Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Poker Players
Here's the number one reason most guys are out there playing poker (especially at low limits), and it's not the money.
Money's just the most popular pretense. It's to make themselves feel smart. It's some kind of overwhelming need to prove to themselves or the world that they are smarter than all the other guys at the table, or in the tournament.
If you can't take a beat in a tournament without sticking around and telling the guy who made the 60/40 call for less than half of his stack what an idiot he is, using poor grammar the whole time, then you need to think about why you're playing the game.
If you can't realize that sometimes a call with any two cards is the right call because of the pot, and the fact that someone with a worse hand can occasionally win, and it bothers you so much that it steams you for the next fifteen minutes, you need to consider whether this game is good for your mental health.
Poker, especially holdem, is a game of SMALL EDGES. There is no two-card hand that is such an overwhelming favorite over any other that the pot can't make any pre-flop call correct. There are guys out there playing that think that if ANYONE calls their raise, they are making a HUGE mental error. They are so full of themselves and their game that they are ABSOLUTELY ASTOUNDED when they don't win every tournament. These same guys make fun of Phil Hellmuth for essentialy feeling the same way.
If you are going to play poker seriously and expect to make money at it, you need to prepare yourself to take beats. Small beats, big beats, BRUTAL BEATS. Constant beats. It is going to happen. It's the game you've chosen. Accept it or switch to High-Stakes Backgammon.
Posts
7 comments:
I foreshadow'd it happening yet no one believed me.
I think he'll be a decent player once the lesson of humility and patience is learned.
i wouldn't say poker is a game of small edges...limit is a game of pushing small edges of a long period of time. However nl is a game of taking advantage of big edges ergo 80-20..90-10 etc....
By the way just found your site like it mine is
http://www.livinglife1dayatatime.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the comment spam.
You are obviously not talking about tourneys. If you just push 80% or better edges in tourneys. You're cooked.
Duggle,
Gotta check the poster before calling him "spam". Rav is a fucking unbelievable cash game specialist at limits that would blow most bloggers' minds. A good or bad week for him could buy a car. And he's in med school to boot. Hardly a novice, although younger than most of us. Just FYI.
The other thing is, any of us can tilt; we are supposed to be on each other's sides in good and bad times, to lessen the sting of getting shot out of the sky. A little empathy doesn't cost anyone anything, I'm surprised to find it in such short supply in your post. Waffles is your "friend" in the blogger sense of the word. You should be more concerned about your reaction to his tilt, than the fact that none of us overeducated bastards like to lose.
Any unsolicited link is a spam link. Period. The reason I didn't delete it is because it's from a legit source.
Waffles and I have a "special" relationship. I have even helped him for hours in an early O8 tourney before he was much of an Omaha player. But usually we take a more antagonistic tone towards each other. It's mostly just funnin.
And I certainly DO NOT exclude myself as one of those who play for a sense of mental superiority.
Ya Ick, me and Duggle have a special love-hate relationship. I responded on my blog to your insulting comments, lol, I am actually not insulted at all. I played the hand the best I could and lost and it stings and your right that I should not call morons idiots.
Post a Comment