Fish in a Barrel

[uuDevil]

I'm thinking of a particular online player, who plays most all of his hands and calls all the way with any piece of the board or ace high ($.5/1: vp$p 70% pfr 0.00%, WR -17BB/100 over 550 hands). He almost never bets or raises even with very strong hands. He's not a jerk, he just sits there quietly losing his money.

At these stakes he could likely afford to play this way for a quite a while, but I find it hard to believe he enjoys playing very much. I know we want to take advantage of our opponent's weaknesses, but do you ever see players at the table who are so bad you want to help them play better?

[deacsoft]

I see them every day and I want to just say "Look man, I'm no expert but, this is how..." but I can't. Many of these types of players would not respond well to someone trying to help them. They may even take it as a put down or an attempt to make them feel/look stupid. I'm trying to teach some of my friends along but that's as far as I see myself going with it.

[Dominic]

never ever do i feel that need. I'll just quietly take their money, thank u.

[Dan Mezick]

Anyone that wants help can find it. I would venture a guess that the average 2+2 player is more than twice as good a performer on a variety of poker stats than the average player out there.

What I am saying is, you could suggest lurking on this board to learn and they still wouldn't do it.

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."


On the other hand, if you look at the level of poker advice here, it's pretty darned good.

It would certainly be interesting to theorize as to why, since in theory the quality posters 'gain nothing' by spilling the beans, and may actually 'lose' if they assist someone else in thinking about poker ... and then find themselves across the table from the improved player.

The books, the internet, the ability to practice online...all of this is relatively new. I've said it before: the quality of play we see today is going to double or triple in the next ten years.

This probably means the ambient skill level of the 'fish' must rise substantially in the future, and/or the half-life of all varieties of "aquatic life" must in the future substantially decrease.

[sammy_g]

The very first day I played, I was this player. All I knew was the rules -- no strategy. I played any face card and any two sooted. I bought in for $100 at a 0.50/1 table and lost it all [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

A week later, I returned after some study. I won a bunch of money and never looked back.

So maybe this fish you describe is a future 2+2er. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[sammy_g]

Oh, I forgot to mention: I had a blast losing all this money! It's fun playing every hand...

[uuDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm trying to teach some of my friends along but that's as far as I see myself going with it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even my friends won't listen to me. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

So I won't actually say anything to an online player. Besides, I doubt the other players would appreciate it.

[uuDevil]

[ QUOTE ]
It would certainly be interesting to theorize as to why, since in theory the quality posters 'gain nothing' by spilling the beans, and may actually 'lose' if they assist someone else in thinking about poker ... and then find themselves across the table from the improved player.


[/ QUOTE ]

I've always wondered about this. At the table, we just take the money. Here we spill our guts. Of course most of us get much better advice than we can give, but most everyone seems to want to help the other guy. Could guilt have something to do with it? Or is it just that even sharks (at least the poker variety) need to feel like part of a community?

[Blarg]

Actually what tugs at my sympathies are when someone is both losing and seems to be lonely or something. Starting up conversations and getting the cold shoulder while losing all the time sucks. It's a double wallop of compounded misery, and I can relate to both sides of it.

Sometimes there's something mercenary about my responding and chatting them up, in that I want to keep losing players happy and comfortable at the table so they can keep losing more. But, they're losing anyway, and I don't particularly enjoy seeing people seem to be having a bad time whether they're winning or losing, so my yucky squishy side comes out when I see that happening either way. I don't particularly enjoy people gloating when bad times come to me or giving me the cold shoulder, so I often try to do what I can to create a decent atmosphere when I sense someone else is feeling bad that way.

Not that I will try to not take their money to make them feel better. I try very hard to divorce the gameplay from who I am as a person, and hate poor sports and think gloating sucks in all kinds of ways at once.

[BeerMoney]

My only experience was playing NL with some friends... On my first 2 trips to foxwoods a lost my $100 each time. Some guy I was sitting next to probably realized I played too many hands.. I was being nice to the guy, and that's why he probably recommended WLLH. I'd buy that guy a beer if I saw him now.

I've PM'd a person on PP one time with the same advice. I sent him the PM 4 times.. each time he asked me to repeat the name of the book. Finally I gave up. That's my story.