Why Do People Hate Money??

In poker sometimes people almost literally tell you what they have got without saying the actual words.   I don’t mean little “tells”, like betting patterns or looking nervous or anything else like that... i mean they tell you their exact hand!  Well, if you are concentrating on what is (and has been) going on at the table they do anyway.  Let me give you 2 examples i have seen of this in the last week.

1, Very last hand of a session & I raise with AK from the button, guy next to me calls & so does this slightly crazy guy on the other side of the table. Just as the flop is about to be dealt, the crazy guy says “call the police, come on, call the police”.  Now, this means one of two things, he is either about to commit a crime OR he has pocket 9’s and wants to hit another one on the flop (thus giving him 999).  I pick up on this instantly but the guy next to me is too busy talking utter shite like he has been all night & totally misses it.  So, the flop comes K,3,9.  Shite-talking guy bets out £15, and the crazy guy just shoves all-in for like £100 more.  Now this crazy guy has been very active virtually all night & people have been trying to pick up hands against him to catch him out when he inevitably raises. So, ordinarily this is virtually an automatic call if shite-talker has a King.  I fold my AK here without a second thought cos i KNOW crazy guy has pocket 9’s (he told me with the “call the police comment”), but shite-talker is oblivious to this & calls with KJ.  Crazy guy proudly throws over his pocket 9’s and scoops the pot.  Shite-talker says to someone else “thats sick, how does he find trip 9’s there when i have hit top pair?”   I chose not to divulge the information i had heard!!  This example especially i just thought was hilarious afterwards.  Initially cos the guy said it in the first place about the police & even more so that the other guy could’ve saved himself £85 by just folding if he had been concentrating on the hand that he chose to get involved in by calling my raise. 

2, Player in seat opposite the dealer has just been having a pretty long conversation with the dealer about a hand he played the week before with Pocket Jacks & how he hates them etc etc.  Dealer deals the next hand & this player starts laughing & says “you won’t believe it”, another lad says “believe what?” and this guy says “oh never mind” and then he raises.  Looking around the table it seems pretty obvious that some people were listening & know what the lad has, and a few others are clueless.... the two lads who call his raise are the ones looking confused about the conversation!! The hand plays out & the guy with pocket jacks wins on a rag board, but the two lads again could have saved themselves a few quid there.

These 2 examples are just a small sample of some of the information people voluntarily give to you & others choose to ignore (or fail to hear)..... they obviously have too much money already & don’t want any more!!!   Surely if you are going to get involved in a pot then you want to be aware of everything you can regarding  your opponent, the hand & have all possible information available to you.  This is why i don’t understand people who sit there for full multi-hour sessions with their music blaring in their ears, they miss out on so much information off people by listening in to, and engaging in, conversations etc etc.  A lot of the time after hands have finished, people will tell you why they played certain hands in a particular way, again giving off masses of information.  If you are new to playing live poker, then yes you can read all the books in the world & play for a million hours on the internet to improve your game, but sometimes its the easiest things in the world that can win (or save) you money.

On the subject of hating money, the amount of times i have heard the phrase “oh ok, i know i am behind but i call” is just ridiculous.  If your instinct or reading of the hand/your opponent makes you believe that you are behind in the hand then why don’t you just fold you muppet?  After all money saved is money gained!  Don't get me wrong, if they are playing against me then i want them to call when they are behind but i just don’t understand the mindset of these people!! DO THEY NOT LIKE MONEY?!!!

(On a non-poker related subject, i have to just announce that my 5-a-side team absolutely destroyed Graeme Robinson's team 33-5 last night!!! The two pints you owe me for the side bet are gonna taste amazing Gra!)