July 3rd, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
You don’t have to live in the States to celebrate Independence Day with an “all-in,” but it helps.
Speaking of summer, is this taking the whole fish/shark poker analogy too far? Who cares? I am so getting this.
June 29th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
The following is a sponsored post about how to make poker more interesting.
Although there are many games that come and go over the years, not all of them are successful when it comes to stability. Not every game will find its way into the homes of a number of generations, with the power to remain familiar to anybody that hears about them. Some games for children manage to achieve this status, and there are also a few adult games that have staying power, as well. One of them is poker. Although popular, it is frequently seen as boring. There are steps that can be taken to keep it interesting.
1. In order to keep players in the game or anybody that might be watching interested, it is never a bad idea to try to find a unique place to play. For instance, the kitchen table is a common setting for poker, but there is not much in the way of variety and stimulation. If somebody is up for it, the poker game can take place in the middle of a pool, or in a car, if possible. Taking the game out of its typical element makes it feel fresh and new, leaving people more alert.
2. If the idea above is not an option, the person that is putting together the gaming session can suggest that everybody is given a nickname. This will depend on the demographic involved and what everybody is comfortable with. They can come up with their own names or ask other players to create something suitable. A player could get inspiration from their favorite television show and ask to be named after a character, or they could simply come up with a nickname that is original. When the game is being played, all present should be encouraged to only use nicknames as often as they can.
3. Themes are widely used for other games and events, and poker should not be excluded from this possibility. The poker game can, for example, revolve around tropical islands; players would don fun shirts and sip special drinks. The poker game could revolve around certain eras in history, allowing players to dress as pilgrims, royalty, or whatever else they might like. When people are not wearing what they typically can be seen in, it is easier for them to get into a mood that allows them to have a good time and play their best. This is a possibility for poker that should be kept in mind.
It can be difficult to make certain games interesting. Some games, such as UK online bingo, are new phenomena. Even if they are popular and have remained in the public eye for generations, some individuals will not understand why, and may perhaps find them boring. Golf suffers from this problem, along with croquet and other games. However, with a bit of creativity and setting time aside for planning, everything can be made new again. With poker, it all comes done to doing something different and unexpected. Players should be encouraged to make it their own in some way; this can make poker players of any age get more out of it, besides an evening with friends.
May 25th, 2011 / 2 Comments » / by Grundy
On question/answer site Quora, the question “What is the best way to overcome extended tilt?” was posed. Good question. Here are the answers: (mine’s at the bottom)
Kevin Ko says:
The short answer is you just need to develop the discipline to move on from the emotional residue of a previous hand. You can’t change past events, the best you can do is learn from them and move on. Most people still suffer from feeling tilty during the same session but it’s rare for this to carry on throughout a wider period of time. This may be the sign of weak emotional control.
A more thorough, long answer involves a deep understanding of what tilt really is, the dangers of tilt, and having the sensibility to understand how it affects your career if you’re a long-term playing professional.
Subtle Tilt – Being even mildly distracted from playing your absolute A game. These factors can be external or internal. E.g. You’re bored and want to start playing looser than your typical range, a player at your table starts talking trash and makes you want to “target” him in particular, or recent losses have made your upset and you don’t think clearly throughout your subsequent hands.
Monkey Tilt – Full-blown monkey tilt is that sort of tilt where you simply blow up and start open-shoving hands, playing without any modicum of thought or logic, and are just intent on burning money in a hopeless attempt at making some money back. In traditional media, this is depicted as the guy who keeps chasing losses and ends up losing his house.
In most cases, subtle tilt is the precursor to monkey tilt, although for the most emotionally undisciplined, entering monkey tilt phase can happen instantly. The key then is to limit subtle tilt, which in itself is still dangerous. What’s nice though is that if you limit your subtle tilting, you won’t tilt that much overall and throughout your sessions. Performing at your A-game at all times is a subject for a different time, but it involves extreme focus, emotional stability (and maintaining it), and the clear headed-ness to reason that tilting from a hand is both irrational because your tilt won’t change the result of the hand, and detrimental because all it means is that for the next x amount of hands, you will be in a phase of subtle tilt or monkey tilt.
The reason why subtle tilt is dangerous is because while the effects and detrimental results are negligible at first, they add up over the course of “the long run”. Due to subtle tilt, you played hands awkwardly, your bet sizing was less than optimal, you played “fun” hands, you tried to chase a quick win before the end of your session, you didn’t quit in time, etc. you end up losing quite a bit in these marginal losses, but consider that most online professionals play hundreds of thousands to even millions of hands per year.
