To most people, Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving. Stores open early and consumers flock in droves in hopes of scoring the best bargains for their early Christmas shopping. It has taken on a more manic behavior with each passing year, with no end in sight. I have yet to participate in these "festivities."
To poker players, Black Friday means something else entirely. It refers to April 15th, 2011... the day the sky fell in. It was an average Friday afternoon at work for me when I got an IM link from a friend with the words, "Uh oh" I clicked on the link and my jaw dropped. A nightmare scenario was playing out on the screen in front of me. I learned that the US Department of Justice had seized the domain names for the three most popular US poker sites, including Full Tilt, the one I played on. Basically the seizure alleged that the sites acted illegally by engaging in bank fraud and money laundering to transfer money to and from their customers. This despite the fact that the sites were licensed and regulated in the countries they operated in. It was a bullying tactic.. and it was successful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Scheinberg
Just one week prior, I had requested a $1500 withdrawal from my account for my impending honeymoon. My wife I were to be married on April 23rd and were headed to Hawaii two days later. I had received an email from Full Tilt's administration department that my payment was held up, and now I understood why. It turned out that they never segregated their funds so did not have the capital on hand to process withdrawal transactions. It was an incredibly awful transgression, a serious lack of good faith and judgement, and it now affected $600 million of player funds. And while the rest of the world was paid back in a timely manner, US customers were treated differently. Hoops, hurdles, deadlines and promises... finally after a 3rd party administrator took over the proceedings and consulted with the DOJ at an agonizingly slow place, people started to get their money back. I did as well.. all $2700 in my account. Four years later.
But online poker was never the same. My bread and butter for bankroll building was no more. The government had now determined what you could and couldn't do in the privacy of your own home. "Land of the Free" was all a facade. Thousands of professional players moved to Canada, Mexico and other countries in order to play the game they love unencumbered. Millions more, like me, didn't have that road to travel down. So we were left wondering why a county that advertises a chance at the American Dream is the one place that prevents it.
Hopefully things will be better down the road. Legislation and regulation on a state level is moving along, albeit slowly. The optimists believe that in a few years, all the big sites will be back in most of the 50 states. The pessimists think banging your head into a wall is going to be a common practice for releasing frustrations as this moves sideways instead of forward. The reality right now is that while a few sites are open for business to US customers, there isn't nearly enough traffic to be exceedingly profitable. Until regulations occurs in most of the states, frustratingly, the landscape will remain the same. Five years ago, we were well fed with sumptuous meals planned out for days and days.
Now we are all left fighting for scraps.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Monday, June 20, 2016
The things I learned in school
You hear it all the time, from all kinds of people. Why do I need to learn this stuff in school? I'M NEVER GOING TO USE IT LATER IN LIFE. Well, as a poker player, you get a chance to use:
Math: The obvious one. You'll get dealt AA one of every 221 hands. If you flop a flush draw, it will hit roughly 36% of the time. Knowing how much is in the pot, what hand you are drawing to and if the investment is worth the payoff, is crucial to your success. Sometimes it's about gut, sometimes it's about instinct, and sometimes it's about plain old math. It helps to know it.
History: This is where a good memory comes in handy. Remembering what certain players did in certain spots against you is so valuable in making decisions. If you know someone is at least capable of making a huge bluff or extremely unlikely to check a huge hand on the flop, it provides great insight into how to best proceed with the hand. If you are disregarding history and playing the same way against everyone, you are ignoring countless potential clues at your disposal.
English: Table talk, and how to interpret it, is a vital part of playing optimally as well. Back in 2009, I was playing some one table satellites in Vegas in an effort to win a seat to the main event. There were six of us left, including Victor Ramdin, a fairly well known tournament pro at the time. A hand came up where Ramdin limped in, along with a few others, and I checked my option with K8. The flop came down K45 and I bet out. Everyone folded to him and he moved all-in immediately. As I pondered, he commented,
"Uh oh, someone has kicker problems."
