The Good Players Needs Those Novice

               Respect Your Opponent  

In the game like jeux poker we need to respect our opponent. We should not hate them like anything as they are our opponent. In any game our opponent let us to win the game. If our opponent is not a strong player we will not get that much what we get from the game. 

You can ask almost anyone if they know how to play poker and they will answer yes. The reason they answer yes is that most people have played “kitchen table” or penny-ante stuff. The good player says to himself, “Wonderful.” Correct? Of course, correct. 

 It reminds me of the story of the man who met an attractive woman and wanted to find out more about her. He asked, “Do you play the piano?” She replied, “Perhaps. I haven’t tried it.” As we all know, it takes a lot of practice to even be a novice at the piano.  

How does that story apply to poker? It seems to me that most people who learn the general idea of poker feel they can play the game with almost anyone. Once they memorize which hands beat other hands (flush beats a straight, etc.), they see themselves as good to adequate players. That is why the good player says to himself, “Wonderful.”  

The good player needs those novice players, novice players who think they can play, to pay the freight. Those novice players present us with our best chance to show a profit.  

PLAYER ABUSE 

 

 What overwhelms me is the following scenario, a scenario I have seen over and over again. A beginner player doesn’t recognize that he is in a dangerous situation and calls all raises. Well, son-of-a-gun, he catches his magic card and beats the good player who was trying to get him out of the pot. Then the abuse starts. “How could you draw to only one card in the deck? Didn’t you see that I had you badly beaten? What’s the matter with you?” These and many other sarcastic statements are directed at the one who is stacking the chips.  

WHY? 

 It is a mystery to me why the good player will turn on those novice players with verbal abuse. Those novice players are his bread and butter, his ticket to profit. Yet, in his anger, the good player seems to do his level best to drive the man away from the game. I recall a quote by Philo: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”  

It seems to me the player should go out of his or her way to accommodate the novice player. He should encourage each and every one of them to have fun playing poker. Talk to them, laugh with them, and find out where they are from. I saw this kind of friendliness in action on my last trip to California. After a couple of hours, a man sat down in the empty seat and it was apparent he had not played much poker. Immediately the guy next to me engaged this man in conversation. The new man, Ed, was from Chicago and traveled to the Los Angeles area once or twice a month. He was well dressed, sold computer software for a living and had three kids. Frank, the man next to me, had lived in Illinois, and they had a great time all afternoon. Ed, needless to say, lost quite a few dollars, but left in an upbeat mode. He even said he would come back to play on his next trip to California. Frank took down some of Ed’s money, but he made Ed feel good about playing. Respect for an opponent is an important concept to develop for your own sake and also for your wallet.