Things that are said at the table about other players can be just a sign of low-life rudeness or a strategy to put other players on tilt. Or both. If your goal is to put the player on tilt, avoid personal insults that are "Ad Hominem," (to the man). It's best to make your comment about the action-not the person.
Now, anyone can be emotionally put off balance when bad beats occur. It's only human to be disappointed and perhaps scream and holler a bit. Feelings come and go. In psychology we say that it's normal to respond or react to disappointment. However, feelings that continue on and on are a sign that the player is using those feelings to manipulate and even to run a racket to blackmail other players.
While it's normal to scream "ouch," it doesn't give a person the right to tear down someone else's character. Trash talk is aimed at personal insults that may be more a statement about the talker than about the player who's the target. Poker rooms that have zero tolerance for trash talk eliminate this problem. Trash talk is not good for the poker industry. It usually leads to players leaving and not having a good time.
Probably the most notable public player who likes to whine and make noise is a player referred to as the "brat," Phil Hellmuth. In all his carrying-on when he is defeated by a close call, Hellmuth avoids trash talk. He never insults or uses personal references about other players' lives or character. He may be mumbling about the cards and how someone could beat his quality cards. He never, at least to my knowledge, turns his verbiage to a personal attack on other players. He may go overboard about being a victim, but he purposely seems to avoid making his victimizations a character flaw of his opponents.
Besides trash talking, players use direct verbal put-downs like, "You sucked out on me!" Actually, that has always sounded to me like a player being accused of doing something sexually illicit at the table. Where the term came from, I don't know. "Suck out," though, is definitely a putdown. Saying out-loud, "runner, runner!" is another way to insult another player.
Some players will try to intimidate others non-verbally with stare downs. Whatever works to put other players on tilt and thus diminishes their effectiveness seems the goal. However, even these later examples are uncalled for when people are trying to have some fun. Just defeating someone, setting traps and successfully bluffing an opponent can also put a player on tilt. Players don't need to stoop to slinging insults or trash talk to do this. If a player is warned and continues trash talking, penalties need to be enforced to keep the game civil.
There's a couple of legitimate ways to aggravate other players, if that's the goal. Calling the clock on players who take unusually long times to act is one way. Calling the floor over to time such players can be more effective than saying something like, "I'm getting bored-let's do something, stupid!" or, snoring to indicate impatience. Secondly, being indecisive is a strategy that players like Gus Hansen employ to have a disarming effect. Have you ever seen Hansen move his head from side to side while talking to himself? Although he seems confused, it would be a mistake to discount his ability to figure odds.
Trash talk, regardless of whether it's just low-life rudeness or a calculated poker strategy, has no place in public poker lounges. We are all there to have some fun and trash talking is perhaps only fun for the perpetrators. After all, poker is a game of disguising how you really feel. So, even if you don't think much about the skills of a given opponent, be nice and hope he stays. That's better than being obnoxious and driving all the fish away.
Jim McKenna has been practicing psychotherapy for more than thirty-five years. His books include the acclaimed Beyond Tells: Power Poker Psychology, Beyond Bluffs: Master the Mysteries of Poker, and Beyond Traps: The Anatomy of Poker Success, all published by Kensington Press. Write to Jim@Jimmckenna-PhD.com.
