It's not poker you're tired of, it's chasing money
Date: Mon, Jun 9, 2008 Internet
Maybe this is how poker's bubble bursts: not with a bang but with gradual subsidence, so numerous are the pin pricks through which its allure departs.
To read the forums these days is to read noticeably more threads like this one, where the musty whiff of ennui is unmistakable.
While I doubt that the end of poker's boom will emulate that of mortgage lending, people are nevertheless waking up to the fact that it has its limitations as a pastime. It is repetitive, its landscape never changes and it has none of the vigour of physical contact sport to snap you out of your disillusionment.
Nor does it make financial promises, no matter how well you play and for the many who saw it as the gateway out of 9-to-5 Land, this is the killer blow. So the signs of a peaking market grow more frequent - over at Punters Lounge, they're now quibbling over repetitive poker magazines - and ever more people are wondering if it's still worth a damn.
Of course it is. It's not our game we need to change; just our attitude towards it. While I've never seriously contemplated playing poker professionally, I realise that I have long been focused too intently on winning tournaments and growing bankroll, without pausing to smell the roses along the way.
So my poker reading is no longer confined to strategy manuals. I read about the game's history now, about the world's great casinos and poker's amazing litany of characters. If I'm still thinking of tournaments, it's more in terms of the places I might visit at someone else's expense and the kind of people I might get to talk to than how much money I might win.
Not that this means I'm tilting through indifference. If anything, relaxing my perspective on the game has brought a new clarity to what I'm about when I sit at the table. Monday to Friday decides the weekend's perks: if I'm in profit after five days of two sit and gos a night, I use half that profit on tourney entries for Saturday and Sunday, keeping the dream of making millions alive. Only now it's a treat, not a grim objective.
If I make a loss in the week then I take the weekend off: heaven knows, I'm not short of poker magazines to catch up on.
I'm just happy that I still have the opportunity to be competing at something, three years shy of 50 and while I think it's a misnomer, I nevertheless feel a certain guilty pleasure when I hear poker referred to as 'sport'.
Is my renaissance working? Well let's just say that when I realised I have a residual $16 to my credit across three online poker rooms, I didn't do what I would once have done and throw the lot at a few sit and gos. Instead, I've gone back to playing the occasional 10-20c limit Texas Hold Em cash game. It's not my preferred format but it fills gaps in my day that are too short for even one-table tourneys and, dropping down from $10 sit and gos as I am, it allows me the novelty of playing a level of poker at which I feel totally comfortable and, more often than not, in control.
The old me would have laughed scornfully at the fiscal regression of such nickel and dime poker. The new me, however, has discovered poker for poker's sake.
It may not be a viable career option but as hobbies go it still beats the hell out of home improvements.
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Pic of the Day
'Sit & Go Strategy' - review
Date: Thu, Jun 5, 2008 Internet
Collin Moshman's book Sit 'n Go Strategy is reviewed over at the United Poker Forum
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Life after a bankroll - when your last cent has gone but the itch still needs to be scratched, Prizedome.com runs regular freerolls in which you win points that can be redeemed for prizes. Each Monday, they also run a $100 cash prize event, just to remind you what you once had...
I must say their graphics (left) look rather smart; like BoDog poker before it went all minimalist. Not sure where I'd put that golden hand trophy, mind.
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WSOP point of order - is Lucius Malfoy the only Harry Potter character attending this year's event?
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And there I was thinking 2,000 chips and 10 minute blind levels over at Party Poker were generous: Andrew Brokos explains what 'deep-stack' tourney poker really means and how the online veteran must adapt.
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Pic of the Day
Doing the unthinkable with poker bankroll...
Date: Tue, Jun 3, 2008 Internet
Yes, that's right: I'm going to spend some of it. Say this for recessions and credit crunches; they do get you thinking about that online poker loot you work so hard for.
There is so much written about bankroll management, that I think we're in danger of making a temple of our money.
The Phil Iveys of this world can splash their cash without making so much as a dent in their 'roll but for those of us at the more humble end of the poker economy, bankroll is something solely to be built and nurtured and before we know it, it becomes something we gaze upon reverentially from a distance, never to be touched or squandered on things that have nothing to do with poker, for fear that we trigger some gambling karma and promptly tilt away twice as much as we've just withdrawn.
Only in poker's religion is the path to righteousness not straight and narrow. In online poker, the gateway to evil - the 'Withdraw' button - is straight and narrow, while the Pearly Gate is wide, shiny and labelled 'Deposit'.
But times are hard. I took my wife to Scotland on a press trip last week and while much of the 'jolly' was free, there are always extras that need paying for, not to mention birthday presents for her and elder son. And I'm being hit by interest rates and energy bills as much as the next man.
So I thought, "why shouldn't poker pay for some of this?" and the more I thought about it, the more I began to realise the advantages. Sure, the balancing act between leaving well alone and over-indulging must be addressed but if you can handle that properly, there is the added incentive of striving for capital that will actually go to work in the real world instead of being just an abstract number.
There is the potential satisfaction of knowing that perks such as that £25 bottle of wine at dinner are no longer a drain on savings but a freebie paid for by people who over-play flush draws.
Then there is the boost to morale brought about by attainable goals. I may not feature in the World Series of Poker this year but maybe, just maybe, I can get other people to pay for at least half of the new tyre my car needs.
I'm excited by all this. Like I say, I'm no Phil Ivey...
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Five best horse racing movies
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Poker Pic of the Day
Chipophilia - how does Big Stack stop the bleeding?
