The World Series of Poker Circuit Event at Imperial Palace in Biloxi, Mississippi marks the 4th stop on the Circuit Tour in the 8th season that will offer 17 stops in all from September 2011-May 2012. The Circuits unofficial motto is “12 rings in 12 days” First the ring then the bracelet. The purpose of the Circuit is an additional opportunity for players to earn points for that all but valuable seat into the $ 1Million National Championship Freeroll to play for a WSOP Bracelet & over $ 250K for first! Each stop will conclude with a $1600 Main Event played as a Re-Entry event so those players who fail to bag chips that play day 1A can always Re-Enter day 1B as a new player with a new stack. Both flights play the same number of levels in the structure to come upon an exact end point. The remainder of both flights move on to Day 2 & then play down in accordance to the structure sheet until a champion is reached. The Main Event Champion receives first place money, The Ring, & an automatic entry into the $ 1 Million National Championship Freeroll in Las Vegas Nevada. Lastly the individual at each stop whom amasses the most points that is not the Main Event Champion qualifies for a seat as well as Casino Champion.
It all started with a dream & waking up to see that Co-Owner of Gulf Coast Poker.Net Gene Dudek finished in 3rd place in the massive $355 re-entry that brought in a field of 477 players. It was a great way to start off the series earning Gene D $ 13,348 & 30 points that go toward the National Championship Freeroll. This is only the beginning of what was to become.
Thursday November 3, 2011. Bill Phillips & I arrive in the late afternoon in time for him to late register the $ 235 $ 1K mega satellite. Bill has the patients to wait where others don’t & manages to pick his spots when others would have shoved orbits before with any two. Not that I am saying he is overly tight, but patients & discipline in live poker are crucial to long term survival, but I am saying he understands basic game theory & that there are edges that exist in live poker that may not exist online due to lack of your opponent’s knowledge. So after several hours of grinding the short stack Bill turns that knowledge & experience into a $ 1K seat which starts @ 12pm on Friday. Ship it.
So while Bill is busy winning his seat into the $ 1K I am playing the $ 120 nightly. Yea I know, it better known as the shit storm. You start off with T3k in chips but 30 minute levels. Wait? 30 minute levels? For a nightly? I know right? Anyway, not much happens early as I pick up very few hands early on. Then in level 2 from middle position I look down at two black sevens (77) with T3K behind. I decide to open @ 50/100 to 250. I pick up a call in late position as well as the small & big blinds. Odd as it seems they would both flat a hand even being an early level to play the rest of the hand out of position (oop). The flop comes 3-3-9 with two clubs. The small blind checks, big blind checks, I make a continuation bet 300 & I get flat called 3 ways. Interesting. Turn card comes the 7 of diamonds. GIN!!!!!! Sb checks. BB checks behind. I bet 800. Late position folds, sb & bb insta ships & I snap call. Sb turns over A3. BB turns over J3. The unimportant river was the A & I eliminate 2 players in one hand. I thought that this would be the all important turn of events for me. The one that started the little glimmer of hope. A little run good perhaps? Not quite. Only poor play & coolers to follow imo, but nonetheless the weekend does continue to get better. I eventually bust the nightly with about 4 partial tables left. 110 players began & they were paying the top 12 spots. Let’s just say for discussion purposes that I bust in 40th place, but I don’t really remember. So the rest of the evening we decided to rail Gene Dudek in the previous days 12pm. This was Gene’s 2nd final table of the series & he also went on to finish 3rd in the event for a little over $6k.
