I can’t believe I have to post this in 2014, given all of the excellent poker educational material available, but during a few recent tournaments, I was shocked and amazed to witness countless mediocre (possibly) professional poker players say “nice hand” in a condescending way to amateurs after they got lucky, taking the pro’s money.

I want to make it perfectly clear that this sort of behavior is unacceptable in every possible way. You make money because the weak players show up to play. If you make them uncomfortable or bring it to their attention that they played poorly, they could quite realistically stop playing or improve their skills, killing your edge.

Whenever I see this type of behavior, I make a point to stare at the pro and give them a look that says “What are you doing? Are you a blatant idiot?” Sometimes they quickly get the point, if they are smart, and other times they continue to grumble, if they are dumb. I continue staring at them hard because they are clearly in the wrong and because I want poker to last forever. While I certainly don’t want to spend my time being a nanny to an immature poker player, you have to do what you have to do.

Whenever you experience a bad beat, you should simply sit there and do nothing. Don’t throw a fit in any way. You are not a baby. Elliot Roe, a poker mindset coach who does absolutely amazing work, mentions that most of this behavior originates from being able to get your way as a child by throwing fits. Some people learn that if they cry and complain, they will get their way. Obviously, this is not how poker works, even though it appears that this type of behavior does work decently well in the real world. If you have this sort of tilt issue, I strongly suggest you seek Elliot’s help at http://pokermindcoach.winatpoker.com/

While I understand that losing a large pot by getting unlucky is never fun, you must accept it as an integral part of the game. If the best player won every time, the game would quickly die. Notice that in chess, where the best player wins almost every time, no one plays for significant money whereas you can get 6,683 people to happily show up with $10,000 to play poker for a few days.

Do your part to keep the game profitable. If you are not generally nice, kind, and friendly at the poker table, you are not playing well.