Don't Tap the Glass Policy - When I host a tournament, I will invite people from my poker club, obviously. I may also invite my personal friends who are poker-challenged, if you will. If anyone with obvious skills behaves in a fashion to make the obvious fish feel inadequate, the behavior will be reviewed when considering re-invites. I'm absolutely not saying that a good player shouldn't take a fish's chips (insert pun here), but that the fish should be left with the illusion that they lost due to bad luck, as opposed to a fish maneuver.
I forget which poker book, but at least one of them touched on this idea, about a shark who would bluff out fish, and them show them the 38 os toilet paper crapola that he bluffed them on. The fish would leave in a huff and stop subsidizing the friendly players with skills.
As an extreme example of courtesy to fish (you may or may not choose to emulate), I remember seeing Froggy go all-in on a hand against a fish merely to scare him away from throwing further good money after bad, since Froggy clearly had the nuts.
It's Vegas Baby! Policy - I haven't been to Vegas (not since taking up NLHE at least), but I'd like to have some local preparation if I ever do. I've been told that one should use some sort of 'card protector' to visually signify that one's cards are still in play, and that the dealer has the right to muck them if they are not protected by something, such as a poker chip, a coin, or even a cute little frog. I may institute a similar policy at my games if this is true. If we institute card-playing policies that emulate Poker Meccah, perhaps Vegas will be less intimidating when we get there?
Any Vegas veterans care to comment?