So after what has seemed to be a short yet grueling day. Between sweating Gene D @ his 2nd Noon final table & Bill in the $ 1K mega then playing the nightly, it was up to the room in attempt to get some sleep & back downstairs @ 12pm to sweat Bill & Gene in the $ 1K while I tried to make up my mind to decide whether I wanted to grind sit n go's or grind cash. After several hours I finally came to the conclusion that a $ 125 with a $ 40 10 way last longer sit n go it was. Super soft table other than Blake Barrouse & Cameron Ainsworth with both sitting to my left, long story short, I chop the last longer three ways & take $ 120. Then chop the sit and go heads up for $ 500 each. Now this is where the weekend started to get interesting for me. I had a decision to make. Bill & Gene were doing well in the $ 1K. The Main Event started tomorrow. I was going to late register the 5pm mega with a voucher & sold Gene 33% for $ 50. So essentially for the $ 75 dollar buy in + voucher ($50) + Gene $50 , I get T8K going into 200/400/50 & they were giving 41 seats away with over 300+ registered. I managed to last down to about 150 or so when I had no choice but to shove J5hh from UTG with 3bb get reshoved on by UTG+3 with QQ flop a FD & brick the final two streets. Figuring my weekend is now over & I can either go continue to sweat Bill & Gene which is actually quite exciting for me. Most players don’t enjoy it unless they have a financial interest, but railing good friends of mine & providing moral support is something I really don’t mind, or I could go grind cash. I decide to continue to provide moral support instead. As it starts to get later in the night, Bill & Gene are making it deeper in the $ 1K & it appears that they are poised to make a dual final table which would be super exciting as well as great publicity for www.GulfCoastPoker.Net.
But this is where things start to get interesting. As much as I want to continue to be there for my friends as moral support, I don’t get out of the house often enough to play poker & I am having a desire to play. Trying to decide on whether I should play in cash games or should I in the Main Event. The biggest problem I have is the Main event is over-extending my bankroll a little so the only way I can play is by selling 5% blocks for $ 100. I eventually sold 5 10% blocks & I had 50% of myself with the standard 80/20 deal. 337 players entered both flights for a total prize pool of $490,335 which would pay the top 36 spots & $ 112K for 1st. I feel like I definitely owe a shout out to Jeremy Gaubert, Blake Barrouse, Kenny Milam, Ryan Lenaghan, & Jacob Naquin. Thank you for the opportunity & for believing in me. I have a long way to go when it comes to tournament poker & this was a great learning opportunity. Unfortunately running KK into AA AIPF for 50BB is standard I guess.
In the end on the $ 1K Bill & Gene do make a dual final table with Bill finishing in 8th place for about $3.5K & Gene in 2nd place for about $ 20K. Ultimately this 2nd place finish is what locked up “Casino Champion” & a seat in the National Championship Freeroll for Gene Dudek which came down to the wire in the final ring event & the last 4 players on Monday. Bill also decided to play the main after a single table satellite following the $ 1K & his solid play continued. Bill survived Day 1 with a little over starting stack with what amounted to about 20BB going into Day 2. He continued solid play. Doubled up when he needed it. Picked his spots & found folds when Necessary. He was in the zone. He found a way to stay disciplined, focused, & where there was a will he found a way. He never gave up. Bill made the End of Day 2, Bagged up chips for the last time of the tournament series & would come back for day 3 play a short session to get down to the final table & it was short work indeed. In the end Jerry Monroe takes out Bill in a coin flip AQ vs. 99 AIPF & only 3 hands into HU action. This was only 3 hands after Monroe had hit the miracle 4 outer when he hit his gutter on the turn against Jacob Naquin, otherwise he ends up crippled & it would be J Nock vs. Bill Phillips HU for the title. But congrats to Jerry Monroe even though he was the same guy who knocked me out of the main as well. Life has a sick sense of humor sometimes.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Gambling: Perception or Reality?
“Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.”-Voltaire.
How do you define gambling?
As individuals, we all will have a different definition or perception on a given subject & that is what makes us individually unique. Our perception may have been molded by personal life experiences or what society has lead us to believe through informative misinformation. Keeping that in mind if we were utilize rational thoughts with the lack of emotional attachment, our definition would more than likely produce such a result similar to what we would find in The Oxford English Dictionary.
Gamble (v): To play games of chance for money [Without Object], bet (a sum of money) [With an Object], or to take risky action in hope of desired result.
Now we can come to the rational conclusion that gambling is just human nature & a part of our everyday reality. Society has made an effective attempt to streamline human decision making as a product of a results oriented thought process. This is where I feel society has failed us. Effectively it means that society as a whole does not understand statistical variance & how it will balance out over a large sample of data or in this case a large sample of decisions. This is why I tend to believe that we no longer depend upon individual decision making that is based on factual information at hand. We tend to seek information elsewhere that effectively in a sense is unreliable, thus we tend to fail much more than we succeed. We tend to put the carriage before the horse.
