Example 1: At the final table
of a live tournament all the seats were selected. Unfortunately
I had the only loose aggressive foul mouthed player to my left.
He was the only player I did not want sitting on my left. He had
been on my previous table to my right so he had seen me player and
act. This player imtimidated the other players during a hand, punched
the table when he won a hand yelling at the top of his lungs. He
was a poor player that relied on his intimidation and luck to win
hands. He was not scared of anyone.... except me. During the final
table he gloated and snapped back at polite statements I told him,
"good luck you've been playing well", "nice hand",
"nice call". I made a couple jokes. His usual responses
were ones of trying to get me on tilt. I kept my cool Zen like composure
and played.
The table came down to 3 opponents, one being this player. Because
of my previous play and calm composure I kept stealing pots and
blinds away from my opponent, the aggressive player. He never called
a raise from me the entire final table. He folded hands in disguest
like KJ and AJ heads up when he had obvious pot odds to call and
the better hand to my steal. I made some tricky moves by limping
in on the blinds a couple time with weak hands. I would bluff on
the flop and he would fold. If I was in the pot he dared not reraise
me. I had never seen such passive predictable play from an aggressive
opponent like this. He only raised with premium and top pairs and
usually all in. It was simple to play against him.
The point of this is that no matter what don't lose your composure.
If you stay the nice guy being respectful, friendly, and polite
to other players it will keep your opponents from trying to antagonize
you and allow a calm and in control state of mind. They will know
they can't intimidate you. It is very difficult for human nature
to be a worse person to someone who is being nice to you. Especially
when faced with a table full of peers who can judge you.
Even at the WSOP final table Mike Matusow had a difficult time
pulling his table talk to Steven Dannenmann, Mr. nice guy. In fact
at one point Mike said "I hate everybody at this table, except
you".
