It may sound obvious to some that playing any game with other people requires some basic sense of decency and poise. Well-designed software will usually bear the brunt of your aggression and impatience with saintly resignation and if your purpose for playing poker is to get rid of pent up emotion or to redirect frustration you had better stick to customized bot opponents. But it is surprising the amount of people who behave like bullies and hillbillies, sometimes in the belief that it is a manner of bluffing.

A lot about a person can be ascertained by his behavior, especially when involved with other players in a game of poker. The expert player comes off as focused and purposeful in his manner, even though he may be politely brisk. He is there for an honest, competitive game of quality poker. As for the student of the game, the more sincere, purposeful and focused he is, the better the chances that he is following the basic rules of etiquette.

Professionals are characterized both by mastery of the medium and impeccable manners. Good manners create a pleasant atmosphere which makes it easier to focus on winning. Experience and plain common sense dictate that you do not insult rookies, since they are a profitable source.

It may seem odd, but etiquette is also required in on line games when playing with live opponents. Above all, keep chat to a minimum. Every message you send or respond to may reveal unintended information. Every message you receive may mislead you. The more chat going on, the more distracting it becomes. Keep the chat to a minimum or do without it altogether.

It is definitely a bad idea to discuss your or your friend’s level of mastery. What is less obvious is that by chatting voluminously you may easily inadvertently reveal your level of expertise.

Always be polite but save the salacious stuff for the water cooler. You will be doing the table a favor. An online poker game is not a chat room and treating it as such wastes time and opportunity. Negative language will not achieve any goal. It will only pollute the atmosphere and you want to keep the atmosphere pure and neutral.

Attempting to raise the ire of your opponents by insulting their technique is not going to increase your odds of winning and again, may reveal more than you intended about you and your level of mastery. Out and out rudeness is officially not allowed in most online rooms.

Don’t type messages in upper case, this denotes loudness and that you are screaming at the recipient, which makes you seem overly emotional and out of control. Not good in a poker game. You want to be the cool cat, the one with poise and grace under pressure. A veritable Cool Hand Luke.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Power Rakeback as well as Full Tilt Rakeback.