Maybe this is just a fundamental flaw of society or result in a lack of understanding that has developed through our educational system. Although failure is just another aspect of life & an essential component of success, the rate of failure can be drastically reduced based upon rational thinking & using quantifiable information to make well informed decisions knowing that the end result does not truly matter, life will go on. The more we allow society to shape our thought processes in this manner, the more we are susceptible to lose our sense of individuality & our ability to think for ourselves.
Although the definition of gambling is theoretically correct on paper, in practice only with a deeper understanding the definition will only partially apply to poker. Poker is a game that beneath the surface of perception many intangible variables exist that can be condensed into relatively two areas of skill, mathematical computation & psychological warfare. Poker is a constant emotional struggle for individualistic superiority based upon mathematical computations & interpreting the significance of intrinsically incomplete information.
These are just two variables that exist that give a strong argument to classifying poker as primarily a game of skill with elements of chance.
“Defining poker as a game of skill is actually quite simple. First we must forget winning at poker & think for a moment about losing. It is possible to intentionally lose in poker as where to craps & roulette it is not. In games of chance we have no control of the outcome no matter our intent, our odds remain the same. In poker our actions can influence the outcome of the hand. If we fold we know with absolute certainty we will lose or calling bets with hands that cannot win the pot we will lose every time.”- Treat your poker like a business by Dusty Schmidt
Table games such as blackjack or craps are played against the house in which the casino has a specific built in mathematical advantage, where as poker is played against other human beings. The intrinsic flaws of human beings are where we can effectively exploit psychological tendencies or individual weaknesses through tactics of deception & manipulation. Understanding mathematical concepts & human psychology is only the beginning to understanding the level of skill that exists within the game & how they will translate from theory into practice. When our understanding of game theory is effectively implemented, it will in effect lead to a more profound understanding of the game. This is when it is we come to realize that skill is a primary component in a game which by the untrained eye is perceived otherwise. For the individuals who feel that gambling casts a negative shadow on society, poker in particular, understand that life inherently involves risk & everything we do has an element of chance involved. There is nothing certain in this life but death & taxes. Factually that is a reality that you cannot escape.
As human beings we can only comprehend what we truly understand. Poorly executed decisions made on the basis of inferior information or unfounded perception of actuality have a tendency to result in a better than desired outcome. This is the way that the game maintains a delicate sense of humor based on the realism of uncertainty. Individuality (Ego), emotional attachment, & level of understanding of the game are just a few of the qualities that tend to create the element of chance. These factors have the ability to create delusional distortions that have a direct effect on the mental game & personal decision making.
The only certainty in poker that exists is the point where the pot has been awarded. Thus in poker perfection does not exist; mastery is skill that separates an individual from the competition & in theory poker will continually provide a challenging yet dynamic environment.
How do you define gambling?
As individuals, we all will have a different definition or perception on a given subject & that is what makes us individually unique. Our perception may have been molded by personal life experiences or what society has lead us to believe through informative misinformation. Keeping that in mind if we were utilize rational thoughts with the lack of emotional attachment, our definition would more than likely produce such a result similar to what we would find in The Oxford English Dictionary.
Gamble (v): To play games of chance for money [Without Object], bet (a sum of money) [With an Object], or to take risky action in hope of desired result.
Now we can come to the rational conclusion that gambling is just human nature & a part of our everyday reality. Society has made an effective attempt to streamline human decision making as a product of a results oriented thought process. This is where I feel society has failed us. Effectively it means that society as a whole does not understand statistical variance & how it will balance out over a large sample of data or in this case a large sample of decisions. This is why I tend to believe that we no longer depend upon individual decision making that is based on factual information at hand. We tend to seek information elsewhere that effectively in a sense is unreliable, thus we tend to fail much more than we succeed. We tend to put the carriage before the horse.
Maybe this is just a fundamental flaw of society or result in a lack of understanding that has developed through our educational system. Although failure is just another aspect of life & an essential component of success, the rate of failure can be drastically reduced based upon rational thinking & using quantifiable information to make well informed decisions knowing that the end result does not truly matter, life will go on. The more we allow society to shape our thought processes in this manner, the more we are susceptible to lose our sense of individuality & our ability to think for ourselves.
