{"id":1373869,"date":"2022-02-02T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.pokercoaching.com\/?p=1373869"},"modified":"2025-12-29T14:24:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:24:49","slug":"know-which-poker-players-to-ignore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/know-which-poker-players-to-ignore\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowing Which Poker Players To Ignore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re going to play winning poker<\/a>, you\u2019re going to have to ignore a lot of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was once playing deep in a major tournament. I barreled two streets versus a a good reg. On the river, another draw came in, but my combo draw missed<\/a>. The river card also happened to be an overcard to the board. I debated jamming for a second, then I decided this player wouldn\u2019t fold. I checked. He checked back with a good pair. \u201cThanks for not jamming the river,\u201d he chortled at me after I tabled my hand. \u201cAlthough if you had jammed, I would have called,\u201d he then added. It took all my energy not to laugh hysterically at this reg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to tell him, \u201cWHOA WHAT A SICKO. Whatever I DO, YOU\u2019RE GONNA BEAT ME, HUH?\u201d But right after he said it, you could tell he felt silly. He threw up the white flag in a nonverbal way. He\u2019s normally an even-keeled, cool guy, so you could tell this foray into smack-talking was not in his normal wheelhouse. I accidentally stared at him incredulously with a big smile, trying not to say anything. He gave me a look like, ‘yeah, you got me, that was not my best speech play.’ I then remembered my manners, straightened my face, and got back to the next hand.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Honest Truth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The truth is, back when I started playing poker the pros were more or less pool hustlers. If they were my opponent in this hand, they\u2019d go, \u201cwhoa, I got lucky there, you had some outs!\u201d They\u2019d try to make you feel better so you\u2019d stay in the game. If you ever watch Negreanu work he\u2019s old-school like this. He makes the game fun for the players, and they keep coming back to play with him. Sadly, we\u2019re no longer in that era. There\u2019s a lot of talk now in poker, and a good deal of it is not pleasant or beneficial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What bothers me the most about this era is the elitism. It keeps new players out of the game. We more or less socialize players into being terrified of making a mistake, because we\u2019ll just mock them if they do something \u201cwrong.\u201d This ruins many loose games<\/a>. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I was a punk too when I was younger. I\u2019ve said my share of dumb things at the poker table. But now that I\u2019m older I realize we have to do more to make this game fun for new players. Since I can\u2019t collectively change the poker playing populace to be more welcoming, what I can do is help you guys not worry about the crap some people spew online and off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How To React<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t know it at the time, but the best response to someone needling you is to smile at them. If they\u2019re being particularly vicious, then laugh hard at them. That instance in real life taught me a good lesson: If you laugh at someone\u2019s needle, smile wide, and just roll your eyes. It really makes the player off balance by showing you don\u2019t care. If you dig in and start arguing with them then you\u2019ve already lost, just take the high road and go, \u201cit\u2019s just a game buddy\u201d it makes them sound even sillier. If you\u2019ve ever watched a boxing match you\u2019ll see fighters do a version of this. They get rocked hard with a right hand\u2026and they smile at their opponent. It\u2019s the most defeating feeling in the world if you do it right, it sends the message, \u201cyou\u2019re going to have to try a lot harder than that kid if you want to get to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you ever lose a big pot at the table, you should joke with the dealer in the next hand<\/a> or two. Ask them how they\u2019ve been. Make idle conversation like you couldn\u2019t care less. Poker players get emboldened when they think you\u2019re hurting. If you show them you\u2019re not staking your life on the outcome of a card game they will back off. Most guys in 2022 are pretty terrible when it comes to trash talking. They\u2019re used to no one saying anything back. I have a few clever canned responses from old home games that I use routinely. I\u2019m always shocked at how freaked out trash talkers will become now if you say just a couple of blas\u00e9 jokes back. Did these guys never play pick-up sports growing up? That said, you almost never need to respond back verbally. The best response is always just to laugh and smile. That will shut up 90% of guys now. If a guy is really working on you, just put the headphones in, turn on something chill, and turn the volume up. I suggest Kuranesh<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t take the headphones off. When they say something to you just point at your headphones and mouth the words, \u201cI can\u2019t hear you.\u201d If they ask you again go, \u201cI don\u2019t speak English.