Being a jerk at the poker table sometimes is a profitable tounament poker strategy. And no, we are not advocating being a jerk, but there are some good reasons to do so. The most obvious reasons are to tilt your opponents and get them off their game.
Getting into an argument or playing obtrusively, pausing on every action, needling or harrassing players, can all heighten the pressure on those waiting to play after you. When you play poker tournaments it is a pressure cooker already adding a little more heat to the stove can get some guys to implode. Again, it’s a strategy, but do you really want to be the jerk.
Another aspect of using the jerk strategy, is not to be a jerk toward the other players. Why not focus on pissing off the floor people or the dealer. Invariably somebody will take up for them and want to bust you. That’s not really too much better, as instead of being a jerk to your peers you are inflaming the guys who serve you the cards and staff the card room.
You might not win too much long run from this ploy as it could lead to you getting kicked out, serving a penalty, or getting a crucial ruling to go against you. Still, when things are tight, sometimes it’s better to get enraged with an outsider rather than a player.
Say you are on a final table. You be a jerk to another player and instead of him folding all those big pots of blinds and antes it motivates him to play back at you. Sure, the other guys at the table may want to stay clear of you, because of the fear you’ll be a loose cannon, but that guy won’t in fact you’ve only created a loose cannon.
However, you attack the dealers by being a pain in the but, and all of sudden everybody views you as the loose cannon and now nobody wants to enter a pot with you. Steal at your hearts content, you’ve just reworked your table image from a steady, final table worthy player, to a live wire and a borderline maniac.
Yes, being a jerk works, but don’t forget you still have to be a jerk to pull it off.