Although the definition of gambling is theoretically correct on paper, in practice only with a deeper understanding the definition will only partially apply to poker. Poker is a game that beneath the surface of perception many intangible variables exist that can be condensed into relatively two areas of skill, mathematical computation & psychological warfare. Poker is a constant emotional struggle for individualistic superiority based upon mathematical computations & interpreting the significance of intrinsically incomplete information.
These are just two variables that exist that give a strong argument to classifying poker as primarily a game of skill with elements of chance.
“Defining poker as a game of skill is actually quite simple. First we must forget winning at poker & think for a moment about losing. It is possible to intentionally lose in poker as where to craps & roulette it is not. In games of chance we have no control of the outcome no matter our intent, our odds remain the same. In poker our actions can influence the outcome of the hand. If we fold we know with absolute certainty we will lose or calling bets with hands that cannot win the pot we will lose every time.”- Treat your poker like a business by Dusty Schmidt
Table games such as blackjack or craps are played against the house in which the casino has a specific built in mathematical advantage, where as poker is played against other human beings. The intrinsic flaws of human beings are where we can effectively exploit psychological tendencies or individual weaknesses through tactics of deception & manipulation. Understanding mathematical concepts & human psychology is only the beginning to understanding the level of skill that exists within the game & how they will translate from theory into practice. When our understanding of game theory is effectively implemented, it will in effect lead to a more profound understanding of the game. This is when it is we come to realize that skill is a primary component in a game which by the untrained eye is perceived otherwise. For the individuals who feel that gambling casts a negative shadow on society, poker in particular, understand that life inherently involves risk & everything we do has an element of chance involved. There is nothing certain in this life but death & taxes. Factually that is a reality that you cannot escape.
As human beings we can only comprehend what we truly understand. Poorly executed decisions made on the basis of inferior information or unfounded perception of actuality have a tendency to result in a better than desired outcome. This is the way that the game maintains a delicate sense of humor based on the realism of uncertainty. Individuality (Ego), emotional attachment, & level of understanding of the game are just a few of the qualities that tend to create the element of chance. These factors have the ability to create delusional distortions that have a direct effect on the mental game & personal decision making.
The only certainty in poker that exists is the point where the pot has been awarded. Thus in poker perfection does not exist; mastery is skill that separates an individual from the competition & in theory poker will continually provide a challenging yet dynamic environment.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Oklahoma: The home of Running Bear
“Anyone who would build a city five feet below sea level, in a hurricane zone, & fill it with democrats is a damn genius.”- Larry the Cable Guy
Oklahoma was nice but nothing compares to Drago's char-broiled oysters, stately oaks, LSU & New Orleans Saints Football, Sportsman’s Paradise, 100% humidity, Harrah’s New Orleans, Rock N Sake sushi, sweet tea, & southern belles. Louisiana may not be the greatest place on earth, but it is where I call home. Maybe one day I will move back to Baton Rouge or maybe even Lafayette where I can belong to a nice country club & get back into golf.
For what I had time to see, OKC was a nice place indeed. The food was different yet surprisingly good. I did have an opportunity to visit Cattleman’s Steakhouse which has been operating in the stockyard district of OKC for over 100 years. This is the same restaurant that was featured on the Food Network on their popular show Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives hosted by Guy Fieri & on Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food hosted by Adam Richmond. The food was phenomenal & you could not ask to get a better quality for the price. They are obviously able to provide their customers with value due to their volume & long lasting reputation. If you are ever in OKC, I highly recommend that you visit Cattleman’s Steakhouse. It may not be the most upscale but I highly doubt you will find a higher quality better tasting steak for the price they charge in OKC than Cattleman’s.
Although the food was good, the casinos & especially the poker economy was an entirely different story. First of all, most if not all casinos in the state of Oklahoma are owned by different Indian tribes. "Running Bear" does not offer craps or roulette. Go figure. However they do rake the table games at a rate of $.50 per hand in blackjack & other table games. That should have been a sign of things to come. The poker room in this particular casino was centrally located yet entirely sealed off from the rest of the casino & was a non smoking room, which is always nice to have. There are no slot machines ringing in your ears or second hand smoke you are forced to breathe in. The rake in the poker room was a 10% pot rake with a $4 max rake & a $1 jackpot drop per hand. However they do drop the small blind initially so there is essentially no chop when action is left blind vs blind & obviously no house rule against a no flop no drop since they immediately drop the small blind in a 1/2 no limit hold’em game.
