6 online poker etiquette tips

Many online poker players think that because they are sitting in a chair behind a screen they can act however they want without any respect. This should not happen, and below we will give you some tips that you should take into consideration before sitting down at an online poker table.

1) Do not hit the glass.

Never call out a player after he makes a bad play. The last thing you want to do is to educate a bad player when he makes a bad play. If a bad player makes a horrible play and ends up beating you, resist being an asshole to him. Calling him out and telling him he made a bad play won’t get you your money back and might even make him improve his game, which we don’t want under any circumstances. You want to keep the fish playing and having fun for as long as possible. Please don’t be rude to bad players!

2) Don't talk about an online poker hand that you're not involved in.

Never talk about another player's hand or give any kind of advice when you are not involved in a hand of online poker. If you have the nuts and decide to go all-in, and a bad player has to decide whether to call or fold, you wouldn't want a third player to be nagging you not to call, would you? This happens all too often when it shouldn't.

If you are the one involved in the hand and want to influence the other opponent to call through “talk” or things like that, then that is another story and it is 100% acceptable, after all, you are the one involved in the hand and must use all possible tricks to achieve your objective, whether it is to make the opponent call or fold.

3) Do not be abusive or use swear words in the chat.

This goes along with tip number 1. Abusing or insulting a player is not good for anyone. You can irritate someone to the point where they want to leave the table or even stop playing. You can tilt or make yourself angry or irritated in a situation like this. Try not to abuse words in the chat, no one wins from that.

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4) Don't give hints about hands you might have folded.

Imagine you raise the flop with A5 on the button, and someone re-raises. A player calls and you decide to fold. If the flop comes A55 or something similar, do not talk about the hand you folded under any circumstances until the hand is over. Saying anything like a simple “put” can seriously disrupt the playability of the hand for everyone involved and that is bad for online poker.

5) Try not to take too long to make decisions, especially pre-flop.

Please try not to take too long to make your decisions, especially when the action is pre-flop. Yes, you can think long and hard to make difficult decisions, but don't overdo it when the decisions are simple. Slowing down the game is bad for everyone involved and can even frustrate a losing player and drive them away from the table.

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6) Don’t “slowroll” your opponent.

Slowrolling is really annoying. Any time you are sure you are winning a hand and are going to call, do it as quickly as possible.
For example, you have :Jc :Jh on a board of :4s :4c :9h :2d :Jd and your opponent went all-in on the river. You would only lose to a :4h :4d here. You are winning against every other possible hand. Taking too long to call here would be a slowroll. Don't slowroll with random people. Sure, if a specific opponent has been being annoying, or abusing the chat, or something similar, it's fine to do that to irritate him a little, but doing so with random players is very annoying.

Article translated and adapted from the original: Online Poker Etiquette