Poker Chat
Introduction
People play online poker for all sorts of reasons as well as at all sorts of levels; and, just the same as you get talkative players at a ‘bricks and mortar’ poker table, you can also get chatty players at online poker tables. Alternatively, for other some online poker players, it’s as much of a social occasion as one that they will see purely in terms of winning money. Such players are, of course, attracted to poker websites that have particularly good and inter-active chat rooms; and yet how should players behave in a poker chat room?
Vital poker chat etiquette
Some folk linger and some just pay a flying visit to poker chat rooms.
The first thing to say about online poker chat etiquette is to check for any ‘chat rules’ specific to any of the online poker websites that you use. Other than that there are some basic and largely common sense things you should do to avoid any risk of falling foul of any poker chat room etiquette. I guess the single most important thing not to do is to be in any way inflammatory towards others in the poker chat room or indeed at the websites poker table. If you need that spelling out, don’t threaten or be abusive toward anyone else – if you need a list of what might constitute threatening or abusive comments, then you’re probably not mature enough to be playing online poker! The other major point of etiquette to observe is not to discuss in any way hands that are in play. So, even if you’ve folded, if you were thinking of sharing with others what your hole cards were – don’t. Similarly you mustn’t do things like make ad hoc arrangements to check down hands or even in any way pressure someone else into leaving a table. Also, although it might be well intentioned, don’t offer to exchange funds in the chat room.
Poker chat to be wary of
Certainly in North America, no matter what your ethnic origin, place of birth or how ever many foreign languages you might speak – English will be the only permitted language. The reason for this is quite simple that chat room moderators need to be confident that all is above board – something they cant do if folks suddenly start ‘chatting’ about their poker hand in some obscure language or dialect. Finally, whilst I’m sure the odd “you’re cute” type of comment is OK – don’t try and advertise anything through the chat room. First of all, other folk won’t be interested, they’re relaxing playing poker and secondly, well it’s just cheap!