This is where things just start to get interesting. First of all the games had a max buy in of $200 when starting a new game or not. Minimum buy in was $40 & these restrictions are included when buying back in. This was a major handicap in my opinion & if I had not been 500+ miles from home or would have had a vehicle, I would have went elsewhere. This was supposedly the best games in OKC metro area, so I did not bother. The 2/5 games which I did not have the bankroll with me or have in general at the moment dictated that I could not nor should not buy into. My lack of a bankroll & current ability to overcome the psychological barriers to do so profitably was the ultimate decision maker. I was trying to preserve my fund allocation for the trip without having to put it all in play on one buy in. They played nowhere near as deep as they do in New Orleans or Biloxi. Average stacks were maybe $1300-$1500 at best & the action was nowhere near what we experience here at home. The games were super soft & easily beatable in the long term without a shadow of doubt.
The first game I get into is a 1/2 no limit hold’em. I proceeded to make the obvious buy in. This table could not have been any tighter or more passive with premium holdings, yet would limp in a high % of the time just to see a flop with any two. They were min-raising specialists, & even afraid to shove with the nuts in a heads up pot on the river even after you had lead into them for three streets & then check raised them on the river from OOP. Board texture dictated in those spots that I was obviously ahead of everything in their range other than the nuts. That actually happened several times against different opponents. I can see if he may have thought we had the same hand & were eventually chopping, but when you have position & are not three bet shoving the river in that spot it makes me question their ability.
Other than maybe three players, myself included, the tables post flop play was extremely weak, & adjusting to live 1/2 no limit from higher stakes can be much harder than it appears to be. The players in general are weaker, more passive, & stacks are not super deep. There is no room to play poker or get creative against an opponent. There are fewer opportunities to three bet due to lack of opponents opening pots or just in general my table position relative to other competent & aggressive opponents. My four bet range is obviously a little tighter at this level than my three bet range. If the pot was opened it was more than likely opened by me or two other players with any regularity & with a wider range of opening hands.The play at this level is so ABC & showdown is reached a high % of the time. This will eventually mean at this level with the competence of the average player is rather mediocre & effective stack sizes essentially amount to flips in bigger games. A more basic approach coupled with cards that have showdown value are required to play more profitably at this level. Honestly, with this little money on the table & the buy in requirements, I should have been able to change gears a little more frequently, but for me at this level has not been so easy.
There are mental barriers that I must overcome & adjustments that I must make. I must reacquaint myself with the value of patience & discipline, because they were two of the founding principles of how I have been able to create the success in the past & will undoubtedly be able to do so again in the future. I have lost my belief system & I am slowly working on rebuilding it. To me confidence is the ability to trust your instincts & adapt to the environment. It helps make well informed decisions & allows you to pull the trigger when necessary. Ultimately I must be able to believe in myself in order to succeed & if I don’t then nothing else will matter. I will have to take it one step at a time.
“The body cannot achieve what the mind does not believe.”- Unknown Author
This whole trip I was extremely card-dead & when I managed to make a hand it was almost always second best. The calling stations that were at the table managed to get there what seemed like a high % of the time in pots I was involved with, mostly just horrible spots. I managed to flop several straights or make several hands that were almost un-foldable & in turn they always happened to be the second nuts running into the nuts. I did manage to make quite a few disciplined laydowns, but with the table dynamics being what they were, it just turned out to be one of those trips. It was all part of dealing with the variance that exists in poker. I did not play anywhere near my best, I did make quite a few mistakes. I just have to accept the consequences, take them in stride, & use them to grow as a player.
Oklahoma was nice but nothing compares to Drago's char-broiled oysters, stately oaks, LSU & New Orleans Saints Football, Sportsman’s Paradise, 100% humidity, Harrah’s New Orleans, Rock N Sake sushi, sweet tea, & southern belles. Louisiana may not be the greatest place on earth, but it is where I call home. Maybe one day I will move back to Baton Rouge or maybe even Lafayette where I can belong to a nice country club & get back into golf.