\u201d This has pissed off every single trash talker I\u2019ve ever dealt with. Many of these guys are desperate for attention, so this drives them crazy. At the end of the day be sure to take off your headphones, smile wide, and say \u201cpleasure playing with you\u201d before you head out. Online, turn off your chat. Always. It\u2019s always a waste of time. Focus on your game. I haven\u2019t played with chat on any site for almost five years now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Benefits Of Tuning Them Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Knowing who to ignore is a valuable skill in all avenues of life, but in poker it\u2019s particularly important. You\u2019ll get a lot of advice from people who have no idea what they\u2019re talking about. If someone tells you to do a certain play because your play was bad say to them, \u201cokay, what\u2019s the evidence?\u201d Never take someone at their word. Any dumbass can win in poker for three years, that doesn\u2019t mean their word is gospel. If you ask, \u201cwhere\u2019s the evidence\u201d and the guy shows you statistics, combinatoric analyses, solvers,<\/a> something\u2026alright, now we\u2019re rocking. Now you need to double check the math. Find another program that does the same thing the first program was doing, do the math yourself, and see if it matches. If you\u2019ve got the same result, then you\u2019re in business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout data, you\u2019re just another person with an opinion,\u201d W. Edwards Deming <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say you do the math and find a different result. You come back to the guy and show your findings. If he changes his opinion or revises it slightly that\u2019s someone who doesn\u2019t approach this game with religious fervor. That\u2019s someone who cares about the truth. This person is a great resource. One guy like that is worth more than the rest of the idle chit chatters put together. If someone came up to you on the street while you were walking to your job and started yelling their unsubstantiated political opinions, then you\u2019d rightfully be pissed. That person would be deliberately wasting your time. Sadly, many \u201cfriends\u201d in life are not much better than that random person, they just want you to confirm what they already believe about themselves or the world. They\u2019re not working to find the truth, they want to be comforted instead. They\u2019re wasting your time, you must avoid them at all costs. This goes beyond poker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, if someone is a truth seeker and has the data to back it up, you\u2019re going to need to hang out with that person even if they\u2019re not particularly likeable. You just want their ideas, you don\u2019t want them as a spouse. A number of guys who taught me about poker when I was in my teens treated me terribly. I was mocked ruthlessly and made to run errands, but it didn\u2019t matter. They were giving me six-figure insights into the game. If I had to eat shit to get the goods, then that\u2019s what I did. When I got older and began doing my own analysis of poker players and games, I\u2019d always study outliers a great deal. People would always wonder why I would do this. I would find a player that was considered \u201cterrible\u201d or \u201clucky\u201d by the poker populace, and I\u2019d try to reverse engineer what they were doing at the tables. Many of these guys had earned their hatred by being brash at the tables, unorthodox, and terrible losers. But again, I wasn\u2019t trying to marry the guy, I wanted to steal his ideas. There\u2019s a difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like to learn more about this topic, I\u2019d recommend reading Tim Ferriss broadly, especially any article of his which details rapid learning. His lessons on tuning out noise and focusing on what\u2019s extremely important is what\u2019s helped many people excel in their careers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re going to play winning poker, you\u2019re going to have to ignore a lot of people. I was once playing deep in a major tournament. I barreled two streets versus a a good reg. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":2516690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,885,877,16,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1373869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cash-games","category-exploitative-strategy","category-poker-basics","category-poker-strategy","category-tournaments"],"acf":{"peak_live_date":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Knowing-Which-Poker-Players-To-Ignore.png",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Knowing-Which-Poker-Players-To-Ignore-373x210.png",373,210,true],"medium":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Knowing-Which-Poker-Players-To-Ignore-746x420.png",746,420,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Knowing-Which-Poker-Players-To-Ignore-768x432.png",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Knowing-Which-Poker-Players-To-Ignore-1024x576.png",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Knowing-Which-Poker-Players-To-Ignore.png",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Knowing-Which-Poker-Players-To-Ignore.png",1280,720,false],"author_image":["https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PC-Blog-Knowing-Which-Poker-Players-To-Ignore.png",100,56,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Alex Fitzgerald","author_link":"https:\/\/pokercoaching.com\/blog\/author\/alex_fitzgerald\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"If you\u2019re going to play winning poker, you\u2019re going to have to ignore a lot of people. I was once playing deep in a major tournament. I barreled two streets versus a a good reg. 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