He was right. I did. I thought a little bit longer and ended up folding. At which point he showed 67 for nothing but a straight draw. After I relayed the hand to my brother later, I basically said, "Victor Ramdin mind fucked me." He coerced me into a decision he wanted me to make by falsely alluding to the perceived strength of his hand. It was genius, and at the time, I was ill-prepared to interpret what it meant. Well played, sir
Psychology: So much going on here. Poker is a game of incomplete information and so much of the decision making process involves peeling the layers of who you are up against. The levels of thinking in the game go like this"
1. What do I have?
2. What do I think he has?
3. What do I think he thinks that I have?
4. Etc
Without knowing what level your opponent is on, it becomes more difficult to properly assess what the best move should be. If you are playing against someone who is strictly focused on their hand, running a big bluff in hoping they will fold based on the dangerous makeup of the community cards is asking for trouble. All they think is, I have these cards and that's a pretty decent hand. The flush and straight draws that hit will not register with someone like this. They are operating purely on level 1. When you get into Level 3 and beyond, that's when poker gets really fun. Trying to deconstruct the hand, putting the puzzle together with only a limited number of pieces, brings for some pretty awesome mental gymnastics. I've fallen off the balance beam on many an occasion. But I have stuck a few landings in my day too.
Art and science: I group these together because they apply to two forms of poker. No limit vs limit games. Limit games are a science. You only have a fixed amount you can bet on every street, so the game is less about creativity and artistry than it is about methodical calculation. Knowing what hands to play, knowing what price you are getting to call a bet, knowing how much is in the pot and what cards are likely to come... there is a very scientific approach to the game
The no limit games can be an art form. You can make any hand into anything you want it to be. You can represent AA even if you have 72 and realistically bet enough to get someone to fold. Because so many NL hands are won without a showdown, there is no way for your opponent to know what you really have. Representing hands and running bluffs are a key part of this game and not nearly as prevalent on the limit side of things
Paying attention: I'll end with a general practice that applies to playing poker. Letting your mind wander is as much a part of life today as it was in our youth. Falling asleep or gazing out the window made it easier to miss out on various nuggets of information in whatever class you were in. The same applies to poker. Watching TV, looking at your phone, etc. prevents you from gleaning certain things from your opponents that you end up missing out on. How they shuffle their chips, how long they look at their cards, how they throw their bet out.. it all matters. Paying attention, whenever possible, is paramount.
So many other little things from various subjects come up as well. I would say just about every subject from all ages of school can be utilized on some level at the poker table. It's all up there locked away somewhere. Finding the combination is the tricky part.
Math: The obvious one. You'll get dealt AA one of every 221 hands. If you flop a flush draw, it will hit roughly 36% of the time. Knowing how much is in the pot, what hand you are drawing to and if the investment is worth the payoff, is crucial to your success. Sometimes it's about gut, sometimes it's about instinct, and sometimes it's about plain old math. It helps to know it.
History: This is where a good memory comes in handy. Remembering what certain players did in certain spots against you is so valuable in making decisions. If you know someone is at least capable of making a huge bluff or extremely unlikely to check a huge hand on the flop, it provides great insight into how to best proceed with the hand. If you are disregarding history and playing the same way against everyone, you are ignoring countless potential clues at your disposal.
English: Table talk, and how to interpret it, is a vital part of playing optimally as well. Back in 2009, I was playing some one table satellites in Vegas in an effort to win a seat to the main event. There were six of us left, including Victor Ramdin, a fairly well known tournament pro at the time. A hand came up where Ramdin limped in, along with a few others, and I checked my option with K8. The flop came down K45 and I bet out. Everyone folded to him and he moved all-in immediately. As I pondered, he commented,
"Uh oh, someone has kicker problems."
He was right. I did. I thought a little bit longer and ended up folding. At which point he showed 67 for nothing but a straight draw. After I relayed the hand to my brother later, I basically said, "Victor Ramdin mind fucked me." He coerced me into a decision he wanted me to make by falsely alluding to the perceived strength of his hand. It was genius, and at the time, I was ill-prepared to interpret what it meant. Well played, sir
Psychology: So much going on here. Poker is a game of incomplete information and so much of the decision making process involves peeling the layers of who you are up against. The levels of thinking in the game go like this"
1. What do I have?
2. What do I think he has?
3. What do I think he thinks that I have?
4. Etc
Without knowing what level your opponent is on, it becomes more difficult to properly assess what the best move should be. If you are playing against someone who is strictly focused on their hand, running a big bluff in hoping they will fold based on the dangerous makeup of the community cards is asking for trouble. All they think is, I have these cards and that's a pretty decent hand. The flush and straight draws that hit will not register with someone like this. They are operating purely on level 1. When you get into Level 3 and beyond, that's when poker gets really fun. Trying to deconstruct the hand, putting the puzzle together with only a limited number of pieces, brings for some pretty awesome mental gymnastics. I've fallen off the balance beam on many an occasion. But I have stuck a few landings in my day too.