For what I had time to see, OKC was a nice place indeed. The food was different yet surprisingly good. I did have an opportunity to visit Cattleman’s Steakhouse which has been operating in the stockyard district of OKC for over 100 years. This is the same restaurant that was featured on the Food Network on their popular show Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives hosted by Guy Fieri & on Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food hosted by Adam Richmond. The food was phenomenal & you could not ask to get a better quality for the price. They are obviously able to provide their customers with value due to their volume & long lasting reputation. If you are ever in OKC, I highly recommend that you visit Cattleman’s Steakhouse. It may not be the most upscale but I highly doubt you will find a higher quality better tasting steak for the price they charge in OKC than Cattleman’s.
Although the food was good, the casinos & especially the poker economy was an entirely different story. First of all, most if not all casinos in the state of Oklahoma are owned by different Indian tribes. "Running Bear" does not offer craps or roulette. Go figure. However they do rake the table games at a rate of $.50 per hand in blackjack & other table games. That should have been a sign of things to come. The poker room in this particular casino was centrally located yet entirely sealed off from the rest of the casino & was a non smoking room, which is always nice to have. There are no slot machines ringing in your ears or second hand smoke you are forced to breathe in. The rake in the poker room was a 10% pot rake with a $4 max rake & a $1 jackpot drop per hand. However they do drop the small blind initially so there is essentially no chop when action is left blind vs blind & obviously no house rule against a no flop no drop since they immediately drop the small blind in a 1/2 no limit hold’em game.
This is where things just start to get interesting. First of all the games had a max buy in of $200 when starting a new game or not. Minimum buy in was $40 & these restrictions are included when buying back in. This was a major handicap in my opinion & if I had not been 500+ miles from home or would have had a vehicle, I would have went elsewhere. This was supposedly the best games in OKC metro area, so I did not bother. The 2/5 games which I did not have the bankroll with me or have in general at the moment dictated that I could not nor should not buy into. My lack of a bankroll & current ability to overcome the psychological barriers to do so profitably was the ultimate decision maker. I was trying to preserve my fund allocation for the trip without having to put it all in play on one buy in. They played nowhere near as deep as they do in New Orleans or Biloxi. Average stacks were maybe $1300-$1500 at best & the action was nowhere near what we experience here at home. The games were super soft & easily beatable in the long term without a shadow of doubt.
The first game I get into is a 1/2 no limit hold’em. I proceeded to make the obvious buy in. This table could not have been any tighter or more passive with premium holdings, yet would limp in a high % of the time just to see a flop with any two. They were min-raising specialists, & even afraid to shove with the nuts in a heads up pot on the river even after you had lead into them for three streets & then check raised them on the river from OOP. Board texture dictated in those spots that I was obviously ahead of everything in their range other than the nuts. That actually happened several times against different opponents. I can see if he may have thought we had the same hand & were eventually chopping, but when you have position & are not three bet shoving the river in that spot it makes me question their ability.
Other than maybe three players, myself included, the tables post flop play was extremely weak, & adjusting to live 1/2 no limit from higher stakes can be much harder than it appears to be. The players in general are weaker, more passive, & stacks are not super deep. There is no room to play poker or get creative against an opponent. There are fewer opportunities to three bet due to lack of opponents opening pots or just in general my table position relative to other competent & aggressive opponents. My four bet range is obviously a little tighter at this level than my three bet range. If the pot was opened it was more than likely opened by me or two other players with any regularity & with a wider range of opening hands.The play at this level is so ABC & showdown is reached a high % of the time. This will eventually mean at this level with the competence of the average player is rather mediocre & effective stack sizes essentially amount to flips in bigger games. A more basic approach coupled with cards that have showdown value are required to play more profitably at this level. Honestly, with this little money on the table & the buy in requirements, I should have been able to change gears a little more frequently, but for me at this level has not been so easy.
There are mental barriers that I must overcome & adjustments that I must make. I must reacquaint myself with the value of patience & discipline, because they were two of the founding principles of how I have been able to create the success in the past & will undoubtedly be able to do so again in the future. I have lost my belief system & I am slowly working on rebuilding it. To me confidence is the ability to trust your instincts & adapt to the environment. It helps make well informed decisions & allows you to pull the trigger when necessary. Ultimately I must be able to believe in myself in order to succeed & if I don’t then nothing else will matter. I will have to take it one step at a time.
