Some players love the splendid isolation - others don’t like having to deal with someone at the table who has, for all intents and purposes, volunteered to be deaf. Love ‘em or hate ‘em every player seems to have an opinion about headphones at the table.
Hell no!
They say the old school is the best school - I’m not always a subscriber to that philosophy but in this case I am a bit of a Neanderthal. Personally I hate to give up any opportunity to pick up free information. So I like to be able to hear what’s going on around me - the quiet players that suddenly get more conversational when they’ve got a big hand.
But that’s my choice and I don’t want to force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. What does affect me tho’ are players who are so engrossed in their music that they don’t know what’s going on at the table. It slows things down when they have to pull of their phones and have to be told (again) to pop the small blind, declare a ‘raise’ or whatever.
Get out of your bubble, say hi to the table and interact like a normal human being!
PKR_Colin
Hell yes!
Gotta have dem phones, baby!
Poker has now entered the new millennium, and with it come a variety of problems, all of which are solved by the application of ‘phones! In the old days poker, the action was almost incidental to the game, as Old Man Cleatus recounted his tales of spousal woe, and Wild Uncle Bill decided which cheat would be the first to bite his bullet. Live poker in the new millennium looks and sounds a little different.
Take your seat at the table and you may be faced with the lesser spotted card room regular – the guy who berates every play, puts reads on every hand after its taken place, the guy who revels in educating us fish with the erroneous drivel he passes for logic. If pushing back at him ain’t your game, pop the phones on and sink back into your chair let Mahler, Mowtown or my favourite track ease your pain.
Another issue, easily solved, is the snail’s pace of some live tournaments. Internet players love action, we know that, and in the absence of action, we get ourselves into peril, the cat headed for inevitable doom by its own poker curiosity. Slap on the cans, whack the volume on 11 and let Mr Vanilla Ice take you to a nice tight, aggressive place. Once the blinds rise to troublesome levels, remove the cans, sit forward and own those fish.
Last but not least, the silent card room. Head down my local North African Café and in the back, you’ll find a silent card game. No banter, no background tunes, no cricket on the telly – just silence. Some may say it’s golden, but for me it’s a sin. Pull out your 1980s Walkman, slide in the self help cassette and drift off into the weak-tight zone that’ll get you that min-cash!
Whether it be boredom or irritation from which you must run, tunes are the way forward. If it’s focus you require, then some pumpin’, jumpin’ house will do the trick. Sure, we slow down the action, and maybe we’re denying the table a slice of our irresistible personality, but hey – poker’s an individual pursuit, and you gotta do what works for you….
PKR_Danski