Because everyone who trash-talks online comes across as a whiny adolescent, a good response to being teased and prodded is to ask, “Does your father know you’re using his account?” or “I remember my first beer, too.” Poker players may hate to admit it, but online poker’s popularity is reminiscent of the hordes of nerdy boys playing Dungeons & Dragons in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Snappy remarks—”You will submit to my poker greatness”—have the ring of a 20-sided die. And when it’s followed by six or seven other people writing “lmao” (laughing my ass off), there’s more than a faint resemblance to Revenge of the Nerds.

The art of trash-talking in online poker. By Jacob Lewis