Table Courtesy
Round 1 - Do You Chop?
If you understand what chopping the blinds is, skip to the 2nd paragraph.
In Hold 'Em and Omaha, the flop games of poker, there's a standard small and big blind bet placed out by the two players just to the left of the player currently marked as the dealer with the dealer button. People get that. Cool. In every single casino in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's at least one game where there's also a blind bet put out by the player with the dealer button. For example, at Garlic City, you have a $1, $2, $2 blind structure. $1 on the button, $2 in the small blind, and $2 in the big blind. At M8trix, there's a $1,$2,$3 game. $1 on the button, $2 SB (small blind), $3 BB (big blind). OK. Now chopping... so in a normal game with 2 blinds - Lucky Chances' $3,$5 game for example - if everyone folds to the players in the blind, those two player can "Chop it". Chopping means that they take most or all of their money back and chose not to the play that hand against each other. With Lucky Chances specifically, they rake $2 a hand no matter what ($1 + $1 for bad beat jackpot), so each player hands the dealer a dollar and we all move on to the next hand. Why would people do that? Well, normally in that same game, the house takes $6 per hand that goes post-flop. So out of the $8 out there, which will likely turn into $10 once the player in the small blind player calls, $6 is immediately taken away. So the two players have invested $5 each to play for a pot of $4. So most people instead chose to chop it. Makes sense, right?
In Hold 'Em and Omaha, the flop games of poker, there's a standard small and big blind bet placed out by the two players just to the left of the player currently marked as the dealer with the dealer button. People get that. Cool. In every single casino in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's at least one game where there's also a blind bet put out by the player with the dealer button. For example, at Garlic City, you have a $1, $2, $2 blind structure. $1 on the button, $2 in the small blind, and $2 in the big blind. At M8trix, there's a $1,$2,$3 game. $1 on the button, $2 SB (small blind), $3 BB (big blind). OK. Now chopping... so in a normal game with 2 blinds - Lucky Chances' $3,$5 game for example - if everyone folds to the players in the blind, those two player can "Chop it". Chopping means that they take most or all of their money back and chose not to the play that hand against each other. With Lucky Chances specifically, they rake $2 a hand no matter what ($1 + $1 for bad beat jackpot), so each player hands the dealer a dollar and we all move on to the next hand. Why would people do that? Well, normally in that same game, the house takes $6 per hand that goes post-flop. So out of the $8 out there, which will likely turn into $10 once the player in the small blind player calls, $6 is immediately taken away. So the two players have invested $5 each to play for a pot of $4. So most people instead chose to chop it. Makes sense, right?
It's a little different when you've got a blind bet out on the dealer button. Let's take M8trix and Bay 101's $2,$3,$5 games for example. If the action folds around to the player on the button with $2 out there, and everyone chops, the player with the dealer button sacrifices $1 out of the $2 they have out, then the small and big blind take all of their money back. Well that's not particularly fair, now is it? You take the best position at the table and make it so of that guy is super nice and decides not to use it to his advantage by raising, he is the one also giving up money in the chop. In my opinion, that's stupid. So when the situation comes up and players ask me, "Do you chop?", the answer is "I don't chop my button, but I chop my blinds every single time." People that haven't thought it through like I have sometimes take issue with my policy. They think I might be a shady character by changing my blind chopping policy dependent on my positional advantage. But if they ask or say stuff out loud about it, I typically explain and they typically say "Oh that makes sense.", and we move on and play cards.
Yesterday at Bay 101, this exact scenario went down. I told the table my chopping policy when asked, I told them, someone asked why, then I explained it. Almost the entire table made a Eureka-moment "Ohhhhhhh!" after my explanation. Then later on, a new player sat to my right, the situation came up, and he asked if myself and the player to my left chopped. I told him, "I don't chop my button, but I chop my blinds every single time." Then the player to my left started mouthing off about how stupid the policy was. I attempted to explain the thought process to him, but he just kept mouthing off, cutting me off, and telling me what I should do. I asked him politely at first not to tell me what to do and not to tell another person what I do, what I should do, or what I shouldn't do. He then went off and spouted out several poor defenses, to which I got a bit more agitated and said something like "Look, just don't talk for me and don't tell me what to do." This cycle happened a couple times until the guy shut up.
Round 2 - Talking When You Don't Have a Hand
Probably 10-20 minutes later, I got involved in a pretty sizable pot. There was 3 way action and currently around $700 in the middle with $200 for me to call, but likely more money would go in if I continued in the pot. The board was 7,J,J,K. The guy to my left started talking to the guy to his left. I couldn't understand him perfectly because his English wasn't great, but it was clear to me that he was talking about the hand that was taking place and what types of hands the bettor was likely to hold. THIS IS NOT OK. Talking about a hand you're not in while those who are in it can hear can change the actual action and win or lose people money.