Art and science: I group these together because they apply to two forms of poker. No limit vs limit games. Limit games are a science. You only have a fixed amount you can bet on every street, so the game is less about creativity and artistry than it is about methodical calculation. Knowing what hands to play, knowing what price you are getting to call a bet, knowing how much is in the pot and what cards are likely to come... there is a very scientific approach to the game
The no limit games can be an art form. You can make any hand into anything you want it to be. You can represent AA even if you have 72 and realistically bet enough to get someone to fold. Because so many NL hands are won without a showdown, there is no way for your opponent to know what you really have. Representing hands and running bluffs are a key part of this game and not nearly as prevalent on the limit side of things
Paying attention: I'll end with a general practice that applies to playing poker. Letting your mind wander is as much a part of life today as it was in our youth. Falling asleep or gazing out the window made it easier to miss out on various nuggets of information in whatever class you were in. The same applies to poker. Watching TV, looking at your phone, etc. prevents you from gleaning certain things from your opponents that you end up missing out on. How they shuffle their chips, how long they look at their cards, how they throw their bet out.. it all matters. Paying attention, whenever possible, is paramount.
So many other little things from various subjects come up as well. I would say just about every subject from all ages of school can be utilized on some level at the poker table. It's all up there locked away somewhere. Finding the combination is the tricky part.
Monday, June 6, 2016
Punches and counterpunches
A poker tournament is a lot like a boxing match. There is a considerable feeling out period at the beginning before the action picks up and mostly continues through to the end. The aggressor is typically the victor. How you handle getting hit, even knocked down, will ultimately determine your fate. And of course, landing the most punches, winning the most pots, will greatly benefit you in the end.
The $1k WSOP NL hold 'em tourney I played in June of 2009 played out in this manner. Even in one of the smaller buy-in tourneys, the action started slow, no one wanted to take any big risks. Everyone was kind of testing each other, probing here and there, tentatively putting out feelers to see what they could find out. The ebb and flow was jagged during these informational proceedings. I won a few pots and lost a few pots and was even on the scorecards as we entered the action stage of the fight.
Unfortunately, that stage involved me getting hit repeatedly. Jabs, crosses, body blows, they came from all angles. Every time I raised, someone re-raised and pretty soon my starting hands were resembling the flash cards we used in elementary school math class. 7 and 3, 8 and 4, 9 and 5. I simply didn't have the means to inflict any damage on my opponents. I was backed into a corner and in big trouble.
Then, like Rocky landing that first big shot against Drago, I drew some blood and fought back. I doubled up with KQ right before the dinner break to get some momentum. Fueled by landing that solid shot, I kept punching and the cards complied. I won three big pots with AK, AA and 88 over the next few hours, along with some other decent ones, and suddenly the tide had turned. I had my opponents on the ropes, landing some big shots, dodging all of theirs and dictating the pace of the action. We were nearing the end of the day and approaching the $$ and I was now well ahead on all three judges' scorecards.
They fought back some and landed a few shots on me, but I was still in full control when I found 10 10 and raised in early position. Two people called and the flop came down 753 with two spades. The big blind went-all in for about 1/3 of my stack. I went through the mental gymnastics and called him. He showed 99 and I was in great shape. The turn was an ace. I closed in. Ready to deliver the final uppercut. When suddenly... where did that overhand right come from??? A 9 fell on the river.
I was down. Stunned. Woozy. So much for momentum. I staggered to my feet and beat the count. But things had changed. I was off balance now. I tried to recapture all that was working previously but I misplayed one hand and was suddenly back on the ropes myself. Low on chips, short on time, No longer stalking my opponents, they were circling me and out for blood. When I got all in with KQ vs K9 on a KJ9 board, I was two punches away from being knocked out for good. A left and a right later and I was on the canvas and and out of the tournament.
Some losses are crueler than others, providing more "why didn't I and what if?" scenarios. But the end result is the same. Elimination. Tournament death. And way earlier than you thought it would be.
As you drag your bruised and battered body out of the tournament area, there is shame, there is guilt, there is sadness. You want to fight again, want to fight again soon. But right now, you need time to heal. Hopefully you'll get another shot. Maybe even a title shot. You know you'll need to work your way back up again. But your resolve is there. Even if it takes years, more years than you'd like, you'll do it. Because when you believe in a dream, you don't ever let it truly die.
The $1k WSOP NL hold 'em tourney I played in June of 2009 played out in this manner. Even in one of the smaller buy-in tourneys, the action started slow, no one wanted to take any big risks. Everyone was kind of testing each other, probing here and there, tentatively putting out feelers to see what they could find out. The ebb and flow was jagged during these informational proceedings. I won a few pots and lost a few pots and was even on the scorecards as we entered the action stage of the fight.
