Damburger

Poker is a game of personalities, and a game of intense competition. In this environment, it isn’t hard to imagine that a good amount of hostility can manifest between players while large sums of money exchange hands. Whether you engage in verbal fisticuffs or fly under the radar is irrelevant as long as you understand the consequences your actions have on the game. Intentionally inducing table hostility can be a winning strategy for some players, while diffusing antagonism may work for others. Knowing what kind of role you can most effectively play at the table and acting based on this assumption will ultimately yield strong positive results in the long run.

Berating other players at the table can be intimidating, and may result in a verbally aggressive player to be able to push other players around with his chips more effectively. Conversely, this type of verbal sparring can result in loose calls against the abrasive player in an attempt to bust him. Knowing how one’s abuse affects their opponents is crucial in using table hostilities as a tool rather than just a sideshow attraction. A controversial player who uses berating successfully is Phil Hellmuth. In his poker game, he discourages players to look him up with inferior hands in fear of being accosted, and tries to always show down strong hands so that he can run effective bluffs. In the event that a bluff goes wrong, He is a constant center of attention and lightning rod for controversy, and has parlayed this into a marketable persona.

On the other hand, being amicable and polite can be equally as effective in deterring potential bluff calls, and could potentially prolong your stay at the table by decreasing your visibility and allowing you to stay out of conflict, thereby decreasing your variance. Players like Barry Greenstein and Doyle Brunson advocate this type of table demeanor, as it is paramount to the concepts of cooperative game theory to which the subscribe.

Whether you want to be loud and obnoxious or quiet and reserved, be sure to know the results of your actions and take into account the way they affect your game. By doing this, you can use your personality traits to your advantage at the poker table.