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October 28, 2005
I'm not a kid anymore and I can't stay sharp for 15 hours of pokerparty. I was so tired, at one point I reraised a guy twice with second nuts. That was the 'Dumber' of Dumb and Dumber. So the upshot is, I had to book a $300 loss for my 15 hours of play because I'd made every mistake in the book. Thank goodness 'stupid days' come so rarely. I tell you all this so you don't think I come down from some mountain to give you my wisdom. I KNOW what you're going through, trying to win at poker.
To your amazement, you will find yourself saying about the actor playing you. "Why did he do that? That was so STUPID! The guy in the three seat OBVIOUSLY has the best hand!" Now as the director, you tell the actor that is playing you to throw the hand away. Of course, the actor does what he is told. The exercise is complete when the player in the three seat turns over EXACTLY the pokerparty hand the detached, uninvolved you put him on.
No, the world isn't coming to an end. Money is just speaking a little louder than usual. (As an aside, the startling announcements aren't through coming, either.) Actually there are several interesting parallels in the four stories mentioned above that bode well for the survival of the Tournament of Champions. We've all heard it said that there is no stronger force in the Universe than an idea whose time has come. The TOC is an idea whose time has come.
Brandon's loss was compounded this week by a death in my other family, the one outside of pokerparty. And it made me think about life. Most of you don't know the name Malik Sealy. He was a starting guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the National Basketball League. Malik died this week at 30 years of age from an auto accident. The reason I knew Malik so well is that he and my son played on the same High School basketball team for three years.
The primary advantage is in handling big denomination chips. The normal $3-$6 pokerparty player never has a chance to test themselves with large bets. How would you react to betting $10,000, and more, in poker chips? Sure it's not real money. $10,000 in tournament chips might be only $100 in cash. But there is a feeling you get, when you are betting big, that can't be duplicated any other way by most people.
The psychology of the poker table is utterly different from other gambling domains. The drive, the ability to read people, to outthink them, to win the wheels-within-wheels psychological maneuverings that comprise the bluffs and counterbluffs that work so well at the poker table is useless in other gaming venues. You'd think these folks would figure this out and give it up but they don't. You see, they don't care about the money and their egos goad them on.
Alas, he doesn't, and that's his problem. What's worse is he thinks he knows it all and because of this little flaw in his personality, he's unwilling to listen to anyone who does. He sits at the pokerparty table with the Daily Racing Form folded up on his lap and takes a couple of quick glances at it and tries to handicap whenever he is out of a hand. Then he gets up, goes over to the simulcasting room, and places a bunch of bets.
But pokerparty is different. Cards can turn a lesser opponent into a formidable one, as if one's pasteboards can magically morph a metaphorical 97-pound weakling into a fire-breathing monster. I don't care how well you play; someone who takes a pair of aces against whatever hand you start with is going to be a big favorite to win that particular pot. And it's cards, not the will to win, that tip the seesaw.