Unfortunately, that stage involved me getting hit repeatedly. Jabs, crosses, body blows, they came from all angles. Every time I raised, someone re-raised and pretty soon my starting hands were resembling the flash cards we used in elementary school math class. 7 and 3, 8 and 4, 9 and 5. I simply didn't have the means to inflict any damage on my opponents. I was backed into a corner and in big trouble.
Then, like Rocky landing that first big shot against Drago, I drew some blood and fought back. I doubled up with KQ right before the dinner break to get some momentum. Fueled by landing that solid shot, I kept punching and the cards complied. I won three big pots with AK, AA and 88 over the next few hours, along with some other decent ones, and suddenly the tide had turned. I had my opponents on the ropes, landing some big shots, dodging all of theirs and dictating the pace of the action. We were nearing the end of the day and approaching the $$ and I was now well ahead on all three judges' scorecards.
They fought back some and landed a few shots on me, but I was still in full control when I found 10 10 and raised in early position. Two people called and the flop came down 753 with two spades. The big blind went-all in for about 1/3 of my stack. I went through the mental gymnastics and called him. He showed 99 and I was in great shape. The turn was an ace. I closed in. Ready to deliver the final uppercut. When suddenly... where did that overhand right come from??? A 9 fell on the river.
I was down. Stunned. Woozy. So much for momentum. I staggered to my feet and beat the count. But things had changed. I was off balance now. I tried to recapture all that was working previously but I misplayed one hand and was suddenly back on the ropes myself. Low on chips, short on time, No longer stalking my opponents, they were circling me and out for blood. When I got all in with KQ vs K9 on a KJ9 board, I was two punches away from being knocked out for good. A left and a right later and I was on the canvas and and out of the tournament.
Some losses are crueler than others, providing more "why didn't I and what if?" scenarios. But the end result is the same. Elimination. Tournament death. And way earlier than you thought it would be.
As you drag your bruised and battered body out of the tournament area, there is shame, there is guilt, there is sadness. You want to fight again, want to fight again soon. But right now, you need time to heal. Hopefully you'll get another shot. Maybe even a title shot. You know you'll need to work your way back up again. But your resolve is there. Even if it takes years, more years than you'd like, you'll do it. Because when you believe in a dream, you don't ever let it truly die.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Poker..meet Kelly. Kelly.. Poker
Between the WSOP in 2008 and 2009, I met my wife. As a single man for the better part of the previous decade, it was certainly an adjustment getting used to sharing my life with someone again. And while the relationship side of me flourished, the poker side of took something of a hit. It made sense. Time, energy, focus, space in my brain... I simply could not consume poker in the same manner as before. Working 8 hours a day and playing 3-4 hours of poker at night was a fairly standard schedule for me prior to March of 2009. I had put in a lot of time and played an uncountable amount of hands to get to where I was. And the reality is that not being in a relationship allowed for the climb. I had the time, I had the drive, I made the decision to spend a large chunk of my "free" time playing this game. And while it was somewhat isolating at times, I wouldn't change the arc of how everything played out. It made into a good poker player. And it led me to Kelly.
When we first started dating, I would try to walk through big hands that I played. I'd get into my thought process, how it shifted throughout the hand and what I was looking to do. Eventually, the story concluded and I'd eagerly await her reaction about how fascinating the whole thing was. But instead:
"Soooooo, you lost?"
"Yeah, but...."
Ugh. Ok fine, so she was a little more results oriented than I'd like. She has always been supportive of this endeavor and knows how fiercely I care about the game. I rode that support to Vegas again in June of 2009 to play one of the preliminary $1k events at the World Series.
And it's in that event that I played the hand that I think about more than any other.. even to this day.
Unfortunately, it's less dream and more nightmare...
When we first started dating, I would try to walk through big hands that I played. I'd get into my thought process, how it shifted throughout the hand and what I was looking to do. Eventually, the story concluded and I'd eagerly await her reaction about how fascinating the whole thing was. But instead:
"Soooooo, you lost?"
"Yeah, but...."
Ugh. Ok fine, so she was a little more results oriented than I'd like. She has always been supportive of this endeavor and knows how fiercely I care about the game. I rode that support to Vegas again in June of 2009 to play one of the preliminary $1k events at the World Series.
And it's in that event that I played the hand that I think about more than any other.. even to this day.
Unfortunately, it's less dream and more nightmare...
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