Dealing with a new player part 3: Adjusting to a poker player who is being a jerk

When it comes to making adjustments against a particular opponent sometimes it’s not just their style of play that will play a major role in how you adjust your play, sometimes their frame of mind, their gender, or their experience that will play an important factor in the way you handle them at a poker table. With this in mind I have created this 4-Part series on adjusting to certain players which will include:

• Adjusting to a player who is drunk
• Adjusting to female poker player
• Adjusting to a jerk
• Adjusting to a clueless player

These adjustments often carry-over to the table as a whole, and this is no more evident than when a boisterous, obnoxious, player joins your table: Otherwise known as a JERK!

Jerks can be handled in one of two ways, and how you deal with them personally usually has to do with your personality type:

Your first option is to be an ostrich. You can completely ignore a player that is being a jerk at the poker tables, and this is what many players choose to do, but be forewarned that a jerk can end a juicy game very quickly; players that are there to gamble and have fun are not going to want to deal with an obnoxious player at the table. Sometimes another player at the table will be the one to give it right back to the bully, but other times the jerk will run rampant over the table and likely cause the other players to find greener pastures.

Your second option is to fight fire with fire, and be a jerk right back to them. Now, this option isn’t for everyone; first off you need to have a strong, confident, personality, and secondly you also need to be able to hold your own in a verbal contest. Most of the time you don’t want to do anything that will rile up your opponents, or draw attention to yourself, but as the bully-stopper at the table your other opponents will actually be greatly appreciative to your antics -there is nothing better than watching a jerk get a taste of their own medicine!

Either way, remember that the jerk isn’t necessarily trying to win money; he wants to prove his machismo, and get under the other players’ skins by bullying the table, regardless of whether or not this is the most profitable approach to the game.

In the final installment of this series I will discuss how you should adjust your play when a clueless player enters the game.