I’ve been watching the FullTiltPoker.net Learn From the Pros series on FSN. A recent program dealt with the, uh, accouterments that players bring to the table, and the participants in the roundtable discussion segment were almost entirely against music and headphones.
Now I have an iPod Nano that I carry pretty much everywhere. I’ve tried it out at the table on occasion and for the most part it hasn’t done much, for my game or for changing my environment. I’ve found it the least ineffective when I turn down the volume and make it just a hint of background noise (the best I’ve found for this is the Lord of the Rings movie soundtracks) rather than blasting my dance tunes.
But a player at last Saturday’s tournament epitomized all that is bad about headphones at the table.
And we’re talking full-blown headphones here, not just earbuds. I could see when he put them on that his eyes went sort of blank, as if he was tuning in to the music rather than to the table. Good for me, of course, except for the effect that he had on the game as a whole.
Put simply, he slowed the game down tremendously. He had to be prompted to even look at his cards when the action was on him at times. He often wasn’t aware that the pot had been raised. Overall, his headphones were just a drag on the game.
Now don’t get me wrong. I was happy to see his distraction; it enabled me to extract more money. And it forced me to focus on being patient. But that said, the effect on the game was such that I think the whole headphones thing ought to be banned at tournament tables, at least when it causes such delays.
Here’s the thing. Tournaments generally don’t use shuffling machines, so you’re already seeing fewer hands during each round of play. And then, it’s often the less experienced dealers who get the draw for tournament dealing, in part because the tips are less to tournament dealers than when they are at cash games, so the dealing itself is slower than with better dealers.
Added all up, when it becomes obvious that players are in their own world, and that world only peripherally has the poker table in it, then dealers and tournament directors should step in, make the headphones disappear, and get the game moving.
And the $300 part? Well, a player next to this player asked to take a listen, and Mr. Headphones bragged about the cost.
Mr. Headphones also busted out not long after the rebuy period ended. Justice does happen, just not as quickly as we might like.