Date: Thu, May 29, 2008 Internet
My 40-day read-through of Harrington on Hold 'Em Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
This, however, brings problems of its own. Somewhere between throwing my weight around in too many marginal hands to avoid becoming complacent and playing like the Rock of Gibraltar in a feverish bid to hold what I have, there is a happy medium. It might as well be a tightrope smothered in butter, for all the trouble I'm having staying on it at present, so I have been scouring the 'Net and magazines alike for tips to stop Big Stack wasting away.
Here are those that struck the loudest chord:
- "Most of the short stacks will be looking for reasons to go all-in and try to double through before they get blinded to death, so you want to avoid making stupid calls and keeping them in the game...I think the best approach is to make maintaining your lead the priority and secondly trying to build it up more - protecting before pushing"
- "Attacking other big stacks can be a very strong tactic as they will not want to 'get involved', even sometimes with a very big hand, as they are reluctant to give up their strong position. Look for opportunities to come over the top of raises, particularly from late position. It is a stronger looking bet, puts more pressure on and gains more chips than first raise. You will be believed for a hand most of the time"
- "Short-stacked players often will raise pre-flop, hoping no one calls. Gold [2006 WSOP Main Event] would fire back and bully them off their hand, probably at times with inferior cards. Gold knew his opponents would call or re-raise only if they had a real hand. So, when they played back at him, he’d usually just fold"
- "Take some time at the table to do some psychological exercises to keep yourself in check. Whenever you've been able to gather a nice amount of chips early set your goal for your play for the next few levels. "I want to win about 4,000 more chips by the time the antes come into play," might be a quick and easy goal to set. That solid goal will help you set your sights on solid decision making, not playing to continue a "hot streak" or to feed your own ego."
- "A better solution in my opinion is to alternate speeds. Steal twice an orbit for two or three orbits then take an orbit off (unless you catch a monster, obviously) then go back into attack mode for an orbit then backoff again, etc...if you occasionally fold "obvious" steal opportunities even when you haven't played the last 8 or 9 hands, your (thinking) opponents will start to think that maybe you weren't bullying earlier but just got hot for a little while and they will respect your raises when you crank it back up."
- "...when you're a big stack, and against opponents who have stacks large enough to pay you well if you hit, but small enough not to be a major threat to you, many hands are worth limping. I'm talking medium off-suit two-gappers... suited kings and queens... sometimes even baby aces...when your opponent has about 1/3 to 1/2 your chips, and a limp costs you less than 5% (there's that 5-10 rule again) of your stack, calling the blind is a no-brainer."
- "You do not make calls just because you can afford to do so. Rather, you’d either have a chance of making a hand, or plan to steal the pot from your opponent in a later betting round. ..Specifically, you want to make moves that will slowly drain your opponents chip stack, but never do you want to double them up."
- "If you do want to use the leverage offered by a big chip stack, target the players who appear to be playing too tight and put pressure on them with bets and raises. They’ll be all too aware of the fact your big stack could knock them out at any time."
I've had this on the back burner for a few weeks but Edward McLelland's reflections on the loss of Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby and what it tells us about the Turf's conveyor belt, should be read by anyone with an interest in racing:
"As this change in the breeding world took place, the sport was allowing the use of pain-killers and other medications that are forbidden in most other countries. They allow infirm horses to achieve success, go to stud and pass on their infirmities to the next"......................................................................................
Planning a Vegas bachelor party
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Pic of the Day
Between Godliness and poker, comes Jewish escapology
Date: Tue, May 27, 2008 Internet
At a time when public places seem to be getting busted right, left and centre for hosting poker, not even the story of a Leeds rabbi forced to protest the innocence of "a Las Vegas-style night of entertainment for young adults" can raise much of an eyebrow.
Until you get to the end of the story, that is:"The evening, which featured illusionist Mord Maman, started with an escapology show that is the brainchild of Rabbi Shlomo Farhi, who weaves ideas of Jewish wisdom into proceedings"
How...the...hell does that work...? The Book of Exodus with a padlocked sack?
And hats off to the Jewish Telegraph reporter who insisted that we be spared no detail of the evening's rampant hedonism, with one of journalism's all-time great closing paragraphs:"There was also a Chinese buffet"
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Still on the religious theme: spin this - another in the series highlighting those fabulous PR coups that make you rejoice to be a gambler...Gambling Rev runs out of luck - A White Plains priest was a real holy roller - using the Sunday collection plate as his own personal gambling pot, authorities charge
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Pic of the Day
You own every poker book going - so where do you hold 'em?
Date: Sun, May 25, 2008 Internet
One London couple has come up with a neat idea in optimising space - building a staircase going nowhere and surrounding it with bookshelves, instead of having a whole wall taken over by John Grisham.
If that sounds a bit too pretentious for your Harrington collection
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How to play someone else's seat at the poker table - or 'A few more things to mention when people tell you online isn't a patch on live games...'
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Poker pic of the Day
Even with a set of Ks, you sometimes must bluff
Date: Wed, May 21, 2008 Internet
If there's an award for Poker Ad of the Year, it's already over. This ad comes from a French poker magazine. Click on the picture for an enlarged version that reveals the headline.
And in a bid to head off any critics at the pass - it's an ad which fittingly lampoons an organisation that would be funny if it wasn't so obnoxious, so no, I don't think it's racist.
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Strategy corner - The Sweet Siren Call of Suited Aces:
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"...if I make my nut flush, oh baby! It's better than eating a giant bag of Ruffles potato chips while watching a marathon of Notorious, Vertigo, and North by Northwest."
Poker pic of the Day