Angle Shooters; Despicable Poker Scum

I'd like to talk about an incident on a limit table from Saturday, in hopes that some of you can take some good from it. A young girl, no older than twenty-two, sits in seat ten next to the dealer and struggles to understand the rules of the game. She is not unlike other new players; timid, confused, smiley, but most of all just wanting to know what the hell is going on in this game that is taking her money. Everything about this scene is good for poker. She is learning the game and, yes, besides her occasional suck-out, the rest of the table gets to reap the benefits of her mistakes. That’s poker; we all have to start somewhere. With a little luck she might like the game and the next time we see her at the table she will have brought a couple friends; Lord knows we could all use a few more women at the table.

Her struggles are not at all alleviated by the grossly inept dealer. This women shooting cards at us from clumsy, slow and uncooperative hands quickly kills any notion I may have had that all women can do two things at once. This is a person who has somehow managed to elude natural selection, performing a near scientific impossibility by merely surviving to her forties. If you're a dealer, and you think you may fall under this description, it might be time to look for new work. But, Jesus... I'm sorry. A different rant for a different time.

Now enter characters two and three, seated respectfully to the dealers left. Both loose and aggressive players, they are involved in a lot of pots, and both have recently pulled yet out another bill from an over-worn wallet. One man, clean cut and in his early forties, wears Yankees gear as he grumbles about his bad luck. The other is dressed in a motley array of dirty clothes. He's well passed his sixties and quite unpleasant. The entire table has no problem hearing as he blames all the young guys on the table for his crappy cards. Apparently when the twenty-seven year-old on the end of the table wins with J4 suited, the "kid" is being aggressive and stupid, but when the old man does it, it's OK 'cause he had a “feeling" from under-the-gun that his J4 was going to come through for a boat, and thus it is justified.

On the turn, only these three players are still left in the hand together. Old Man bets, the Girl calls, Yankee raises to two bets, Old Man calls, and Girl says, "I wanna raise, what do I do?" This is where the sky fell. When Girl goes to raise, she only puts out the two bets and then asks what she can put out for a raise. Everyone on our side of the table has heard her raise except the dealer who starts to burn and turn, but luckily we are able to stop her. Girl explains she wanted to raise and that she had said so clearly; the whole table had heard it. But the two men in the hand, realizing they are beat, will not stand for it. Floor gets called over because, again, the dealer can't handle it, and the floor, seeing no other option, decides to go with his dealer. Rarely do I ever try to argue for someone on the table, but with this I had to speak up. Angle shooting to take advantage of a new player does not help you in the long run. The two men had clearly heard the raise, but in seeing a way that they may be able to save themselves one big bet each, they end up making a young poker player feel alienated from the game. After another hand she stands up (with the pot she had just won) and leaves the table, probably never to return to a poker table again; not only a loss for our table, but also a loss for poker culture as a whole.

My hope is that something can be learned here. We have all seen seasoned players try to screw a new guy on a technicality. Usually this is done by losing players who can't figure out any other way to win. A poker table is intimidating for a new player and, unfortunately, we cannot always rely on the dealer to help out. When you're at the table and this situation next arises, how will you deal with it? Hopefully you will not be too intimidated to stand up for the little guy (or girl), and put the angle shooter in his place.

-strongmonty