“The body cannot achieve what the mind does not believe.”- Unknown Author
This whole trip I was extremely card-dead & when I managed to make a hand it was almost always second best. The calling stations that were at the table managed to get there what seemed like a high % of the time in pots I was involved with, mostly just horrible spots. I managed to flop several straights or make several hands that were almost un-foldable & in turn they always happened to be the second nuts running into the nuts. I did manage to make quite a few disciplined laydowns, but with the table dynamics being what they were, it just turned out to be one of those trips. It was all part of dealing with the variance that exists in poker. I did not play anywhere near my best, I did make quite a few mistakes. I just have to accept the consequences, take them in stride, & use them to grow as a player.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Black Friday: The future of online poker
The future of online poker as we know it in the United States is all but gone. On April 15th, yes on the day most Americans pay taxes, the Department of Justice (DOJ) in one fell swoop seizes the domain names of the top three online poker site operators that operate in the United States. It all came crashing down without notice. Site bank accounts were seized & funds were deemed inaccessible, thus player balances were immediately frozen & all cash out transactions were suspended. Virtually millions of dollars all of a sudden did not exist, or I am sure it felt that way.
It has been currently reported by subject poker that the world’s second largest poker site Full Tilt Poker is facing an unfathomable $60 million dollar shortfall. What really was the underlying cause of this shortfall?
Is this a next version of a Wall Street Ponzi scheme? Is Ray Bitar no better than Bernie Madoff? So before I get bombarded with accusations that I don’t know what I am talking about, remember this is only my opinion. Lets first look at the definition of a Ponzi Scheme as provided by Wikipedia:
“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering returns other investments cannot guarantee, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going.” - Wikipedia
Now I know that this opinion or argument can go one way or another, but let’s take a closer look for discussion purposes. First of all poker is an investment, but not perceived as a fraudulent one by its investors. Full Tilt Poker (FTP) took deposits that were processed by either banks or some sort of payment processing service & would subsequently credit player accounts for these deposits. Now the rake charged during every cash game hand dealt & juice from every tournament buy in would be their primary source of income.
Was there a separate financial account holding player balances that was not used for daily operations or ordinary business expenses? It is still unknown at the moment. Players would then take these balances & use them as buy ins for tournaments or cash games thus expecting a rate of return based upon skill in the long term or the inherent short term luck fest. Either way at some point in time they were looking to cash out & when those checks that were written but not honored that should have immediately raised a red flag to cause some concern that something just was not right. In the end it seems that as deposits flowing in were used as a mean to pay out player cash out requests & that the players’ balances were used as means to finance the day to day operations if not worse, theft.
So many questions have been asked with little to no information provided in response. That is what happens when lawyers are part of the equation. They have a license to interpret & invoice. We have now turned the reigns over to Capitol Hill yet once again to intervene with decisions that any adult of legal age should be competent enough to decide whether an activity creates moral hazard. Don’t tell us how to spend our money that we make after taxes have been paid. In this country it seems as we are protected more from ourselves than from others & it should obviously be the other way around. It’s sad but if change is not inevitable, our demise will.
It has been currently reported by subject poker that the world’s second largest poker site Full Tilt Poker is facing an unfathomable $60 million dollar shortfall. What really was the underlying cause of this shortfall?
Is this a next version of a Wall Street Ponzi scheme? Is Ray Bitar no better than Bernie Madoff? So before I get bombarded with accusations that I don’t know what I am talking about, remember this is only my opinion. Lets first look at the definition of a Ponzi Scheme as provided by Wikipedia:
“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering returns other investments cannot guarantee, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going.” - Wikipedia
Now I know that this opinion or argument can go one way or another, but let’s take a closer look for discussion purposes. First of all poker is an investment, but not perceived as a fraudulent one by its investors. Full Tilt Poker (FTP) took deposits that were processed by either banks or some sort of payment processing service & would subsequently credit player accounts for these deposits. Now the rake charged during every cash game hand dealt & juice from every tournament buy in would be their primary source of income.
