you play everyone the same, but because the money you take from your friend may seriously hurt him, I think you should try to convince him to change limits, or play at a different table than him.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
not profitable yes, but some friendships are worth more than a 2/4 or 3/6 pot

[/ QUOTE ]

Just how strong is a friendship when it's based on the outcoome of a 2/4 or 3/6 pot? Gimme a break.

b