Whining and Condescension, Ugh
So I'm at the Canterbury today ($3/$6) as usual. On one hand I get AQo. Guy in early position raises. I call, big blind calls. This is a loose table so only 3 players seeing the flop is pretty unusual. Flop is 3 small hearts. I have no hearts. Checked to me and I bet, cause why not, especially with only 3 players. Call, call. Turn is an non-heart ace. Checked to me, I bet, BB folds, EP calls. River is another non-heart rag. I bet, EP calls, I show AQ. He mucks and says "Nice chasing."

This is from a guy who I *hadn't* pegged as a total asshole, and I am surprised/confused. Seemed to me like he was the one who called 3 of my bets. Moreover, the hand didn't really seem out of the ordinary to me. Why the hostility? So I say "AQ was chasing?" and he says "Yeah. No heart and only two overcards on the flop? I had you smoked."

The worst part is that this left me speechless, and I spent the next minute thinking of what he could have had to make him say that. KK, QQ? Then I spend 10 minutes thinking of things I *should* have said to him, such as "Quit being a whiney little bitch" (although I would never say that) or more realistically a sarcastic, "Yeah, that was a really bad beat." Damn my slow wit.

I have noticed some serious assholes at the Canterbury lately. Last night I was at a fine table, then one guy sits down with headphones on: Not a sure sign of anything (some people just like music), but definitely a warning sign. He's fine until 20 minutes later his friend sits down next to him. Off come the headphones and the chatter starts, like a couple of clucking hens, but hens that are really obnoxious and dress like Josh Arieh. I swear if you were writing the screenplay for Rounders II or some such and you wanted to have the protagonist take down a couple of smarmy young know-it-alls, all you'd need to do would be to tape these guys for 10 minutes. Their two favorite terms were "donkey" and "tasty" as in "he's a tasty little fish" and "ooh this table is so tasty," which they'd say when someone showed down an awful hand. Yes, it sounded pretty gay. Also things like "Yeah, that's right, go ahead and call, I want your money," which is just getting hostile, not good for a fun table at all. It was just astounding how completely condescending these guys were, with nothing to back it up. A $15/$30 game was going on one table over from us and these guys were talking about how there were plenty of "tasty fish" at $15/$30 if only they could catch some cards to get the bankroll to play there. Just ridiculous. Happily, they sucked, and I had a good hour of schaudenfreude as the one guy dropped $100, rebought, and dropped another $100. His friend had sat down with $158 (???) and was also losing. If either of them had been catching good cards I definitely would have switched tables.

As long as I'm going off, I'll mention my other big pet peeve with these condescending whiners: Cell phones. The Canterbury lets you talk on them at the tables. So these whiney little idiots are calling friends and bitching about all the bad beats they're taking, going on about how stupid the people who put the bad beats on them are, right in front of everyone. I saw that last night and today. (I can't imagine who the people on the other end are that are willing to listen to bad beat stories.) Aside from the guy who accused me of chasing with AQ, I have not been in any direct confrontations with these kinds of idiots, but I am going to have to remember to control my temper if I am.

I'm used to this awful behavior online but it's depressing to see it in real life. These whiners are bringing down the otherwise pleasant atmosphere at the Canterbury.

Perhaps I am just upset because I am no longer winning a ton. After going up $388 in my first four visits to the Canterbury this summer, I am now only up $104. That is over about 10 sessions, so it is a crappy hourly rate. I am playing way too loose -- and I was very drunk during one of the sessions, heh heh -- but I have really been enjoying getting to play so much live poker, except for the assholes this weekend. I went yesterday and today because the NFL was on and I was hoping that would bring out the casual-player crowd, but I think I that was a bad assumption -- as I have blogged before, I think the holiday season tends to thin out the "happily lose a couple hundred playing every hand" player that I love so much and leave a higher proportion of regulars at the tables, whether online or live. Oh well. I know the $3/$6 games are very beatable if I would just stop horsing around with very marginal hands, it's just that I was having so much fun winning *while* horsing around. I'm headed home to Philly for the holidays, then I'll be back at the Canterbury in January. I'll have to post one more time before I leave and say "Merry Christmas" then -- this post has just been too negative to leave it at the top of the blog through Christmas.

Update 12-20-05

Shelley left the following comment:

I'm surprised at the allowance of cell phones at Canterbury. That's a pretty wide open door for cheating - and it invites horrible etiquette. People should NOT talk on the phone at a poker table. Leave the table if you want to talk on the phone. We need those "rules" to keep people from being rude and lazy. (I'll even admit taking a call at the table when I'm feeling too lazy to get up...) I hope they at least restrict people from talking on the phone during a hand.

First, I agree completely. Second, I am not totally sure, but I believe the Canterbury *does* let you talk on the cell phone while in a hand. What I do know for sure is that they do not kill your hand if you are on the phone while you'e in a hand. In many Vegas rooms they will consider your hand dead if you answer your phone (or make a call) while in a hand, but not at the Canterbury. So I guess they either ask you to hang up, or just allow it. So odd because the Canterbury is otherwise very well run.
posted by James at 6:45 PM