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Entry #3: To chat or not to chat
Poker means different things to different people. Despite the fact that the aim of the game is - obviously - to increase one's bankroll, there are other aspects to poker that attract those players who might otherwise not venture into the world of gambling. One is the person-to-person competitive nature of poker, while another is purely social. Thanks to the chat facility it is possible to 'speak' with players from around the world while being surrounded by home comforts, with poker (and other) stories and discussions of previous hands and so on a common feature at just about every table these days.
We all want to see our poker improve, but 32Red regulars can also learn a lot more about the world from their fellow players. However, in my experience there is much more to chatting than finding out, for example, that in Sweden every man and his dog seems to be playing poker. As with most things, there are pros and cons when dealing with this facility and, as online poker continues to grow (at some pace) in popularity, there is an increasing number of players for whom chatting is a useful money-spinning tool.
Let's take a Limit ring game as a typical example. You have had the 'Full detail' switched on in the chat box at a $1/2 table throughout your session thus far but you're not really taking much notice, an hour's worth of grinding along nicely helping your original $50 grow to $70. Then, from nowhere, after one of many solid pre-flop folds, you sit back as most of the table gets involved in a mad raising frenzy before and after the flop, resulting in by far the biggest pot yet. The eventual winner takes home the cheese by filling a 6-high straight on the turn and river, coming from way behind to steal the pot from three hitherto far superior hands. A couple of the losers proceed to spend the next few hands letting their opinions be known, one of them managing to simultaneously win each hand with aggressive betting., including one from you. Over subsequent hands you continue to be distracted, albeit mildly (so you believe) by what has now become a full-blown, multi-way argument, and in the reduced time you have to make decisions you notice that play has become considerably more erratic. You don't even consider leaving the table because it has been proving a profitable one and, anyway, the ongoing discussion is rather entertaining. Then Loser1 asks your opinion, the 6-high straight man says that you'll side with him, to which Loser1 adds: 'If he agrees with you he's another fool', and during this time you find yourself calling an early raise with K9 only to subsequently fold to a re-raise. Your lack of response sees the two main protagonists suddenly make peace to fire negative comments in your direction, and one of them somehow takes a sizeable pot that seemed to have been coming your way after aggressively betting your pocket kings. In a brief hiatus it dawns on you that you now have only $32 left of the original $50. Only five minutes have passed since the argument began...
It would be a safe bet to assume that most of us have allowed ourselves to suffer this kind of experience at one time or another, but I'm sure that most 'victims' fail to notice that when this happens, when the tone of the game takes this serious turn in direction, at least one of the players involved in the argument sees his fortunes change for the better. You and a few others are now struggling, whereas he is piling on the dollars. This, alas, is by no means a coincidence. There are other ways of exploiting the chat facility (to which we'll turn in future) that might dissuade players from switching chat off altogether - although, in this example, there will also be a 'quiet' player whose stock will rise in turn with the escalating argument - but for the time being it is imperative to remember that allowing your attention to be drawn away from the play itself due to others apparently losing their own self-control can be very damaging to the bankroll. You have been warned!
Have a good week!
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