Can one player tighten up a game?

A friend and I usually frequent a very nice poker club in our area. The games there are always loaded with superloose "madcappers" who make the pots great for the patient player(of which there are few). We decided to bring my brother, who is a somewhat decent player, but tends to be a loudmouth at the table. Well, as usual, when we were all finally seated at a great table full of fish, he starts spouting off odds and probabilities. He made fun of a few players for their choice of starting hands and belitted others that made silly plays. After about an hour, my friend and I started to realize that the table had tightened up like a snaredrum. The pot sizes had dwindled drastically and no one was talking except for my brother. Did this sudden change in game type happen as a result of my brothers stupidity? Should I play on a table with him again and risk the same fate? Can one player, reminding everyone that this is a strategic game ruin the table and make it almost unprofitable? All comments are appreciated.

Thanks,
PokerPrince

[BOTW]

Did this sudden change in game type happen as a result of my brothers stupidity? Yes.

Should I play on a table with him again and risk the same fate? Not unless you can convince him to shut his mouth.

Can one player, reminding everyone that this is a strategic game ruin the table and make it almost unprofitable? Yes, but you can adjust your play, no more quick cash.

I've seen it where one tight player who doesn't open his mouth but takes lots of time to figure out his play tighten a table. It was like everyone collectively thought "this guy is serious, maybe I should get a little serious, too".

[Ed Miller]

Never ever critcize someone else's play... not only does it tend to break the positive atmosphere of a table, but it is just plain rude. If someone wants your advice, then he will ask for it.

[redmarion]

I wouldn't want your brother to sit in any game I play in. If the game has been "ACTION" and a teacher sits in the game and starts teaching, it will educate the fish. Crticism will run the novice/loose players out. Anyone, who was on tilt, now, has been put on notice that good play is the best action.

I would hall my brother out of the room at the earliest opportunity and explain that I'm here to win some money. If he wants to ever come to a game with me, 'it's shut-up' or 'get out'

You make no money with players making good plays and "always showing down" the best hand. Who wants to play a game where they only call with the best hand and take your money [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[eMarkM]

There's a section in HFAP related to this about how just thinking too long in a loose game makes people tighten up. Actually quoting pot odds and trying to make fools of others only makes this worse.

Chasing away weak players like this is just a catastrophe. And for what, to give the guy some kind of ego boost. If he's the better player, just play better and shut up. Congratulate them on their fine play when their T7o sucks out your AA on the river and they pay you off all night.

There is a trap people sometimes fall into on this forum. They think if they perceive someone to be a poor player, that they do no thinking at all and have no skill or understanding. This is especially true about players who have a drink while they play. There have been times I have considered ordering one to create this illusion (I used to get plastered to play single deck blackjack).

But this is not often the case. Many players know how to play somewhat (or even much) better, but don't. That is, they don't until they think someone is there to take there $ instead of have fun, or someone tries to show them up. In fact, this is how I play in tiny stakes home games.

Changing even 1 or 2 players like this from "splashing about" to "tricky opponent", and at the same time tightening everyone up, can just about make you the fish, since you will have a very warped perception of every player at the table until you notice the changes.

[KUBowler99]

I couldn't agree more with everyone's posts.

When I started playing hold'em on a semi-regular basis (4yrs ago), I would get very upset/frustrated at players who drew out on me or played a poor hand to my top pair/top kicker and won when they hit thier second bottom pair on the river. It took a while, but I learned that I want this to happen to reinforce to the bad players they did the right thing by calling me down.

When I play at a b&m poker room, I'm there for one thing - to win money. But I understand that in order to maximize my return, I must portray a certain image. I need to be jovial, willing to talk with other people at the table (and the dealer), congratulate people on their winning hands, console people who just suffered a bad beat (even if it was to me [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ), and in general be a good-will ambassador at the poker table. I want people to think I'm only there to have fun and if I win, they think 'I got lucky'. I'm OK with that - the less people think of my poker play, the better off I'll be. If you're perceived as a 'nice guy (or girl)', people have less of a problem losing money to you. If you're perceived as an A**H**E, most people will try to 'stick it to ya' on every hand.