Just read a good post from Taylor Caby (Green Plastic) over at Cardrunners that captures very well my sentiments towards at least one segment of the WSOP scene:
“I’m already really tired of the whole live poker scene. I don’t HATE vegas by any means, but i do hate the tourney circuit and all the bs that goes along with it. For the most part, these players are miserable. They berate dealers, act like they are celebrities, look down on players who aren’t in the “in” crowd, etc. It’s almost like high school all over again, except it is a bunch of grown men (and occasionally women, who often times i’ve found are even worse with this stuff).”
He goes on to draw a distinction between live and internet pros, and while I certainly agree that the latter tend to be better players, I’m not sure they’re necessarily better mannered. Internet pros are so accustomed to having a good game available whenever they want it that they take it for granted and often have little concern for the ethics of poker. The anonymity of the internet, combined with the fact that many of these guys are very young and not accustomed to being popular, seems to give them license to run their mouths, berate other players, act cocky, etc. A lot of them are very willing to bring that behavior with them when they play live.
Case in point is the guy I called “Izod” from my $2500 6-max trip report. It turned out he was a member of 2+2, as I suspected he was, and he responded to my trip report basically to defend his behavior because he said he was trying to tilt the fish. In my opinion, this misses the point entirely. Essentially, he was saying, “No, no, I was acting like a complete douche because I thought I could make some money by doing it!” Congratulations, you’re a life fish.
I also think is a lie, or at least an exaggeration. I’m pretty sure the kid acted exactly the way he wanted to act, making fun of Dogtown and laughing at his play to his face, and then attached some ad hoc “justification” to this shameful behavior. It certainly wasn’t the case that this guy needed any encouragement to make a loose call, and even if it were, well, it would take a lot more than a small edge in a poker tournament to cause me to make a complete tool out of myself.