If you’ve been perusing the PocketFives.com forums lately, then you’ve noticed a thread called “Growing Epidemic in Online Poker: A Letter to the Community.” In it, Dylan ImaLucSac Linde pleads with readers to avoid upsetting softer players by berating them verbally and with stats at the tables and on online poker forums like PocketFives.com. He candidly explained, “When I first got into poker, the idea of ‘not tapping the glass’ was in a lot of poker literature and just seemed to make a lot of sense to me. Obviously, I have been guilty of getting angry and saying a snide remark in the past, but we all need to make a conscious effort to stop this.”Linde told PocketFives.com what the impetus was to begin authoring his post, which has received nine pages of responses: “I’ve been going through the largest downswing of my career as a poker player. This has caused a lot of introspection, as I think it should. Thinking about the various mistakes I have made, I was reflecting on my tilt factor. I started to notice that sometimes when I made a questionable play, someone would randomly berate me.” Linde is a Triple Crown winner on the site and hails from Idaho.
In an age when poker appears to be on the decline, Linde’s sentiments strike even more accord with professional players. He commented, “With the way the poker economy is now, it’s more harmful than ever. The people that get driven away now are far less likely to return.” The passage of the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) drove several large sites out of the U.S. market, including PartyPoker and Paradise Poker. As a result, most of the American action now occurs on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which are the two largest online poker sites in the world.
The nine pages of responses are mixed, but largely positive. Linde told us what reaction he has received in Private Messages and Instant Messages: “I have had a few random PMs on PocketFives.com saying basically that they are behind what I said 100% and usually citing some example of them not doing it. Nowadays, even the $50 freezes will have four or five solid players in them. Those are the people that are the biggest culprits, I think, so we are seeing more and more rude behavior at the tables.” He added that while rude behavior is a no-no, quoting ROIs and other mathematical figures is even more of a cardinal sin.
One dissenting response came from The Worm, a poker player from Ithaca, New York. He commented in the thread, “When was the last time you berated someone and they instantly started playing better? When was the last time you talked shit and they got up and left? If anything, when you start talking shit, it encourages the people to keep doing what they are doing.” Others noted that berating players in the chat box serves as a coping mechanism, ultimately leading to better play themselves once they’ve blown off some steam. The question of whether slow rolling should be included in the discussion also came up.In the middle of writing his final paragraph, Linde told PocketFives.com that he had a realization of sorts. He recalled his Zen moment: “We both know it’s hard to appeal to online players to help others, but you can get them to help themselves. I was listening to a little coaching by Tommy Angelo and he discussed how if you do not allow the pain (and joy) of poker to become overwhelming while you are playing, you will be far more likely to play your A game. While I have never been a big berater, in chat, you can imagine some crazy things that have gone through my head at the same time.”
Where do you weigh in? Visit Linde’s post in Poker Discussion and voice your choice.
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