What They Sell You (Cynical Hat Firmly In Place)

The poker industry is struggling at the moment. The explosion created by Moneymaker's success back in 2003 is subsiding as players drop out of the race and realise that they can no longer compete in the battle of the survival of the fittest. Pros are not only finding that the games are getting tougher but are finding the search for food increasingly difficult. With black Friday hitting the...er... land of the...er... free(!) in mid-April and essentially wiping out the right to play online poker for millions of people, you have to say that the game is up against it.

In this post I'm gonna explore the divide between amateur players, the pros and the industries' desperate attempt to keep the food chain healthy for those at the very top. The main marketing drive behind the poker industry is, of course, selling the idea that you can be wealthy, rich and happy just by playing a game of cards. To generate this idea I've identified five techniques they use to convince us that our dreams can easily become a reality: 

1) Big-up the big name players
Although poker can be classed as a "game" rather than a "sport" the luck factor in poker exceeds virtually all other sports. The poker industry is desperate to sell the idea that there is far more skill than luck in the game than there really is. Actually it's true that if you work and study hard at the game you will reap the financial rewards in the long run. But only the pros have the time to devote themselves and to dedicate themselves long enough to be able to achieve that success. This is why, when big-name players win prestigious tournaments the industry is delighted - it's a vindication of the belief that with hard work and dedication the better players deservedly reap the rewards. (They are not so keen when the unknown or the so-called "fish" actually go on to win a big event - unless they are making the point that ANY IDIOT can go on and win huge sums at this game - which is true but only about 0.01% of the time.)

The focus, also, is on how much these "amazing" players have won. They neglect to mention, of course, not only of the hundreds and thousands of players who have failed to fulfil the dream, but of the hundreds and thousands of pounds that the winner has lost in the past before actually hitting the jackpot win.

2) Winners With Huge Wads
Regardless of who actually wins, magazines LOVE the huge wad pic. This is where the winner (nearly always encouraged to smile beforehand) is shown holding up the final winning hand or a trophy while surrounded with huge piles of cash. While looking at these who cannot but help thinking that "one day that will be me"? This type of pic really helps to feed the greed of both amateurs and pros alike.

3) Pretty Girls
Big-time poker is about the glitz and the glamour. (Ok, one poker magazine does have a home-game section featuring a more down-to-earth environment of peoples' living rooms but the photos are bad quality and are usually grainy and fuzzy and are of scruffy blokes with beer bellies swigging cans of lager. Oh, and it's tucked away near the back of the magazine as well, away from the "more important" stuff.) Magazines need the dolly birds and eye-candy to make the whole game seem more attractive - and if you are a successful, pretty, young female poker player then you are quids in baby!! 

4) Exotic Locales and Stories Of The Jet-Set Lifestyle.
Being successful at big-time poker means big-time rewards right? So, if it's not the glamour girls and the glitz and the huge wads of cash making the game more exciting, it's photos of the plush casinos of Vegas and Macau or photos suggesting what a wonderful life these high rollers live. Advertising is based on making the audience feel jealous of what the subject has along with making the audience feel they can attain that happiness if only they'd part with a little of their cash - you too could live the jet-set lifestyle if you do the simple thing of studying how to play a card game.

5)  "I-Am-Special-And-I-Am-Crushing" Type Interviews
Let's face it, the short-term big money score is made from the big MTTs. No one really cares about the humble cash game player who grinds away in a corner somewhere. (Actually, I use the word "humble" ironically here, the reason many cash game players have huge egos is precisely because they are ignored - but that's a different story.) Anyway, big-name players and big-win players get to do interviews and often, but sometimes through no fault of their own, are portrayed as being all-powerful crushing machines that are rolling in money and just cannot be stopped.

It all seems so easy and effortless but here's the thing: everyone is attempting to do the same thing. Winning a tournament does not really involve actually doing anything more special than any other half-decent player. We've all heard, read or watched what the strategy is and any well-informed player does pretty much the same thing in order to try and win the thing. As I said at the beginning in section 1, luck plays a much bigger role in poker than the industry wants us to believe and those "superstar" sponsored players have got to where they are because they got the lucky break at the right time - not because they are light years ahead of everybody else in the skill department.