Example: let's say in precisely this pot, I was holding Q,Q or A,A & I'm a complete idiot. Maybe I hadn't strongly considered the possibility that the guy betting into me had a jack or I had written it off in my mind for whatever reason. This guy saying "...jack.." could restart the thinking process in my brain of what types of holdings my opponent might have. Literally one word out of that guy's mouth could lose my opponent $200 or even more, considering we both would have had more money left over had I called the $200.
So I asked politely again for the guy to not speak about a hand that he's not in. Again, he went off and spouted out poor defenses, such as "I wasn't talking to you." and "I wasn't talking about the hand.", which were both complete lies. I called over the floor man and requested that he ask the guy to my left not to speak about hands he's not in. The floor man then asked the dealer what happened. To my surprise and dismay, the dealer basically shrugged and said he didn't know. I explained precisely what happened and asked probably 2 or 3 more times for the floor man to just remind the guy not to speak about hands he's not in, to which he eventually mumbled out "yeah don't do that." Guy to my left wouldn't let the incident go and kept on me while I was still trying to think through this hand I was in, the floor man had to come back twice and say "hey just calm down guys move on", to which my reply was "sounds great, I'd love to." I wasn't paying super close attention and I'm not sure if someone asked him to move, but soon afterward, the guy to my left picked up and either moved to another table or left.
Super frustrating 20-ish minutes. I was super heated and very glad that he left.
Bottom Line
Don't be disrespectful to others at the poker table. It's OK to have differing opinions on things like blind chopping policy, but that doesn't mean you should express them in a disrespectful manner. And don't talk about hands you're no longer in while they're still happening. Even wincing when a card that would have been good for you comes is rude and disrespectful to the players that are still in the hand. Players in the hand don't want your words or facial expressions to change the action that you're no longer involved with
Feel free to comment below or send any questions, comments, ideas, or w/e in to dj8bitavenger@gmail.com, and I'll make sure to incorporate the feedback into future posts.
If you're interested in free or cheap coaching, please fill out this survey and I'll reach out to you: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y57ZHNB
Round 2 - Talking When You Don't Have a Hand
Probably 10-20 minutes later, I got involved in a pretty sizable pot. There was 3 way action and currently around $700 in the middle with $200 for me to call, but likely more money would go in if I continued in the pot. The board was 7,J,J,K. The guy to my left started talking to the guy to his left. I couldn't understand him perfectly because his English wasn't great, but it was clear to me that he was talking about the hand that was taking place and what types of hands the bettor was likely to hold. THIS IS NOT OK. Talking about a hand you're not in while those who are in it can hear can change the actual action and win or lose people money.
Example: let's say in precisely this pot, I was holding Q,Q or A,A & I'm a complete idiot. Maybe I hadn't strongly considered the possibility that the guy betting into me had a jack or I had written it off in my mind for whatever reason. This guy saying "...jack.." could restart the thinking process in my brain of what types of holdings my opponent might have. Literally one word out of that guy's mouth could lose my opponent $200 or even more, considering we both would have had more money left over had I called the $200.
So I asked politely again for the guy to not speak about a hand that he's not in. Again, he went off and spouted out poor defenses, such as "I wasn't talking to you." and "I wasn't talking about the hand.", which were both complete lies. I called over the floor man and requested that he ask the guy to my left not to speak about hands he's not in. The floor man then asked the dealer what happened. To my surprise and dismay, the dealer basically shrugged and said he didn't know. I explained precisely what happened and asked probably 2 or 3 more times for the floor man to just remind the guy not to speak about hands he's not in, to which he eventually mumbled out "yeah don't do that." Guy to my left wouldn't let the incident go and kept on me while I was still trying to think through this hand I was in, the floor man had to come back twice and say "hey just calm down guys move on", to which my reply was "sounds great, I'd love to." I wasn't paying super close attention and I'm not sure if someone asked him to move, but soon afterward, the guy to my left picked up and either moved to another table or left.
Super frustrating 20-ish minutes. I was super heated and very glad that he left.
Bottom Line
Don't be disrespectful to others at the poker table. It's OK to have differing opinions on things like blind chopping policy, but that doesn't mean you should express them in a disrespectful manner. And don't talk about hands you're no longer in while they're still happening. Even wincing when a card that would have been good for you comes is rude and disrespectful to the players that are still in the hand. Players in the hand don't want your words or facial expressions to change the action that you're no longer involved with
♠♥♣♦
Feel free to comment below or send any questions, comments, ideas, or w/e in to dj8bitavenger@gmail.com, and I'll make sure to incorporate the feedback into future posts.
If you're interested in free or cheap coaching, please fill out this survey and I'll reach out to you: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y57ZHNB
No comments:
Post a Comment