Was there a separate financial account holding player balances that was not used for daily operations or ordinary business expenses? It is still unknown at the moment. Players would then take these balances & use them as buy ins for tournaments or cash games thus expecting a rate of return based upon skill in the long term or the inherent short term luck fest. Either way at some point in time they were looking to cash out & when those checks that were written but not honored that should have immediately raised a red flag to cause some concern that something just was not right. In the end it seems that as deposits flowing in were used as a mean to pay out player cash out requests & that the players’ balances were used as means to finance the day to day operations if not worse, theft.
So many questions have been asked with little to no information provided in response. That is what happens when lawyers are part of the equation. They have a license to interpret & invoice. We have now turned the reigns over to Capitol Hill yet once again to intervene with decisions that any adult of legal age should be competent enough to decide whether an activity creates moral hazard. Don’t tell us how to spend our money that we make after taxes have been paid. In this country it seems as we are protected more from ourselves than from others & it should obviously be the other way around. It’s sad but if change is not inevitable, our demise will.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Inherently flawed: Breaking free from the staus quo.
“If we strip poker down to its core, it’s essentially a constant emotional struggle for superiority based upon mathematical computations & interpreting the significance of intrinsically incomplete information.” – Ross Leitz
In society, we as human beings are not only inherently flawed, but we are also conditioned to practice risk avoidance & to make everyday decisions based solely upon the end result. In poker, “results oriented” thinking leans toward experiences of unprofitability & mental anguish. I feel that this type of decision making is based more upon uncertainty than the true outcome, & this is done ultimately to protect our fragile egos. But nothing in life is guaranteed, which should be all more the reason to let our inhibitions go & make it happen. Nothing hurts more than falling short of your ability or should of, would of, could of.
Once you realize that the game is not about you, & that the results do not matter, you will enable your mind to break free from the reigns of inadequacy & the indistinguishable traits of the status quo. The game is about making good situational decisions, and what happens after that is meaningless.
“Gambling is in my blood. I have never been the one to learn the easy way. I’ve been told “I told you so” on more than one occasion. I am not normal. I do not live a normal life. So why would I want to walk the straight & narrow path down mediocrity just because it was what I was conditioned to do. Why play it safe?”
Poker is a game of skill with elements of chance, not the other way around. It’s a game of many variables that include risk management, capital management, expectation, & variance which measures uncertainty. Well timed aggression coupled with a confident yet fearless demeanor are two of the necessary components that are vital to success in the long term, which is how success in poker is measured. Playing poker for a living is no different than trading stocks on Wall Street or playing professional golf. They obviously are not identical disciplines yet they all mirror each other with amazing similarities.
Perfection is something that I simply use to keep my fragile ego intact. There is no room for an overvalued sense of self-importance in this world because karma is right around the corner waiting to humble the insatiable desire of individualism that skews us from reality.
In society, we as human beings are not only inherently flawed, but we are also conditioned to practice risk avoidance & to make everyday decisions based solely upon the end result. In poker, “results oriented” thinking leans toward experiences of unprofitability & mental anguish. I feel that this type of decision making is based more upon uncertainty than the true outcome, & this is done ultimately to protect our fragile egos. But nothing in life is guaranteed, which should be all more the reason to let our inhibitions go & make it happen. Nothing hurts more than falling short of your ability or should of, would of, could of.
Once you realize that the game is not about you, & that the results do not matter, you will enable your mind to break free from the reigns of inadequacy & the indistinguishable traits of the status quo. The game is about making good situational decisions, and what happens after that is meaningless.
“Gambling is in my blood. I have never been the one to learn the easy way. I’ve been told “I told you so” on more than one occasion. I am not normal. I do not live a normal life. So why would I want to walk the straight & narrow path down mediocrity just because it was what I was conditioned to do. Why play it safe?”
Poker is a game of skill with elements of chance, not the other way around. It’s a game of many variables that include risk management, capital management, expectation, & variance which measures uncertainty. Well timed aggression coupled with a confident yet fearless demeanor are two of the necessary components that are vital to success in the long term, which is how success in poker is measured. Playing poker for a living is no different than trading stocks on Wall Street or playing professional golf. They obviously are not identical disciplines yet they all mirror each other with amazing similarities.
Perfection is something that I simply use to keep my fragile ego intact. There is no room for an overvalued sense of self-importance in this world because karma is right around the corner waiting to humble the insatiable desire of individualism that skews us from reality.
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