Grinding, Grinding, Grinding

Well, today’s poker session was a complete grind.  Last night, I had a great night, playing 1/3, 2/5, and even sampling 5/10 for the first time.  However, the session this morning was the complete opposite.  I get seated at the only table running, which is a 1/3 table.  It has two maniacs at it and they are driving the action at the table to make it look like a 2/5 game.  One maniac is crazier than the other one and unfortunately he rivered me.  Almost to be expected.  Such a sick hand though as I call a $10 raise with 5-6 and the flop comes 5-5-7.  After a series of bets, I am all-in with the manic as I am never folding here to him as his range is ATC (any two cards).  The turn and river both appeared to be safe cards until V flipped over 5-2 for the boat on the two that hit the river.  Granted, we are most likely chopping, but I would take a chop over a beat like that any day of the week. 

Once the 2/5 table opened up, I took a seat and proceed to make the sucker end of the straight against a Villain who was betting like he had the top end.  To any other villain I probably push, but this older gentlemen was a regular player and he didn’t seem like the gambling/bluffing type.  I questioned my fold to his $250 raise to my $120 bet on a 4-5-6-Q board with two spades, but I eventually folded.  A few players commented that he did not have it and was probably making the bet with two pair.  They stated they played with him often and he makes those moves frequently.  Well, those two players busted out within the next 2 hours, while I steadily grinded.  The one gentlemen to my right, who was good friends with the Villain in question, and a guy whose opinion I respect greatly, said that the Villain told him after than hand that he had the top end and can’t believe I didn’t call. 

Needless to say, I lived to fight another flop and eventually grind my way back to even on the day.  My mind was cooked after that session and completely destroyed my plans for a good profit on a friday afternoon, but one will have those days at the tables.  I am just pleased that I have improved my patience to the point where I don’t push my last $200 on some top pair garbage kicker because I am tilted. 

I still have yet to make it to the Meadows, but I keep hearing the action is sub-par to the Rivers and this is a great deterrent for myself.  Although, according to the Meadows 2+2 thread, the poker room there will start running some daily tournaments.  The Rivers is definitely lacking in this department although I talked to the floor and he said they have a day picked out where they plan to start running them.  The problem with the Rivers is that they will only be doing morning tournaments because they don’t want to limit the amount of cash games they can run just to make tournaments available.  Word is that they have applied to the state for the ability to add additional tournament tables. 

I took a walk around the casino after my session and I was shocked at just how packed the table games were at 3 in the afternoon on a Friday.  I really shouldn’t be shocked, as I myself was a table games player only a year ago.  But, I have kicked that negative EV habit and it was definitely one of the best things I have ever done for myself.  A s I was walking around though I couldn’t help but laugh at this one older woman who has a huge blonde afro.   I mean this thing is huge and truly sticks out there.   I have seen her on numerous occasions and the sight of her always brings a smile to my face.  I plan on snapping a good pic of her one day, but every time I try to sheer size of the afro throws my phone camera way out of focus.  Tomorrow is a much needed off day of poker for me, but I plan on making some big headway on Sunday as my profit for the week is not exactly where I’d like it to be.

PLO Anyone?

Recently I have been browsing a thread on 2+2 which has been attempting to get a PLO game started at the Rivers on a regular basis once table games begin.  I encourage anyone interested to check out the thread and post your interest in it.  The post can be found Here.

As far as PLO goes, it is certainly the game with the most interest behind Hold Em’ right now and has steadily grown in interest.  I think it would be great to see a regular PLO game go off on the Rivers as I will make an attempt to regularly play in it.  My experience with playing the game is rather limited, but I will play any game as long as I have a positive EV in it.  The beauty of PLO is that even the more experienced players in the game don’t have tons of experience themselves.  I welcome a regular PLO game going off as it will provide a needed break from Hold Em’ from time to time.

Poker & Life – Part I

Well, I didn’t have a great day at Wheeling late last week, but that is to be expected and I take it in stride.  Like many things in life, a hit to the poker bankroll can also be made back in the next go round.  Thinking about that though made me reflect upon the analogies between poker and “real life.”  I will be the millionth person to do this type of presentation, but that does not deter me.  Just as it doesn’t deter most writers from writing about anything that has been repeated ad nauseum. 