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The point of this very cynical post, which may sound like sour-grapes to a few, is that all these marketing ploys help the successful pros more than anybody else. They have the edge because they really do work at the game and they put the volume in to even out their variance. But these predators need prey to feed off and all of the above helps to bring the next victim to the table. It also strokes the egos of the TV superstar players who are all part of this world and who are soaring high more from a sponsorship deal rather than through the financial rewards that a real study of the game brings.

So where does this leave the recreational/amateur player of which I am part? Well, I hate to say it but we are the fodder. Unless you can put some sort of time aside to study this game in order to give yourself a fighting chance, then you should get out now and refuse to feed the monster. Keep checking your results and if there is a significant dip or if the line is on a steady downward drop then you either need to really study the game properly to change that curve or you should quit and find another hobby. For the huge majority of the regular long-term players (probably over 99%) poker does not reward passengers.

Live Session #33 (Happy In Yer Skin: Part 2)

In my last post I went on a bit about why I didn’t play in the £48 qualifier but also wrote that I’d let you know how I got on at the cash game table so here goes... Now in the past I’ve mentioned that I don’t really like The Fox cash games because of the seriousness with which the game is taken and the tight nature of the play. Well, perhaps that’s a bit of a generalisation because after watching this particular cash game (while waiting for my non-existent seat to materialise in the tourney) a few of the players just seemed a little out-of-place, and so I thought it might be a good time to weave a little bit of my wobbly magic.

With no one anywhere near a large stack, I plonked myself down with the £200 maximum and settled in. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you are the dog’s bollocks when you sit down as the king of the stacks at a cash game table; everyone can see that they could lose all their money to you and if you play aggressively you can really be an intimidating force at the table, especially at a live game with cagey players. For me it really was all about all-out intimidation this evening but most of the time I really did have a good hand to back it up.

I did lots right tonight: I raised big when I hit two pair with a possible flush draw on the flop; I called an all-in when the ace hit the river and my villain showed A 5 and I held A 10; I made an ok amount when I hit a higher ace straight than my opponent’s king high straight (he correctly folded to my raise on the river). The table actually broke when it ended heads-up with just yours truly and this one other fella. It may sound boastful, and I may be wrong, but I think I just may have scared them all away.

After tonight I might have to re-evaluate the view that The Fox is a house of nits but, anyway, with the time at 10:30PM, I thought it best not to sit at another table and to bank my £85 win for the day. I popped into my favourite Chinese restaurant for some bean curd and pork strips on rice (lovely) and started heading for home but not before realising that I had my special £5 Golden Nugget chip left in my wallet.

So it was off to the Golden Nugget (which was only a three minute walk from the Chinese restaurant) with the sole purpose of putting that lucky £5 chip on the blackjack table. Unfortunately the £5 minimum table was full of players but I could still place it where someone else was already playing. Luckily the old fella sitting at that seat knew what he was doing: he hit on 13 when the dealer had a 7 and got a 2. He then hit again on 15 – which is correct – and turned a magnificent 6 for the beautiful 21! I grabbed my double-up and left the place with two £5 chips and a very happy man. Bosh.

Live Session #33 (Happy In Yer Skin: Part 1)

After tonight I'm convinced that when you sit down to a poker table, you have to be damn sure that you're happy in your skin. I mean, you gotta be 100% happy in your skin before you sit down to play. Tonight, I registered for the £48 qualifier for the Fox Poker Club's £325 main event tourney and then took myself off to a nearby pub for a pint to relax before the start. I returned to the club and sat down at Table 4, Seat 8 but I became immediately unhappy. Why? It was right on the bottleneck for waitresses to enter the playing area and for players to approach the tables and take their seats.

Anyway, I took my seat with the aim of toughing it out but, it was no good, people passed behind me continually and pretty much every person would nudge my chair in so doing; if only ever so slightly. It was absolutely doing my head in and my attention just wasn't where it should have been. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to play my A game while I stayed on that seat. I approached the floor manager to let him know of the situation and he said he could place me elsewhere but I said I'd try a bit longer but practically as soon as I sat down the nudging continued and I was livid.

