Bluff Poker Radio

"they said it on the radio"

ANNIE DUKE
“These people who have two screens, with eight tables open, it’s really a focus thing. It’s a concentration thing. And it’s what these people do for a living. Obviously it’s got a lot of different skill sets than the kind of poker that I started playing. There is no way that I could do it. I am so impressed by these people that make a living online…”

BARRY GREENSTEIN
“I make money by playing when other people are not playing their best, or are tired and when I’m tired, knowing when to take a break, and come back the next day. Very often, you can play, take a loss, come back the next day and make it all back if you manage yourself well.”

“To be successful in poker, you need to be able to bluff with your last dollar. You need to be a risk taker. There is this mentality that a lot of the poker players have that they are smarter than other players.”

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A WORD FROM THE WISE NICK GEBER
I had a great time this past Sunday calling the Ultimate Bet Stone Cold Nuts II tournament with Annie Duke and John Vorhaus. It was online poker at its finest with a million dollars in the prize pool at stake. And I really do like to play online, even though at the best of times my concentration and A.D.D. add up to a distinctly fish status. But there’s one thing about online poker that really bothers me, so here goes:

I like to think my parents raised me well. I’m a little full of myself at times and no doubt plenty of people would rather spend time with someone other than me. And I’m OK with that. You see, no matter whether you’re my best friend or someone I despise, I try to treat everyone with a basic level of politeness, no matter how objectionable they may be. So imagine my surprise at hearing that Annie Duke can’t play online at the site she represents using her real name because she’s subject to extreme and obscene abuse in the chat window. Disgusting! If there was ever a time when online players were caricatures of themselves, it’s when they’re hiding behind screen names, playing on their laptop in mommy’s basement and subjecting people to abuse in the chat window. It’s ridiculous, uncouth, ill mannered and, quite honestly, it makes what should be an enjoyable and (hopefully) profitable experience thoroughly unpleasant. You’d never get away with behavior like that in a casino, so why should you be able to get away with it online? The sites say they police the chat, but I think that’s rubbish. If they did, how could someone get away with a screen name of “Muffdiver” – which was one of the more embarrassing names we had to call during the tournament?

Online sites need to police their cardrooms. I suggest the following. Abusive chat can be reported to a special email address. If more than one person complains, an ombudsman should check the chat log and determine if any player or observer was being rude or abusive. If it is decided that they were, then that person should get a warning. On the next offense, that person should lose chat privileges for one month. Do it again and you’re permanently restricted from chat. And let’s screen out those screen names, or go one step further and do away with them permanently. How about requiring users to have a screen name of their firstname, last intial and hometown? I’ll bet if we pull back the veil of anonymity and make people accountable for their actions, online poker will become a much better place for people like me to lose money.