The Electric Chair

I’ve done really well lately, and no, I’m not above bragging.

Out of the last 10 tournament’s I’ve played, I’ve finished 6th once, 5th once, 3rd twice, 2nd three times, and 1st once.  That’s eight final tables out of ten.  The streak started with the 6th and 5th place finishes and continued to improve from there.

Part of being a good poker player is believing you are good and having confidence, otherwise you’ll let people roll over you.  The flip side to that is arrogance, which will surely make you lose.  You need to recognize other good players, and give them the respect they deserve without giving up your own confidence.  Yes, there’s a lot of psychology to poker (Live poker more so than online I think).

Here’s my problem.  Since *most* of what I play are “free” tournaments, do I count a winning streak as truly good poker playing, luck, adjusting to bad players, etc…?  Undoubtedly it’s some of all those thing and more.  It’s hard for me to deny that such a streak isn’t just pure luck, but to brag about being good at free poker seems a bit silly to me, which of I can’t help do anyway.  Also, I’m a one trick pony.  I play play really good Free No Limit Tournaments against a field of around 50 players.  What happens when I change one ore more of the variables.  Could I go deep against a larger playing field, for real money?  (Actually, I did play an online tournament the other week with a $2 entry against over 1000 other players and placed 5th getting $130 for the finish, but I can’t seem to come close to repeating that one).  I’m sure I’d lose my ass if I actually played any other game:  Omaha, Razz, Stud… I’ve proven I can hold my own in a No Limit cash game once, but could I do that regularly?  What about Limit? A good poker player should be well rounded, not just in one game, in multiple Limit structures and not *just* tournaments.

Not that I wouldn’t be fine just being awesome at Tournaments.  They do have the biggest payoffs, but to compare it to my other love, dancing, that would be like being able to really good aerials without being able to do a decent swingout.

But back to the streak.  I do think I can accept it for what it is:  I’ve  brought my game to a new level.  Once again I really want to test out whether this would translate to real-money games, but since the nearest legal gambling location is around 420 miles (Biloxi and Tunica are both about equal distance — Atlantic City is 800 Miles), it’s not likely I’m going to find out soon, or make a regular event of it.   I could tag along with some of the local players who make trips from time to time, but that takes money I don’t have right now. I know what kind of Bankroll I’d need to play comfortably, and I just don’t have it… I could play with a short amount of cash, and probably have a good time, but repeating my experience in Vegas where I paid for the entire trip by cashing in my first tournament, and continuing to cash in everything I played from then on, is just unrealistic.

I guess I’ll just have to keep at what I’m doing.  I’m building up quite a stack of gift certificates to the places I play at, at least there’s that.

As I mentioned before, I play a lot of free poker.

It’s not really free, but technically it is. All players can sign up at no cost, but the expectation is that you’ll support the venue that it’s held at by buying food and drinks. Free poker is similar to playing for free chips on any given online site. There’s little consequence for playing poorly, or taking chances you wouldn’t ordinarily take, so you can get pretty frustrated with bad players, especially if you take things more seriously, as I do.

Further, some poker companies allow you to pad your chip stack simply by buying drinks and food. Some places are so bad that they’ll give you 50% of the starting stack by buying a shot. Buy food, drink, and a few shots, and you have 10 times as much as a player who has not. The point of all of this is to support the venue who is paying the poker company to put on the game. It’s a great bit of capitalism, but it perverts the poker game dramatically.

Fortunately I have become involved with a company who stopped that particular practice long ago, and only awards a smaller amount of bonus chips for things like being a regular, or RSVPing in advance for the game. This has a similar effect as it encourages a regular clientele. Almost everyone eats/drinks anyway, so while it may not generate massive alcohol sales, it makes for some happier players, and evens the playing field a bit more. I so enjoy this company that I support them by running tournaments when a fill in is needed, and providing the website and web-related work for them. I’ve become pretty good friends with the owner, and am proud to be involved. (www.posh-poker.com in case you are curious).

I already pointed out the hazards of “free poker”, but I still love it.  When playing against regulars, you find they actually start developing a desire to play correctly and to improve their game.  So you quickly spot the people who are “donking” and the ones who take the game a bit more serious and adjust accordingly.  I’ve become pretty good at this.  I regularly make final tables, earning points towards end tournaments and taking down gift-certificate prizes.

