Guilt...

[Talking Poker]

So, I was playing at Party last night, targeting the juiciest of the juicy fishies, al la the (which I absolutely love, btw). I had a number of tables open and was playing 3-4 at a time. Conditions on all tables I was playing were favorable, but there was this one table in particular where I was sitting directly to the left of a HUGE maniac. ~75% VP$IP, $55% PRF. His screen name may as well have been ATM.

Anyhoo, as expected, her was terrible, but he was apparently on a sick rush. He said he started with $30 and at one point I saw him over $800. He sucked out on me a number of times, but he paid me off even more, so it was all good.

There was no chat going on at the table, until I just couldn't help myself at one point. Some people say they aren't a good enough player to lay down certain hands even when they know they are beat... well, I'm not a good enough player to not use my all time favorite chat box line when the oh-so-rare opportunity presents itself.

Here's the scenario: Preflop action doesn't matter, but it's best when it's capped. On the flop, dork bets, I raise, dork call. On the turn, dork bets, I raise, dork calls. On the river, dork bets, I raise, dork calls. I scoop the pot of course and simply can not resist dropping this gem: "It's like you didn't even see me raising you."

Well, I said it last night, and he said, "I was drawing, fucktard." I said, "By betting into me on every street?" I VERY quickly explained that I was totally cool with it, but I just thought it was funny. Well, somehow, this guy got all chatty and really friendly. He was on a sick rush, so he was in a good mood. Of course, everyone at the table knew it was only a matter of time. And sure enough, he started to lose. More and more and more. And then he said a few things that made me start feeling sorry for him... things like, "OK, I'm going to play until I get back to $700 (which became $500 and then $300) and then I HAVE to get some sleep, etc, etc... He'd hit some big hands from time to time, but his roll was definitely headed downhill. He got almost all in at one point, won the hand, and then went on another rush, up to like $470. I asked him if he was really going to quit when he got to $500, and he said he didn't know. I was 100% sure he'd leave broke. If I didn't take his money, these other sharks would, so I stayed of course. I actually did mention a couple of times that he could quit now (with $100 or $200), still be up, and come back tomorrow and play lower limits. He didn't listen of course and just before 5 AM, I busted him with Kings full (KK!). He left the table, and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that in order of who should be posting the BB, everyone at the table sat out one at a time, all the way around (well, except for the final guy - the super tight player who was of course ripping into the maniac and also telling me how terrible of a player I was - this tells you a lot about him right there). I've never seen that happen before. Not EVERYONE like that.

Anyway, no real point to this story, I guess... except to point out how this was the first time that I have EVER felt a bit of guilt about taking money from someone at an online table (we were talking about this in a different thread the other day). I think it was because he liked me, and I was friendly to him, while I was targeting his stack the whole time. I didn't egg him on or anything, and really did suggest that he quit a couple of times, but I still felt weird about it. I guess I felt double faced or something.... and that's not how I roll.

[PShabi]

Man,

I've been through the same scenario at least a couple times. All the way down to everyone sitting out. I've also been really chatty w/ ATMs like you mention. I even say shit like, "Damn, I got lucky to hold up there," as he paid off for the 1,000th time. I've seen all of the things you mentioned, just maybe not ALL at the same table.

The only difference, I feel no guilt.

[GTDawg]

What's the everybody sitting out thing?

[lightfungus]

He means once the free-money guy left the table, everyone else left too. I do it all the time.

[Talking Poker]

Yup... as soon as the ATM left, the table broke up. I've seen that happen before, but never quite like last night, where everyone apparently turned off the "Auto Post Blind" as he was getting all in, and then one at a time sat out when asked to post the BB.

"Guilt" isn't the best word to describe what I was feeling. Maybe "sympathy." Like, I knew how bad he was and that he was going to lose all his money, but he didn't know I knew. Not only that, but he didn't even know himself.

[Boobie Lover]

I've seen this happen various times. It can be humbling to understand that to be profitable I have to prey on those that play worse, or have less emotional control than myself.

[jillaj]

I like to egg them on. Comment on how unlucky they are to not hit their draws or how lucky I am etc.. As you stated earlier the guy is leaving without any money, so I might as well be the one with it. Since he only came in with 30 he wasn't down too much of his own loot.