Berating bad players

This was the quote that Alan Kessler shared with me while playing in a 40-80 Omaha 8 or better game in Los Angeles. He had just berated a player during a $1100 O8 tournament a few hours before for opening KJ99ds from up front. Apparently Kessler scooped the hand but still felt it necessary to share his opinion. Then he realized he had made a mistake. 



Some of the biggest value in split pot events comes from people overplaying high only hands. Usually this comes from players that do not have a ton of experience playing in these types of special forms of poker. Why on earth then would you want to say something to a player that is obviously playing a hand in a non-optimal way?



At the higher stakes, usually $5-$10 and above, rarely do you hear players discussing strategy. But at the midstakes, especially at the five dollar blind level, you hear this kind of thing all of the time. It is like the person that is discussing the hand feels that they are smart by expressing their knowledge. I have said this many times before--poker is about making money not educating someone else. One of the few things that really ticks me off at the table is when some nit gets a bad beat and then proceeds to berate the fish. A lot of the times this drives the fish away. I've actually seen this from some world-class players as well. It is if they believe that they have the right to win every pot because they are intellectually superior. They do not seem to realize that the money that they win from poker is mostly from other people's bad mistakes not their superior play. The next time you feel like expressing something about someone’s lack of good play you should think twice and keep your mouth shut.