Saturday, April 4, 2009

How To Beat Me In Poker

Yesterday night in my home game, I was loving my home poker game, which is a pretty common thing for me, win or lose. I wound up wining the tournament, doing well in the cash game, and feeling good about my game for the first time in months.

Tonight at another game hosted by one of my regulars, I donkeyed out of the tournament with speed and was glad to do so. And I think I've learned something important in the bargain.

Simply, this: I don't enjoy poker so much that I want to play it with assholes.

One point to make before I go further on this: my opinion of who you are as a person is independent of whether I'm losing my chips to you, or how you play the game. Raise pre-flop, call every bet, etc., etc. -- that's all just poker to me.

But when you narrate every hand, scream when you win, insult folks who lose hands when they get caught in bluffs, and in general, make me want out, despite the fact that I knew I should grind through it... well, you, sir, are an asshole, and life is too short, really.

I quickly found myself overbetting, thinking about UNC-Villanova (and no, I hadn't watched a moment of the tournament up to now), and wondering if I could get home fast enough to put my kids to bed.

And so I did, forgoing the cash game that usually goes into the wee small hours of the morning, and denying the individual in question of any chance at any significant amount of my money, given that the tournament is a lot cheaper to play than the cash game. I won't be back, at least not until I'm a lot older, and a lot better at staying in my shoes against people like that.

And one last point about this... is the effectiveness of this tactic (because, well, given how many top poker players seem to be this way, it has to work) the reason why so much of the growth in the game has come online?

2 comments:

Fishincage said...

Why bother to play with these people? If it is how you make a living, I suppose that is one thing. There is chatter like this to be found online too. Learning to ignore it is easier said than done.
Don't get me wrong, I love taking your money. The usual suspects I find around your table are good people and it is all of you that keep me comming back. Nothing more.

Steven Gomez said...

Thing is that a lot of good poker players are assholes. It takes an uncanny degree of heartless tactical aggression to be able to outplay people and take their money.

And more than any other form of poker, no limit hold'em tournament success hinges on psychological tactics, from simple well-timed bluffs to flat out being a dick. Most of the time, the big hands just aren't there, but the money's going in anyway and the pot's getting bigger. So to hang around, you got to find ways to take those pots that have nothing to do with your cards.

If you haven't read Arnold Snyder's books, give them a look. If you've read them and hate them, then never mind ;P