Recently, I was invited to play in a TV poker show. For Germany, it was a quite new format. We played an online multitable tournament and the TV spectators could see the holecards during play. Additionally, the players were interviewed and had a chance to comment on their decisions. As you would expect from these kinds of tournaments, a lot of very young and wild guys showed up, trying to bust oldies like myself as soon as possible. A 21-year-old guy who was placed two seats right of me tried to dominate the table from the very beginning, and created enormous swings in his table stake. While he gave some really tough beats to nearly every player early on, he started joking about them in the chat, like, "Look how skillful I am," or, "Can you see how I outplayed you?"
As time went by and his permanent attacks on my blinds started to tickle my nerves, I was very motivated to stop him. I saw my chance coming with pocket jacks, as he raised again and I moved all in from the small blind. He called instantly and showed Q-Q. Now, the miracle happened. I hit my third jack on the board and the youngster was nearly busted. All in all, it was nothing special, but now you could watch how he started whining in the chat, while most of the creativity of his language focused on the f-word, telling me what a fish I was. The funny thing is that the chat was in German, but when he started swearing, he did it in English. Curious about his background, I did some research about him on the Net, and found a blog, where he regularly posts with other online players. Most of these guys have been playing poker for one or two years, but when you read their comments, it sounds like they created and developed the game. What I missed completely was any kind of respect for players who don't belong directly to their group.
In poker, you often have to make borderline decisions, and in many cases, one move is as good as another, but at least worth a discussion in an open manner. They run from one seminar to the next, where their teachers pray poker concepts like dogmas, without any space for alternative ways to succeed. They divide the poker world into two species. On one side, there is a small group of sharks, who went successfully through all of these seminars, practiced more than 500,000 hands online, and now are finally capable of being consistent winners from low-stakes poker to the highest limits. The other side of the world is a huge fish tank, and the only reason of existence for the fishes is giving their money to the sharks. Do you think my point of view is too simple? Certainly, but this is what they've been taught.
There are certain rules in poker, written and unwritten, rules about behaviour and respect for others. It might be a good idea to offer seminars for those kinds of topics, as well. Especially in Germany, the poker boom is producing some rising stars, coming straight out of the middle of nowhere and now are fortunate enough to walk on the streets of glory. Some of them will find their way into the hall of fame, while others will explode like supernovas. You should never forget this: Always treat the guys you meet on your way up nicely, as you might meet them again on your way back down.
Michael Keiner is a German poker pro sponsored by 888.com. You can find him playing online at www.pacificpoker.com.
