Recently, Poker Hall of Famer Doyle Brunson wrote a great blog on what he called the ‘poker hall of shame’. It was his opinion on some of the pros who have been particularly abusive to dealers and other players at the table while playing. His take is related to specific players, and calls out the culprits by name. While I have witnessed this type of behaviour many times in person, I think there’s a bigger lesson to be learned here: there is nothing to be gained by being a jackass at the table.
Don’t get me wrong: there is a place in poker for a table bully: that is, the type of player that builds their table image on being a table tough guy. Mess with them, and they will make it their business to bust you. Now, I personally love this type of player, because they are quite easy to trap, but whatever works for you. Whatever works, that is, as long as that table bully doesn’t cross the line into personal attacks.
Phil Hellmuth is one of those types of antagonists, and also one of those that crosses the line on occasion. His infamous berating of a player during the WSOP last year resulted in the phrase ‘idiot from northern Europe’ becoming part of the lexicon of poker. Nonetheless, Hellmuth’s abrasive table image works for him. Obviously.
Scotty Nguyen, despite being one of the best players in the game, has had a history of extremely abusive behaviour at the poker tables. In particular, last year, while cruising to the $50K buy-in HORSE event championship at the ‘08 WSOP, Scotty went off the deep end, berating other players, tournament officials, and dealers. In fact, in a tournament for a trophy named after Chip Reese, one of the classiest players to have ever played the game, Scotty’s behaviour was despicable.
The worst and least excusable behaviour at the poker table to me is always abuse directed at the dealer. Far too often, in my capacity as a tournament director, I see players berating dealers, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it’s because the dealer made a mistake. Apparently, there are a lot of people out there that are absolutely perfect in their jobs, never making a mistake. Only that would explain their demands of perfection in the dealers doing their job. Dealers put in a lot of time sitting at the tables. Mistakes are inevitable, and they are easy to fix. There is absolutely NO need to berate dealers for simple errors.
And the very worst of all is players that berate the dealers because the cards didn’t go their way. Now seriously, people… do you REALLY believe the dealer is the reason for your bad beat? Highly unlikely. And yet, many players take out their anger on the dealer. Remember, you’re the one who stuck your chips into the middle on a draw. It’s not the dealers fault you didn’t hit.
There are many other types of behaviour at the tables that really aren’t appropriate. Not only are they not appropriate, they are also unnecessary. We play poker because we love the game. Why mess it up by behaving like an idiot?