Poker trash talk – How far is too far?

Since poker is a competitive game, bullying is never a stranger on the green felt. People bully their opponents by putting pressure on them through aggressive bets. People gang up on their opponents when there’s a short-stack at the table. In a word: it ain’t pretty. If you’re looking for compassion and the better side of human nature, you shouldn’t look for it at the poker table. People know all this and they know all too well what they can expect. Still, there are people out there who push the boundaries of what’s decent and what’s not. Since online contact is less direct and by simply turning the chat feature off, one can pretty much plug up a discontent opponent’s piehole, online confrontations rarely appear to be stretching the above said boundaries. Live poker events though, especially televised ones often offer an entirely different view of the scenery. Basically, there are two categories of “loose cannons” in live poker. Those who commit their verbal assaulting under the influence, and those who do it in a level-headed and premeditated way.

An obvious example for the first type would be Scotty Nguyen’s drunken rampage at the 2008 WSOP’s HORSE event. The guy obviously had a few too many beers and he let his guard down completely, simply spitting out everything that crossed his mind. While regrettable, his behavior could at least be explained through his intoxication, and while I’m not trying to use that as an excuse for the Prince of Poker, I understand it much better than the bullying some of the other highly successful and respected poker players resort to.
Without further ado though here’s the case in point:

Now then, if you watch that video, one thing strikes you from the very beginning: Tony G says to Robl: “…see if you’re a real man”. That short phrase there tells the entire story of the incident that follows. Tony G is perfectly aware of the type of opposition he’s facing, and make no mistake about that: the man knows he’ll escalate the situation further when he says that. He wasn’t about to cut Robl any slack from that moment on and sure enough – with support from Daniel Negreanu – it worked well. Posturing and macho chest-beating shoved aside, there are few people in the poker world today who would not be psychologically unsettled by the hellraising done by Guoga and Negreanu in the above bit.
There’s nothing spontaneous about it, it’s all premeditated and executed according to a shrewd battle plan. Sure, Tony G expressed regret over the incident later in his blog, and he’s apparently made peace with Robl since. If a court were to look at the above video as evidence though, I seriously doubt his apology would be accepted as a sign of true regret. This guy is a calculated, cool-headed monster at the table. He doesn’t “lose it” like Scotty does after a couple of beers. He knows what he’s doing and given the proper chance he’d do it all over again any day. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the fact that he verbally pressures his opponent. Throw out those couple of F-bombs and there’s nothing even offensive about anything he says. What really surprised me was the way he and Negreanu ganged up on the kid. Through his pissing and moaning, Tony G obviously created an advantage for Negreanu, who welcomed it all with open arms and even said thanks to Guoga for it. The assist may not have been intentional, but what gives?

Swearing and poker

Swearing has long been an enemy of the poker player. Just ask Mike Matusow how many times he was fined or hit with some kind of penalty on account of the frequency of the F-bombs he so generously dispenses. Until not so long ago, the mere mention of an F-related expression drew an immediate penalty at the WSOP too. What exactly is the psychology at work behind cursing though? Could a poker player learn a thing or two about taking a more in-depth look into why all walks of life seem to be dominated by swearing? Apparently yes.

Humans are obviously driven to swearing when placed under psychological pressure. Since poker is a game seemingly invented to play with participants’ nerves, there are few things out there more successful at driving people to swear. What is the scientific explanation behind swearing? It’s apparently a rather simple one: swearing is good for us. When we swear, we release psychological pressure, which induces a sense of relief, of newfound well-being. As such, people tend to return to swearing time after time, quite literally becoming addicted to the relief it brings. Another benefit in swearing is that by releasing psychological pressure and anger, swearing helps us avoid direct physical confrontation. The advantages of that are obvious at the live poker table. I’m pretty sure you’ve seen countless people swear at the poker tables and I’m also pretty sure you haven’t seen nearly as many conflicts end up in flying fists and knocked out teeth. Think about it like this: if you were a professional poker player, and you got into a fight, you could easily be banned from the tables for good, thus having your livelihood taken away from you. If you look at things like that, you’ll realize that swearing is a much better friend of yours than you ever thought it could be.

In online poker, resorting to physicality is obviously not an option. Destroying one’s computer screen isn’t nearly as psychologically vindicating as delivering a well aimed knuckle sandwich to an opponent’s face who just hit a runner-runner to relieve you of a huge stack of chips on the first decent hand you managed to pick up in hours. Since you can’t step onto the field of deeds in any reasonable way, what you do is you try to deliver that punch through the interface offered by your poker room’s software and we all know where that leads: tilting. So the bottom line is: go ahead and swear as much as you want to, just make sure there are no small kids around.

Even the WSOP has bought into the “swearing is good for you” idea lately. Empty venting, (as in swearing not directed towards a particular opponent) is OK these days and it should be. After all, live poker tournaments are not nun conventions and folks do need to keep their temper in check somehow. What IS forbidden though is singling someone out and verbally assaulting him/her, and that is fine too: it should be forbidden. If you want to bully someone around at the table, do it with your stack and not with your mouth. Exactly what counts as aimless cursing and swearing is not clear unfortunately, and there are many folks out there who still use the blurred border between the two “genres” to abuse and to bully their opponents. Some of the biggest names of the game do it. They’re not exactly garnering any fan support with their actions, but that’s probably not what they’re looking for either. Does a poker player need to have any fans at all?