More Things You Love to Hate

Several recent emails commented on a recent column about the things you love to hate, so I thought I'd share with you a few more.

Although guilty of it myself, I hate to hear how badly someone is running. Some players whine constantly at the table about never making a hand, and about how they've been running bad for so many years. It makes me wonder why they think they should be able to beat the game. Have they ever studied, read any books, or watched some instructional videos?

I wonder why, if they are running badly for years on end, that it never occurs to them that they may be playing badly? I had a horrendous spell of bad results about twelve years ago when I primarily played stud. After beating my head against the wall, having my coaches watch me play and rereading my books, I decided that it was just too frustrating.

I switched to hold 'em and immediately started winning again. Not only that, but it reminded me of how much easier and less tiring hold 'em is than stud. You don't have to remember much in hold 'em. Long losing streaks often are due to bad play, and it's just that simple.

When your luck is running bad and you're telling the entire table about it, are you expecting sympathy from your opponents? When I hear a whiner cry about his bad beats, I root for him to lose more. It makes "my job" as a player a lot easier!

Another pet peeve of mine is when someone makes a bad call on the river but prefaces it with, "I know I shouldn't call but..." and then calls anyway. They trump that comment with "I knew you had aces."

Well, duh ... after you see the cards they are easy to read. If you knew your opponent had aces, would you have called pre-flop with your kings? It reminds me of the brutal hand during last year's High Stakes Poker where Barry Greenstein got all-in before the flop with two aces. He was called by Sammy Farha, who droned on and on how he just knew Barry had aces. Well, if he knew that, why would he call? Of course the king fell on the flop and Greenstein lost a huge pot. It was sick. Oh wait, didn't I say I hated it when players do that? My bad.

To round out today's rant, there's the lucky seat concept. I truly wonder how some of these folks get by in life if they believe one seat is luckier than another. "Wow, your seat has been getting hit with the deck all day, I can't believe it!" Believe it, dude. Every seat gets its share of aces as well as 7-2 off-suit.

Jumping from seat to seat hoping to catch the luck is just plain silly. There are many reasons to change seats such as to get position on someone, to avoid someone who should have bathed, or who gives you the post mortem after each hand, or to see better. These are just a few, but you get the drift.

It's all good though, and without the superstitious players and whiners who mistake bad luck for bad play, games would be tougher for those of us who have worked hard to become winners. Stay focused and don't let the crazies take away the fun. I have an Ipod and I am not afraid to wear it! Often, I don't even turn it on; I just use it to keep annoying people from talking to me. Am I antisocial? Well, perhaps, but I love to win! Moving along...

Editor's Note: Jan Fisher has 30 years experience as a poker player, tournament director, strategist/columnist, cofounder of the Tournament Directors Association, Partner in Card Player Cruises, WPT Boot Camp instructor and statistician, and live studio announcer for the Professional Poker Tour. E-mail Jan at Jan@cardplayercruises.com