After playing this way for years, I’ve improved my game dramatically.  The question became, however, was my play good enough and was so much “free” poker ruining my ability to play real poker.  I took that question to Vegas a few months back and found out, much to my pleasure, that I did have what it takes to survive a real game.  I played in four daily tournaments (one at the Golden Nugget, three at Binions) and cashed in every one.  I actually won the second tournament I entered at Binions.  I also played a few cash games, and came out quite a bit ahead there too.

There’s more to my improvement than just playing free poker, as I play online quite a bit, have read quite a few books, and immerse myself in poker media (books/magazines/tv) as much as I can.  But the regular live play has benefited me the most.  Even if you are playing against “donks”, you see a lot of hands, and I think any poker player will tell you that the more hands you see, the better you’ll get.

So if you get a chance to play some free poker, I highly recommend it.  It won’t cost you anything, and you may just improve!  If you live in an area where Casino’s are far away, you may just find some free poker companies… so look around.  I’ve often thought that if I ever moved back to California, I’d start one… even though you can take a short trip to a Casino, I think there would be a market for it where I used to live (San Luis Obispo, CA).

I have much more to say about poker, but it’s late and time for me to get some sleep… so there will be a part 3, probably a part 4, and beyond

- Jesse

Oh, by the way… I won the tournament I entered tonight, and placed 5th and 6th in the last two I entered   Go me!

I have a long history with Poker.  Some of my earliest childhood memories are playing poker with my brother and his friends.  We’d almost always play 5-card draw for pennies.  Needless to say we were all just playing Bingo.  None of us knew how to play.  Me at about 7-8 years old, my brother a few years older… we were pathetic.  A few years later, with my brother in his teens, alcohol became involved too.  Not much, just a beer or something to make us all feel like we were something.  I remember going to the store and buying “near-bear” so I could feel like I was part of it, though occasionally I partook in the real stuff too.

After I left Utah (at age 13), I didn’t really play much… though there were rounds of poker on the bus ride to and from school with Amanda and Nicole.  I don’t really recall the stakes, so I’m sure we just pretended there were going to be real stakes.

Years later, I started joining in the game a co-worker of mine,  Michael Graf, would host at his house with a bunch of work buddies. In the beginning, none of us had a clue.  We were playing “dealers” choice games like High Chicago, Football and so on.  Some real bizarre games.  I look back on it now and laugh.  On each wall was plastered the Poker hands so we’d all remember and could sneak a peak without being to obvious should we need to,  and a lot of us needed that help.  (For some reason people got flushes and straights mixed up in the order of things).

Eventually we all matured, and soon enough No Limit Hold ‘em became the name of the game.  Some of my friends got into it hardcore, while I was still playing casually.  Next thing I knew they were talking about their favorite pros, articles they read in Bluff Magazine, and Odds and such.  I was still pretty green.  Playing my cards, and not really considering the many other facets of the game.

Then I moved to Georgia.  I missed our home game.  It wasn’t so much the poker, though I really did enjoy the game, it was the social time… and the connection to my youth.  I looked around for a home game, but the only ones I was finding felt very shady.  I knew my level of play was not good, and these guys would take my money faster than I could say “call”.

Then my wife suggested I look at this site called “Meetup.com”.  Sure enough, I found someone who had set up a poker group.  Turns out it was a business that ran a free poker tournament at a bar. I showed up, very nervous, but happy to have a place to play… and it was free, with a chance to win a gift certificate.

That was almost 3 years ago.  Since then I’ve truly discovered the game.  The psychology of it, the mathematics, the personalities… all of it.  I absolutely love the game.  And I’ve gotten pretty good at it too. I’ve learned about all the pros, read tons of articles, books, and played a *lot* of Poker.

Free Poker is wildly popular in Georgia, where it is illegal to have even a penny ante home game (not that it stops people).  You can play multiple games any day of the week with different poker companies.  I’ve often thought that it would be a good business to start if we ever moved back to California.  While I’m here though, I’ll be happy to work with Jeff, who runs  my favorite games (well ran, Tony’s shut down leaving Jeff looking for a new place to host his games).

So I’ve become a regular in the Poker games around here.  I think I’m a formidable player.  There’s nothing like this game, which is largely a skill game, obviously mixed with luck.  I really enjoy improving my game, and picking apart the nuances of the game.  Yes it’s Free Poker, but I can play a real game too (more on that later).

One thing to note… I have an incredibly supportive wife who understands my need to socialize with other poker players.  I’m a very lucky man.

Coming in Poker Part II.  The Vegas Trip, wins and losses, internet poker, books and experience.