Why does poker chatbox abuse happen?

Barry Carter looks at why online poker rooms have so many keyboard warriors, and why you should ignore the trolls.

My mother had been playing online poker for a few weeks, when one day I received a phone call at midnight from her. I assumed it was bad news because it was so late, but she had actually rang me up to ask why someone had called her a ‘Donkey’ in the chatbox, and what it meant?

Anyone who thinks online chat abuse is harmless fun needs to look at this example, because this experience actually made my mother quit online poker. She is a recreational player, so this is not what anyone wants for the game.

I must admit though, I did laugh at the absurdity of the situation, and I have always had a fascination with the concept of trolling and why people act so aggressively when they think they are being anonymous. I have read a lot about the topic after being the victim of trolling myself.

The online disinhibition effect

There is a very compelling explanation by John Suler about why we abandon so many rules of polite society when we are online, which is called the online disinhibition effect. It mostly relates to social media and forums, but the poker chat box applies too. Suler identifies six reasons why online abuse happens: 

Anonymity – for the most part online chat abuse is anonymous, which feels like a form of protection for the troll. 

Invisibility – nobody can see the troll, so they can purport to be anyone they want. This is why you will often see the trolls claiming to be professionals, even if it’s at micro stakes.

Time – this doesn’t count for online chat, but most online conversations do not happen in real time, a tweet I send today might be read by you tomorrow, for example. This allows the troll to be able to put distance between themselves and the comment.

Imagination – the act of reading another person’s text is surprisingly intimate, because the conversation takes place in ones head, rather than externally. This creates a false sense of closeness and in some cases outrage. 

A game – quite simply many people treat online discourse as an imaginary world where they are playing a game, so they throw responsibility out of the window. 

No police – finally, the vast majority of online chat is not policed, and without authority figures, trolls run wild.

The poker accelerator

All of the above is probably unsurprising to anyone who has played poker for a while. We have all seen people type horrible things in the chatbox in what is supposed to be a friendly social game.

In poker I think all these things are actually accelerated. The genuinely competitive environment, the pressure or playing with real money and the emotional impact of variance are all going to massively exacerbate the situation. Even if you are very polite and composed, sometimes it is hard not to type ‘what were you thinking?’ when someone outdraws you in a big pot.  

I discussed this with another player recently, and ironically despite all this, we both agreed online chat abuse is more rife at the low stakes, where one would expect the money to mean less. I’d argue that at the lower stakes, because the money is small, perhaps they simply take the game less seriously.

I’d also argue that online chat abuse is the hallmark of a bad player in general. Good players can handle the swings more professionally and are too busy concentrating on the action to partake in flame wars. Also good players usually are multi tabling and thus have the chat box turned off. 

Don’t feed the trolls

As I’ve learnt over the years, the best way to defeat a troll is to ignore them, as you take away the one thing they are trying to get – any sort of reaction. The best way to do this is simply to turn the chatbox off entirely, so you would never know they did it in the first place.

The second most powerful thing you can do is to report them. Most good online poker rooms won't think twice about removing chat privileges and this is also the best way to create a better playing environment for poker in general.

A keyboard warrior is almost always a bad player, so ignore them and ultimately pity them, because they are wasting their energies on the things that are not important in poker. 

Do you think punishment should be more severe for chatbox abusers? Do you think it's harmless fun? Let me know (politely) in the comments.