Thursday, April 03, 2008

the Circles of Poker Blogging Hell- 5

Last of the series. At least until the next circle rears its ugly head.

It is in the fifth Circle of Poker Blogging Hell that the miscreants reside. The vermin that are trying to infest the blogger tournaments. They offer nothing to community. They are here to gorge themselves on the bounty that predecessors have worked hard to lay out in front of them. They show no respect to any players. Just venom. Hateful comments about people they don't even know.

The Fifth Circle of Poker Blogging Hell is inhabited by the vile chatbox rats.

They seem to be a takeoff on the whiners and bitchers from the 4th circle. Except they crave more attention. They want to be noticed and beg for you to acknowledge them. They believe that name calling and being a total jackass is the most appropriate way to stroke their own ego. They need the instant gratification of someone laughing at their comments that they take it directly to the chatboxes and insult in a real time world. Their needs are always above others.

I am not sure exactly where these thugs have come from. They are the names that you do not recognize. The people that may have seen an FTP webpage, saw the entry fee, the prizes and the password and decided to go play in hopes for a big payday. Are they even bloggers to begin with? Doubtful. They may be people who attend home games with known bloggers but have no social life. What they do have is the urge to leech on and take what they can and if they get lucky, so be it. If not, they will criticize your every play as you move from table to table.

For whatever reason, these rats also think the chatbox is their own personal IM device. They have their friends congregate at the table and hold conversations that have nothing to do with the game that is being played. One guy will talk to his 3 observer friends about what they are doing later that night or in the week. Like I care that you are going to the mall? Take it elsewhere. Of course when you do ask them to take it to their own chatroom, they attack you.

Some might say just turn off the chat. No, I will not. I want to be able to have a civil conversation with other players. It is those that lack any social skills and etiquette that should go by our rules. They need to respect other players and their approach to the game. Learn to take a bad beat and learn to win gracefully. What is so wrong about winning gracefully with them?

Their play can be lacking. They are usually your typical immature LAGS. The people that will get caught up in their own foolish aggressiveness. When they win with a crap hand, they boast about it and make it sound like luck had nothing to do with it. They laugh at you for taking the bad beat. There is no "sorry man". It is a "Boom! Headshot! You suck!" that appears. Such a far cry from the camaraderie that was established among this group years ago. There is no respect, no compassion, no guilt for being an asshole. It is no wonder the recognizable names dwindle with each event.

It used to be that the field would stick around to see who would win a blogger tournament. They would watch a final table cheering people on, but not vocally taking sides. Whoever won was congratulated by everyone, not belittled by the small minded. Seems few care about the final table anymore unless they are there to insult.

The rats don't care what the purpose or history of the series is. Sure this may be the BBT3, but the BBT wasn't the first around. People need to give credit to Byron for the work he did on setting up events and coordinating the tracking system. Sure the BBT may have happened without his work but he also should get some credit. The rats should be more respectful of those who laid the foundation that allows some very good prizes to them today.

Because it isn't about the prizes. Sure the prizes are nice and I am grateful to the sites that have offered them to us and the people that worked hard to attain them. It was never about the prizes for most. It was a time to get together with people that had the same interests as you, sling some cards, and have a good time. To get to know people you wanted to meet in Vegas. To develop networks of friends that would expand beyond the internet to every day life. Winning a seat to the WSOP or an iPod is nice, but they are worthless when compared to the friends you can make.

That has always been the real prize.

6 comments:

DuggleBogey said...

Excellent points, and very well said.

Wwonka said...

Great Post.

Unknown said...

Nice series of posts and thanks for the nice comment on my small contributions to the community!

Unknown said...

Byron does rock, even if his choice of baseball team is sub-prime :)

23skidoo said...

Well said sir!

Joaquin "The Rooster" Ochoa said...

Can I at least get some names.