I got up and told the floor manager I wasn't going to sit there and he said he would resit me as soon as possible. I sat out, he took my chips aside, and I started watching a cash game. Strangely, alternates were called to the tourney before me, thus causing me to ask the floor manager if I had actually been put at the bottom of the pile whereupon he replied by saying that he could sit me next if I wanted... Right, so he kind of just forgot about me... and now I really was annoyed. He'd just kind of treated me like I was some sort of arse. Now I was tilted and there was no way I was going to sit in that tourney so I asked for a refund which, at least, he did honour.

The point is, you just have to make sure you are totally happy when sitting down at the poker table. If you hand over good money to a poker room to play their tourney, they need to make sure that everything is right for the players. If something is not right, you owe it in the name of fairness and all that is right and good for the game to make the problem known.

In my next post, I’ll let you know how I got on in that cash game I had my eye on.

No Brainer For The £45 Qualifier

They say that the best time to play is when you're running good and in the zone. Well, there's no doubt I'm on a roll and running good so I'm gonna get my huge hairy buttocks down to The Fox Poker Club this very evening and have a crack at the 7PM qualifier for the £325 main event that they're holding over Thursday and Friday evening and the weekend. The nice thing about this one is we're not talking an expensive £50 rebuy here where you can burn away a few hundred in the blink of an eye, the maximum I can lose here is just that £45 buy-in. It's still poker with a safety-net but I guess if you can nab a seat in a £325 event for less than 15% of the price then it's all good.

The sun is shining and I still have the rest of the week off work so forgive the smugness but I'm feeling great!! An early exit will probably mean a little wander over to the Golden Nugget or The Vic for some £1/£1. I reckon a break from the £1/£2 cash game to avoid "winning tilt" will probably be in order. One of the worst, but easiest things to do after a big winning session, is to think of the winnings as "free-rolling" money and to have a devil-may-care attitude towards it. Wrong, this is money which has been earnt through hard work and if you think of the money as expendable then that's exactly what it becomes. I also have to be careful if I go deep tonight in the qualifier and then bust-out around the bubble to a bad beat. This is another tilt-trigger. You always have to be on guard in this crazy game of poker be it during online or live play. There again, I think my biggest enemy is actually the booze.

I still need to find time to do the housework before the missus gets back from the South of France sometime tomorrow, and there's a mountain of clothes to be washed, but I guess that can wait till Thursday morning. Now let's do this...

Don't Listen To Phil Hellmuth: Part 2

In part 1, I rambled on a little bit about my brother who not only has a fairly stubborn personality and a blinkered outlook on life but who doesn't really listen to advice. As a result, I reckon it's fair to say that he's been kind of left behind in the world. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you have to be dynamic and willing to make changes in order to move forward - and that's no less true in poker. It is NOT a weakness to change your attitude if that attitude is dragging you down.

My brother used to be a very good poker player but claims that you can't really learn the game through reading poker books. Now for someone who has a library of poker books, literally, longer than your arm I have to take issue with him. Sure, you need to adapt your own style and play your own game but my big thing point is, you need to know how others play in order to come up with strategies to beat them. By keeping up-to-date, having your finger on the pulse and moving with the zietgeist of the poker world - oh, and reading about the latest moves that most people are following - you do get a kind of feel for where the game of poker is and where it's heading. It's really about keeping up with what the "good" players are learning so you can, at least, attempt to pick away at what might be going on in their head at the table.

Failing that, as a poker player, you can do a lot worse than pick up a good ol' poker book when you've a spare moment or while you're out and about. I'm not sure about Dusty Schmidt's title for his latest book though because I think you DO have to listen to players like Phil Helmuth, precisely, as I wrote above, to work out what the population of poker players are soaking up as far as information goes. It's a bit like what Hegel wrote in his Phenomonlogy Of Spirit about the Hegelian dialect where he went on about something along the lines of taking a  thesis, forming an antithesis to then come up with a synthesis. You just kind of build on common knowledge, have a little dialogue about it in yer head and then come up with your own conclusions.

As a failed online poker player you could argue: who the hell am I to talk? Well, you know what they say? Those who can, do; those who can't, teach! So there it is. Personally, and I guess I can speak as a winning (albeit very amateur) live poker player, the main and most important quality to have is not only knowing how to use the weaponry and ammunition that you have in your arsenal but HOW TO ADAPT AND HOW TO CHANGE on the battlefield when confronted with the different types of enemy. And this certainly involves knowing when to break those rules that you've been reading about.

Blimey, what a load of twaddle I come out with after a run-good session!