ring game situation question

[BrianSwa]

ok here is the situation that came up last night.

$100 NL, shorthanded table
A-6 in the small blind.
I complete.


flop comes down AT3
player that I know well and I concider a friend makes a strong bet, now I know im behind but call in the intention of trying to steal later in hand.

turn blanks again this player puts in a medium sized bet and I call still trying to set up for steal.

river completes broadway and player puts a very small bet in that to me seems like she is scared so I make a big re-raise and she folds. She asks me to show which I do, she then logs off. Know i now she is pissed at me, later on I sit with her in a tourney and ask her if she is pissed at me or something.

she replies that she feels I took "advantage of our frienship online", I dont see it this way, why should I have to play differently against someone I concider a friend? How do you feel about this did I truley take advantage of her? She says she layed down because she knew I was tight and had it, but isnt that what poker is about sometimes playing your image at the table. Please tell me what you think!

[Nikita]

Funny, I actually think this is similar to Rook's thread here:

And I think all comments there apply here. Although in your case, you bluffed your friend, and in Rook's she didn't show, I still don't think it's right for your friend to get mad and I don't think you took advantage. You were playing poker, which is a competition and the basic rule is to win. You can't win poker without some bluffs.

Rob and I have mentioned our home games a few times. Well, there are times we end up in the pot together. We know very well how the other plays and I use that to my advantage, and I'm sure Rob does the same to me. Heck, I'm saving up info on the friends we have over so I can more effectively take their money. And a few of them have said to me that they've figured out how I play and know how to play against me. Of course they said they were sure I never bluffed, it was hard for me to not laugh. Hee hee, can't wait to bluff them out of a pot now.

[Talking Poker]

We've been through this before. There is no such thing as "friendship" at a poker table. Your friend should go play with Rook's friend.

If you can't bluff or check raise or whatever else against your friends, you really shouldn't be playing with them, now should you? I look at it like playing basketball or baseball with one hand tied behind your back. Seems like a bad idea.

bdawg and I are good friends in "real life," but believe me when I tell you, we hold nothing back at a poker table. If I found out he was taking it ewasy on me, or wasn't playing his A game against me, I would be insulted. The HUGE bluffs are the best part of playing with a friend, IMO.

[BrianSwa]

I havent read the posts in 2 weeks so didnt know rook posted about it but thanks for posting the link and thanks for comments.

[PShabi]

Okay Rookette.

Edit: LOL!!!! I posted without reading any responses.

[Talking Poker]

12/19 was a month ago, bub.

[Talking Poker]

LOL - How funny that we all (well, those of us who actually read what is posted in this forum) had the exact same reaction to this?

It's like deja vu all over again.

[Robbie Robb]

Gonna chime in with my two cents here too. (Can you tell that Nikki & I don't have much of a life???? )

For the record, I would *NEVER* lay down a pot or play any differently because I'm playing against a friend. Screw them. I'm playin' poker. The point of poker (to me) is first and foremost to have fun followed VERY CLOSELY behind by winning.

If someone wants to be pissed at me because I won't give them a pot, so be it. Odds are, I'm going to win against them more frequently in the future as they'll always be steamed when playing against me.

If the other person doesn't understand what poker is all about, maybe she shouldn't be playing. Having fun and winning I think really are the only two things poker is about. Sure, there's a social aspect, but it's based entirely in competition.

Part of me wants to vow right now that if ANYONE at any of my home games ever goes off on another player about anything like that, they would NOT be welcome back until sincere apologies were delivered. But then there's that greedy part of me that KNOWS they'd come back steamed and play even worse...

Now, back to your situation: You didn't bluff, you had her beat. How can she expect you to laydown the best hand just because you're friends? She's being unrealistic. You're right. She's wrong. Maybe she'll take you on Moral Court and get schooled by the judge!

[BrianSwa]

no she had me beat, im positive of it. The only way I was winning the pot was to make a big bet on the river and hope my table image and her overall image of me would make her fold. That is why she thinks I took advantage of her.

[Robbie Robb]

Oop, sorry. Misread that part. Well then, that changes....ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I'm in complete agreement with TP and the others - there is NO SUCH THING as "friendship" at the table.

Great bluff then. If she can't handle being bluffed out like that she should have laid down her hand sooner. Either that or she should have called you.

I really doubt you made that bet based on your "friendship" with her - you probably made it based on what you know about her poker playing style and ability.

I think what needs to happen here is that your friend needs to vent about this to a trusted (poker-playing) friend of hers. Then that friend needs to tell her to give her head a shake - poker is about poker and nothing else. Friends don't enter into the equation ANYWHERE. If someone she trusts and respects tells her the same thing we're telling you, maybe she'll realize she was being a little off kilter about it.

[PShabi]

Maybe you guys should just play with your cards face up on the table.

[BrianSwa]

thats the exact comment I made at the other forum when they said I was wrong to bluff her.

[rookette22]

Well Rookie ....hope you have better luck than me with your keeping her as a friend.

Update: My ex-friend wants nothing to do with me after that incident. His loss, I think. Too bad a game has to come between a friendship.

Maybe we should hook them up together, as someone in here already suggested.

[2Tone]

It wasn’t until I read Lou’s post that I re-read the original one in this thread, but it got me thinking. Of all of the games to play with ‘friends,’ $100 NL 6-max is a pretty cut-throat. It’s a game of heavy aggression, laying traps, etc.

If I knew two of the six players at a NL game were friends, I’d be quite concerned about collusion. And if I’m at such a table with one of my friends, we both had better be prepared to win or lose everything in front of us.