Tuesday, September 04, 2007

The curtain of anonymity

I’ve been dabbling again in online poker at FullTilt. Mostly playing OHL, but also the occasional tournament. On Friday afternoon I played a token frenzy tourney and won a $26 token – on Monday afternoon I played a 2-table $26 tourney to win a $75 token. I ended up winning the token…so now I have to find a good $75 game.

Despite having two successful games though, I left the game feeling…I don’t know what the right word is…not unhappy…but disappointed? It feels like every time I play online, I get heckled by at least one other player at the table. I’m sick of the venom that is so easily spewed by other players.

The heckling in question on Monday came after I made a marginal call on the turn when I had the second nut flush draw, and a gutshot straight draw. The 9 of hearts on the river made the straight and the flush for me. My opponent bet out into me – which gave me pause. I thought my call on the turn gave away the fact that I was drawing, so when she bet into me, I was concerned she may also have a flush – but I couldn’t fold the second nut flush, so I just called. I won the pot (she was betting a made straight – a move I still don’t understand). She called me “%^$#%ing donkey”.

Then later, I made a pre-flop raise with a mid-pair, got called by the blinds. The flop brought 1 over card, they checked so I made a continuation bet, only to have the BB go all-in. When I folded (remember, the point of a token tourney is not to win, it’s just to get into the ‘money’), she wrote “hahahahaha %&%^ing idiot”.

It’s not that I care about what this particular person thinks of me. It just bothers me that people have no sense of decorum at the table. They think nothing of saying something so rude to another human being – all over a game of poker that costs less than a trip to the movies.

I’ve been called worse than a donkey. I’ve seen things typed into chatrooms that are truly horrific. It really makes me sad that people can debase other human beings so easily.

I remember when I first started playing online on PartyPoker, when people would say “nh”, and the person who busted on the bubble in a SNG would say “gg” and “gl” to the players remaining. I guess those days are long gone.

Revenge can still be sweet though. My friend, who was so quick to criticize me, went out 8th (when 6th people got paid), when she raised from EP and got called by the BB. The flop came King high and she went all in with AQ. The button had AK. She got no help, and went out without a word.

3 comments:

Klopzi said...

Disable chat.

Who wants to get chummy with the locals anyway?

Mr. Bankwell said...

It was sweet to see your "new friend" push all-in with A-Q into A-K when there was a King on the board.

The person called you a donkey when they did a super donkey move of going broken when there were two super shorts stack that they could have waited out.

I always find it is the worse players that do the most talking, not the ones that can actually play.

You are too nice though as I wanted you to hound them on their amazing bust out but you took the high road and didn't.

jusdealem said...

I ususally turn my chat off, people can be so ugly when they're not face to face with you.