Online Poker Chat

[liladypokerpro]

Do you find the Chat in online poker to be a distraction?

[frob23]

I generally enjoy the chat in a ring game and ignore it in a tournament or sit and go. In the ring games, I love a lot of chat when I am on the table. I love friendly chat and people keeping it light and talking about fun things. It tells me the people are there to have fun and just play some cards. I'll jump right in and chat away with some light material. Fun tables are more profitable because fewer people are taking it seriously.

The only downside to chat is when you have a real donator to the game and he gives someone a horrific beat. And the person who took the beat goes and berates the idiot, who's giving money away, for doing exactly what everyone wants the guy doing at the table. I've played in games where someone has lost 5-7 buy-ins [cheerfully] and just keeps refilling without a care in the world because he's having fun... and then one person gets upset at a bad beat and tears the fun player apart... and suddenly the donator decides he's done playing. The table usually dies right after that, all because some moron had to go and spook the fish.

During a tournament or a sit and go, on the other hand, I don't have the option of table selection. So I just ignore 99% of the chat except to reply to a "nh" comment or make one myself. There's no real benefit to chatting away because there are times when you want people to think you're a jerk and are playing seriously.

I never let what is said in the chat bother me. And often I am looking at the stats or my player notes and don't even see a chat message that might have been intended to bug me.

[Nimue1995]

I love to chat as long as people are reasonably civil. And I can always turn it off if they're not.

[chilly]

Poker is, of course, a very difficult game. To be successful requires high-level thought processes, attention to detail and strict discipline. And paying attention to the game you're in lets you pick up tells being displayed by your opponents, and many almost player like to talk about it.