Let’s first just talk about a poker player’s bankroll.  Here, a good player will have a set amount which they can play out of and try to “build” by continual winning poker.  If times are good, the bankroll may be dipped into by “real life”  or “RL” as I will continue to call it.  However, when times are not so good, maybe RL will have to contribute to the bankroll.  Since poker bankrolls and RL are so intertwined, it is difficult to form a credible analogy between the two.  Much more can be said about bankrolls and how they can affect life and vice versa, but that should be saved for a later article discussing interplay as opposed to drawing comparisons. 

Let’s look at it from a 2+2 perspective; those of you who do not even know what 2+2 I am talking about (not 4), please do yourself a favor and google “2+2 poker forums,” get a good 30 days of degenerate reading and then come back.  Anyway, those of you who are familiar with the forums will know that there are two forums that compare the Brags, Beats, and Variance of poker to life and vice versa.  I make it sound simple whereas it is much more complex, albeit on the nerdy-degenerate side. 

Brags in poker:  Mostly every poker player will listen to a few stories from a fellow player about a recent win said player had.  The listener gains entertainment from the story and gains positive reinforcement that he/she too will embrace the same success quite soon.  However, the slight hint of jealousy still creeps into the heart of the listener.  The braggart themselves will love retelling the story of how they got three bet while they were holding the absolute nuts.  It reinforces their existence in the world of poker.  This is quite similar to hearing about brags in RL, where you listen to a co-worker’s/friend’s story about the recent escapades they had over the weekend.  Maybe you too will share in the story-telling and all will have a good time. 

Beats:  Every poker player has a bad beat story.  No poker player wants to hear another’s bad beat story but everyone wants to tell one.  Just hearing the story reminds the listener of a bad beat they also took and one which they do not wish to be reminded of.  The mere mention of the two letter phrase may strike paralysis in the listener.  All the while, the speaker just wishes to be heard and know that he/she is not crazy and someone sympathizes/empathize with their problems.  They want someone else to “feel” their pain.  This is an extremely close analogy between poker and real life.  Everyone in RL has a sad story they want to tell and nobody wants to really hear it due to the fact that they will be reminded of their own bad beats that they have put behind them.  Just like in poker, RL individuals will allow you to tell a bad beat story every once in a while, but if you have one all the time, they are just going to label you a loser. 

Variance:  The real mother fucker (pardon me) of both life and poker.  Variance, the donkey who just spiked the gutshot on the river to crack your set/two pair for a couple benjamins.  This is most prevalent in poker, as it is the constant unseen force which ultimately holds your fate.  You can play your cards right, play the person right, but the variance can still damn you in the end.  This is what I think is the best analogy when poker is compared to RL.  In real life, most people refer to variance as “luck” or “fate.”  Although it is unseen, it is always there.  Mathematically, it is explainable, but sometimes the chances of it happening are so confounding, it defies explanation. 

In life, just like poker, the winners learn to reduce the amount of variance by taking accepted pathways.  The probability of ending up a loser when you become a doctor is much rarer than say, a bathroom attendant.   The analogy does appear to end there though, because the things that we experience in life we have much more control of, right?  In reality though, we all know non-smokers who have lung cancer, non-drinkers who have liver cancer, and perfectly safe children that are kidnapped in their homes.  The variance of life is sometime explainable also, no matter how much you caution against it. 

For these above reasons, I believe poker players may have a different take of life, but in reality, they may see life as a game, no different from the ones they play when the sit down at the felt.  We jokingly call those who become too absorbed in this poker lifestyle the “degens,” but is that really all they are?  Do we call a workaholic a “degen” in RL?  Maybe, but more likely he/she will be rewarded with a good job and professional accomplishments.  They just learned how to reduce the variance enough and put in enough time in their sample size to achieve a statistical graph that seemingly never stops going up.  Where am I going with this all?  To be honest, I am not sure yet, that is why this entry is labeled Part I.  Look for future installments anytime I feel like having an analogical rant.