Its a total dueshbag move, but I might be able to steal my friends hot new girlfriend if I lie to her and tell her that he cheated on her.

So what if it means I have no intergrity. So what if every one of my peers will think Im a total ass hole. It gives me an advantage so Im gonna use it.

Do you see the similarities here?

(This is an analogy for demonstration only, obviously I wouldnt really do this)

Paging T-ROD.

That's just low class. I mean I guess if you're willing to sell your soul for some +ev that's tite.

Of course, if slow rolling someone to make them tilt is cool, where should the line be drawn?

Changing your mind after declaring a move in the dark?

Bluffing at a dry side pot to keep your friend alive in a tourney?

These are things that the people we call low class in poker wouldn't do. (Hellmuth, Matusow, Tony G, etc.)

Slowrolling basically just makes you a giant douche. If you're cool with that then go for it.

You're kidding right? Declared actions in the dark are binding, and I'm pretty sure people do the 2nd thing...but that's overly risky and if you do that then that seems totally different than a slowroll where there's no risk, so the two cases aren't close enough for analogy.

The question isn't about slowrolling, per se, it's about using a non-illegal tactic to get people to tilt (since you view it as +EV to have this happen...if the argument were that doing this would cause them to play better, then obv it's a bad idea to piss them off). I think verbally needling somone is in the same category as the slowroll here...both are liable to get your ass kicked by some people, but I don't think many people here who are against the slowroll would be against the needle.

Slowroll does not equal verbal needling

Slowroll = never ending verbal assault including calling his mother names, talking about his midget sister's homosexual habits and things like that.

In other words, slowrolling is considered much more serious and I would say its the MOST serious offense against a poker player that isnt technically against the rules.

Have you noticed that not a single person here agrees that its even "kind of" ok, just to tilt someone. Maybe that should be a clue to you.

Explain it, though. That's the point of discussion. Seems like I've been made out to be a bad guy when I've never actually slowrolled someone...not once, not even for 2 seconds. Just a topic for discussion.

I see it as equivalent to verbal needling...why is it so much worse?

If verbal needling is okay (okay, there is obviously a line for that too, I admit), then many of the same arguments that would allow it seem to work for slowrolling. If it's the "dealer loses tips" argument...come on, that's easily overcome by tipping the dealer an extra hand's worth of tips.

You're also pissing off the rest of the table.

It's way worse than needling.

When you needle people it's only annoying/frustrating. Same with showing bluffs, etc. Nothing wrong with that. Making someone believe they just won a big pot only to take it from them at the last second is waaay different. The former might piss you off a little bit. The latter crushes you.

Your goal in poker isn't to set everyone else on tilt. Just play your game. There's a lot more to life than EV... but if you think a few ev dollars is worth completely crushing some stranger then by all means...