This is the sort of statement that sounds good to idiots and people who've never played poker. Anyone who's made money at casino poker is aware of how much of a hassle retards spasming at the card table can make things even if they're going to lose in the end.
No, totally wrong, it’s the exact opposite. Novices and only novices think “you can’t beat bad players cause they’re unpredictable!”
Even your more moderate point you’d rather not have them in the game is totally wrong.
In reality, every professional player loves players who do terrible, random things. Variance might go up, but variance is going to be annoying either way. Other players doing dumb things is where your EV comes from. I’ve only ever heard complaints about crazy players being a hassle from inexperienced amateurs who dabble. Pros want “live ones” in their games.
Like in chess for example - a kind of player who has more trouble with extreme novices than people their own level is someone who knows how the game “should” be played, but doesn’t actually have the skill to go off-book themselves or punish mistakes when an opponent deviates.
An actually strong player won’t have that problem.
Except that chess is a perfect information game, but poker is not. Which means it's possible to tell if your opponent made a mistake in chess, but it might not be in poker.
Disclaimer: chess novice, don't know anything about poker.
Playing poker against very novice players makes it a more volatile game. You might lose big and you might win big, but that's actually good for your EV; the beginner has no concept of bet sizing and that's where you shine. An expert playing against many intermediate player may end up winning on average 5 big blinds / hr over the course of a month. They'll certainly have losing sessions as well.
An expert playing against beginners might 'lose' 50% of the hands they get involved in still, and make a ton more money on the ones they win. It's the difference between an average of 5 big blinds / hr, and 50 big blinds / hr.
I'm not an expert by the way, I just consider myself an 'advanced beginner', who can count on making $2-4 / hr playing 1/2 no limit at the casino (based on having played maybe 200 hrs of poker in the casino). Not worth it as a way to make money, and I stopped caring enough about poker to invest the time to become better.
But you can see the entire dynamic at a table change when a loose, novice player sits down. Players no longer play against each other as much because they can count on the loose player to raise the stakes, and they're much more likely to capitalize on that.
It changes the strategy, and it might take you a while to hit, but it greatly improves your potential to win.
I once played 1/2 NL uncapped at a casino, a guy sat down and put $1000 on the table. Every other hand he would raise $25-50 preflop, and call re-raises. Got all in pre-flop and pre-turn a bunch of times, every time he bust he put another $1000 on the table. This is exactly the best player to play with. Yes, you have to sit and wait for good cards before getting involved, but if you get something good, you have very good odds of stacking them.
