Prose from a Poshboy

[cambridgealex]

London trip report- boring,  games boring, still don't like playing poker in london. lost 3/3 sessions, bowls each time though. morale low.

Darts trip report- much less boring. morale high. Was really fun, had a few small bets on and then between us we were playing a game where everyone puts £20 in a cup and it gets passed round every throw and whenever there's a 180 thrown, the person who the cups on gets the money and then it restarts.

So the pot is about £180 a time. Rough scores:

Langley binked it 5 times
Fett 4
Stato 3
Giblin 4
Keith 4
Mitch 3
Linton 2

Me 0

I stopped playing after about 10 or 15 bricks, was too brutal! Never even had a sweat either, not even the first dart was ever t20, was so boring!

So overall was a net loser for darts betting. Quelle surprise eh? Great fun though, but tbh it was literally only fun because of having bets on, the atmosphere was cool, we had a table, but you were just watching the big screens as the board was so far away, so it was just like watching it on TV but with loads of chavs singing and drinking piss beer out of plastic cups. Probably wouldn't go again.

So, all a little pissed up we went to DTD for some £1/1 DC with all of us, except the richest fker in the group who sat out because he doesn't know the games. Pfff.

I think I played OK, but lost £200. Giblin cleared up. And not just cleared up like he was the big winner. He won every chip on the table. He even stacked Pete "I'm a DC pro and I've got so much money, I'm going to sit to cover everyone by 1k" Linton.

Here's Neil, winning about a 3k in a 1/1 game:

Click to see full-size image.

Nobody left to play with:

Click to see full-size image.

And here is a clip of a pot him and Linton played in Padooki where Neil shoves after the last draw and tries to convince Pete he hasn't looked at one of his cards....



Then the degenaracy continued with £100 omaha flips 4 ways for about half an hour, then open face chinese back at ours.

One of the most degenerate days of my life, think I ended up a small loser on the day, which you can't knock really!

[TL900]

Degeneracy <3

[LonOhRay]

Degeneracy <3

"Langley binked it 5 times"

Looks like it

[kinboshi]

Giblin is my hero.

[iangascoigne]

Giblin is my hero.

+1

[jakally]

Slightly embarrassed by moving pics of me completely smashed.
Not embarrassed by evidence of me winding up the tall one.
I think turning 3 out of 4 of my cards face up, while he is tanking, is more than reasonable.

To be fair to Pete, I do slowroll him on a regular basis, but, like I tell him, if he makes the best hand at least one time, he can do it back to me.
Was quite funny being woken up by a phone call at 7 this morning, looking at piles of loose notes on the bedside table, and taking at least a few seconds to have any recollection of why.

Comedy night, but as Alex says, the darts, as a spectator sport, was a bit disappointing given we were about half a football pitch away from the action.

[cambridgealex]

It's been really great getting back into live cash again over the last few weeks. It's fun widening my social circle and meeting new people, and also pretty interesting seeing the new crop of players that have been coming through the 50/1 games and watching how they behave and figuring out how they play.

I can spot a little bit of my former self in lots of them, and really feel that a couple of them need what I had 2/3 years ago in order to progress - people to tell me to not be a dick!

I never thought I'd say this but Shaun King's outing of me about 2 years ago in this thread for being a cry-baby at the table a few times, was one of the best things that could've happened to me. Not saying he went about it correctly or that it wasn't extremely patronising and condescending, but the result of it was that a few people came on and said they agreed with him, and then people pointed out how Mitch behaved and how they enjoyed playing with him and didn't mind losing to him because he was a gracious winner and loser, then gradually I realised how I needed to be.

It was a slow process of growing up and maturing, and I feel I've mastered this side of things for some time now, and now I see people a few years younger than me, uni students etc, in my shoes, and I can see the mistakes they're making so clearly now, and it is just painful to watch. It really makes my insides churn when I see them berate people, mutter under their breath, be rude, grumpy, bad-tempered when playing in a cash game.

I think people berate other people because they want the other person to know that they (the berator) are better than them (the beratee). They (berator) needs the beratee to know that they played badly and only won the chips because they got lucky. The berator must make sure that the beratee doesn't think he's outplayed him, he must know that he played badly and was lucky.

This is the stupidest thought process imaginable. Here's a few reasons why:

1) You are playing to make money, you do that by playing against inferior players and making better decisions than them. Enlightening a player about a bad decision they made is going to be bad for you in the long term. Why do you want them to play better next time?

2) You look like a twat. You may not realise it, but trust me, you do. Anybody telling anybody they played a hand of poker badly just instantly is a twat in my book. Other people at the table think it too, the dealers and staff think it, and of course, the guy you're berating thinks it. They are correct.

3) You may make the other person feel bad. Is this your intention? If so, then again, you're a dick. If not, then realise very quickly how harmful it is to make an opponent feel bad. That person will probably not want to play in the same game as you again. That person will look elsewhere for games, or worse, quit altogether and look for a hobby that doesn't involve being made to feel like this. This is obviously harmful for the poker economy. You want to make him feel good about winning that pot. You want him to keep playing that way and you want him to keep playing that way against YOU.

