I have never felt guilty when taking someone's money at a poker table. The should not be playing if they can not afford to lose - however I have seen many of them do just that in live games.

The only time I witnessed something that I though was kind of bad was when a young man was taking advantage of a player in his late 70's that should not have been playing. He could barely read the board.

They were heads up and the young kid bet $100 on the Turn and the old man called. The pot had about $350 or so. The river put a FH on the board. The old man checked and the young kid said all in. The old man turned up his cards and he had only Queen high. The dealer asked if he wanted to call or fold trying to give the old guy a chance to save his remaining $200 but at the same time he could not say much. The old guy was confused and he called and lost to a FH.

If it were me in that spot I would have just checked behind the old man and taken the pot.

A few of us thought that they was in poor taste - but that said - one of my books said that if you are not willing to bust your own grandmother then you are not a serious poker player. Never take sympathy on anyone, find the weakest player and take all his/her money if you can.

If you read 'Ace on the River' by Barry Greenstien he said that he did feel bad about taking some of the players money since he did not need it and they did.

no cryin' in baseball , and no sorry in Poker!
cp

Feel bad? No I like to hunt these guys until they wise up or sober up.

I played against a VERY old man at Turning Stone playing $10/$20 limit. His name was Jerry and he was extremely nice but an absolutely horrible poker player. He would bet, get raised, call. Then bet the turn, get raised, and call. Then bet the river, get raised, and call. He would then show his K high or 3rd pair. It's hard to describe how poorly he played. He would call river bets with T high and say how he "only had to be right 1 in 10 times." He would tip the dealers $15 a pot, much to the dismay of the fellow college kids who felt like they deserved his money. He lost $2000 and said "I'll be right back I just need to go to the machine and get some more money." He apparently lost a few thousand playing $10/$20 the day before too. I felt a little bad, but he seemed to be enjoying himself greatly and I was very nice to him. It seemed to me that he had retired multiple decades ago and was very wealthy and was willing to lose a couple thousand for an enjoyable night of poker.

I think it's immoral to let the really bad players keep the money. If they like the game that's great for them, but you should take the money and think of it as tax on their learning.

I really have to try to be nicer to the fish. It's easy to make fun of them when they do something reeealy dumb.

Pieter,

I am looking for people like you to start a political party.

In fact, we need you to be president of BOTH the United States and Dominican Republic. I bet if you were president of the USA, the world would be a much better place.