When you get your money in good and a weak player sucks out it camn be very tempting to put them down, letting them know what you think of their play – but please don’t! Not only can it not help, it can really work against you since you’re effectively “teaching” your opponents not to make bad plays (and that will hurt you in the long run).
You’ll often see players complaining, especially in online games, and almost without exception they are very weak players themselves. If you are in the habit of doing this, and you’re serious about your poker you need to stop now. No need to chastise yoruself, just sinmply make the decision to no longer bad mouth your opponents for weak plays.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and there are many different styles of poker. Bear that in mind, since what you consider a bad play could very well be a legitimate tactic which has positive EV over many hands. Even is it truely is a bad play, what possible benefit could be had by telling your opponent? At the very least you’ve made an enemy and made yourself look bad at the table, but worse than that you’re pointing out your opponent’s weaknesses, and he might just listen to you and improve – that’s one less fish you can earn from!
Complaining might also aggrivate other players who will join in and before you know it you have an argumentative game. You could end up with several players “ganging up” on you and that is likely to put you off your A game, and even if it doesn’t affect you it certainly can’t help.
So, starting from today no more trash talk. It’s simple to do, just stop typing anything bad in the chat box. In fact, after a little practice the only thing you’ll ever need to say is “nice play” while smiling to yourself that you’ll end up with this donkey’s money soon enough!