4) It's not fun. Does it really help you ranting and raving? Maybe it does, and it helps to vent and let it out - but it's actually more fun to just forget about it, or think to yourself that you did nothing wrong, or that it's people making mistakes like that, that make poker a profitable game. It's more fun to just be relaxed and happy and enjoy yourself, if you can be zen about everything and be rational. This is never easy to do, and sometimes is impossible, and I'd never say that I'm always happy and smiley at the table, but in any case, being silent is going to be better than flipping your shit at anyone.

5) You are much more intimidating to play against if things don't faze you. Self-explanatory really.

I could think of several more, but it's very late and my brain has gone to sleep.

All I will say is how glad I am to have had this diary and the people that have contributed to it to help me along "the path" and I hope people reading it who have these issues still take it in, and don't think it doesn't apply to you or it isn't of absolute paramount importance.

[tikay]

That is one of THE great all-time blonde Posts, Alex.

Most us us went through that phase in our early poker lives. After a few months, we soon realise.

Sadly, some just can't see themselves.

[tight4better]

Sick post 

[bobAlike]

Sick post dick.

[skolsuper]

That is one of THE great all-time blonde Posts, Alex.

It's also been posted already about 3 times.

If you're struggling for material Alex, you could also write about how the world is round, or do a piece on where bears poop.

But yeah, bravo for posting this, it took guts to go against the grain like that.

[Yian]

It's been really great getting back into live cash again over the last few weeks. It's fun widening my social circle and meeting new people, and also pretty interesting seeing the new crop of players that have been coming through the 50/1 games and watching how they behave and figuring out how they play.

I can spot a little bit of my former self in lots of them, and really feel that a couple of them need what I had 2/3 years ago in order to progress - people to tell me to not be a dick!

I never thought I'd say this but Shaun King's outing of me about 2 years ago in this thread for being a cry-baby at the table a few times, was one of the best things that could've happened to me. Not saying he went about it correctly or that it wasn't extremely patronising and condescending, but the result of it was that a few people came on and said they agreed with him, and then people pointed out how Mitch behaved and how they enjoyed playing with him and didn't mind losing to him because he was a gracious winner and loser, then gradually I realised how I needed to be.

It was a slow process of growing up and maturing, and I feel I've mastered this side of things for some time now, and now I see people a few years younger than me, uni students etc, in my shoes, and I can see the mistakes they're making so clearly now, and it is just painful to watch. It really makes my insides churn when I see them berate people, mutter under their breath, be rude, grumpy, bad-tempered when playing in a cash game.

I think people berate other people because they want the other person to know that they (the berator) are better than them (the beratee). They (berator) needs the beratee to know that they played badly and only won the chips because they got lucky. The berator must make sure that the beratee doesn't think he's outplayed him, he must know that he played badly and was lucky.

This is the stupidest thought process imaginable. Here's a few reasons why:

1) You are playing to make money, you do that by playing against inferior players and making better decisions than them. Enlightening a player about a bad decision they made is going to be bad for you in the long term. Why do you want them to play better next time?

2) You look like a twat. You may not realise it, but trust me, you do. Anybody telling anybody they played a hand of poker badly just instantly is a twat in my book. Other people at the table think it too, the dealers and staff think it, and of course, the guy you're berating thinks it. They are correct.

3) You may make the other person feel bad. Is this your intention? If so, then again, you're a dick. If not, then realise very quickly how harmful it is to make an opponent feel bad. That person will probably not want to play in the same game as you again. That person will look elsewhere for games, or worse, quit altogether and look for a hobby that doesn't involve being made to feel like this. This is obviously harmful for the poker economy. You want to make him feel good about winning that pot. You want him to keep playing that way and you want him to keep playing that way against YOU.

4) It's not fun. Does it really help you ranting and raving? Maybe it does, and it helps to vent and let it out - but it's actually more fun to just forget about it, or think to yourself that you did nothing wrong, or that it's people making mistakes like that, that make poker a profitable game. It's more fun to just be relaxed and happy and enjoy yourself, if you can be zen about everything and be rational. This is never easy to do, and sometimes is impossible, and I'd never say that I'm always happy and smiley at the table, but in any case, being silent is going to be better than flipping your shit at anyone.

5) You are much more intimidating to play against if things don't faze you. Self-explanatory really.

I could think of several more, but it's very late and my brain has gone to sleep.

All I will say is how glad I am to have had this diary and the people that have contributed to it to help me along "the path" and I hope people reading it who have these issues still take it in, and don't think it doesn't apply to you or it isn't of absolute paramount importance.

The subject of this post is one of my pet hates at the table, next time I come across someone behaving like this I should whip out the ipad and show them this post. So much truth.

[cambridgealex]

That is one of THE great all-time blonde Posts, Alex.

It's also been posted already about 3 times.

If you're struggling for material Alex, you could also write about how the world is round, or do a piece on where bears poop.

But yeah, bravo for posting this, it took guts to go against the grain like that.

First post itt since the "you are ridiculous"? Seems I'm not the only one struggling for material. Bravo for posting this indeed.

[JK]

All the advice, guidance and help I've given you ITT and you give the credit to Shaun fking King?!

[cambridgealex]

All the advice, guidance and help I've given you ITT and you give the credit to Shaun fking King?!

thought he was your pal anyway mettt, you should be happy for him