Without going into specific dollar amounts, in one of my nascent years as a professional player, I estimated my losses from subtle tilt, mostly due to not quitting early enough (as part of a stop-loss I used to mitigate tilt effects), to be about 20% of the amount I actually won that year. With poker being so hard already at higher levels, a 20% edge by simply making positive emotional and mental adjustments internally is an absolute gold mine.
Nelson Denoon weights in:
The root cause of any sort of tilting at the poker table is an inability to embrace the moment as it is, that is, regretting what may have happened a minute or more ago or worrying about what is going to happen an minute or more from now.
To overcome tilt, one must cultivate the ability to fully accept what is. To not do so is counterproductive since, no matter how much emotional discharge you apply to this moment, this moment still is.
So if you lose a huge pot that you really wanted to win and you lose it because some guy you dislike caught a one outer on the river, it will hurt. If you embrace the pain and the fact that he is raking in what you wish were your chips and that you are at that moment irreversibly (since the suchness of the moment is indisputable), then your tendency to latch on to regret or ride the wave of worry will subside. Moreover, even if it is understandable and logical, your self-hatred will not get the best of you.
Moreover, although this may be sinister, an effective way to induce tilt behavior in an opponent is to underscore, through words or gestures, that opponent’s past hands, thereby often triggering regret and worry about the future in him, that is, inducing tilt in your opponent.
I think:
Timon and Pumbaa said it best: hakuna matata.
I don’t think this is something you can ever fix completely, some people are just more prone to tilt than others. However, here are two quick tips.
1. Live and play in the present. Take the raw information of the past with you, but only if you can let the emotions of the past go. If a guy made a statistically bad move chasing to the river, count on him doing it again and you’ll profit off him more often then he will profit off you. Don’t dwell on each invidiual loss, think about the big picture.
2. Don’t take things personal. A bad beat isn’t a personal attack.
3. Keep in mind that sometimes you are the one who gets lucky too. We tend to remember the times we are screwed over and forget the times we were touched by the poker gods.
4. After a long run of bad beats, EVERYONE goes on tilt to some degree. Just quit playing for a while in this case. Start fresh a day, week, or month later–whatever works for you.
Anyone else use Quora? This is how I roll. Comment below and I’ll check out your answers.
May 23rd, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
There are some key differences to how you should play in a tournament setting as opposed to a ring game. As an example I’ll provide the following scenario.
A relatively short-stacked player moves all-in, a second player calls and so do you. If this was a ring game, you and the remaining player in the pot with chips would do well to continue playing your respective games. However, if this was a tournament with a predetermined number of places “in the money,” the incentive to knock the short-stack out of the game is higher than the possibility of increasing your stack from the other player.
If the short stack has pocket jacks and you have pocket eights and the flop is 2 3 7, you might be inclined to raise thinking your hand is solid. The raise may make the other player fold with his AQ. The turn is a three and the river is an ace. You lose and double up the short stack. Now if you could take back the raise after the flop, the AQ would have stayed in the hand and picked up the higher pair on the river. You still wouldn’t win the hand, but the short-stack would be out of the tournament bringing you one step closer to placing in the money.
Of course, not everyone follows this advice, and from Mr. Short-stack’s point-of-view it probably isn’t fair, but it is good tournament strategy.
The exception to the rule? If you find yourself holding the nuts on the river, bet however you’d like.
May 14th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
Some of my best memories at the poker table were before my life was taken over by texas hold’em. I used to play a dealer’s choice game with a group of creative friends. We came up with a gamut of unorthodox poker variants, some of which am going to highlight from time to time.
You may have heard of Follow the Queen, a wild card stud game. The idea is after a couple hole cards, each player is dealt a card up followed by a round of betting. If a queen is dealt to a player, then the following card to the next player is wild. If no queens show, then queens are wild. The game allows for four wild cards in the deck.
With only four wild cards the integrity of poker can stand in my opinion—meaning skill is still a large part of the game. Our version used a total of eight wilds, we played follow the king and queen. Then we added another twist. If the two of clubs was dealt up to any player the deck was shuffled again and we started over with any players that had not previously folded. Occasionally we even allowed for the two of clubs’ power to be used when dealt as a player’s hole card at the discretion of the player who had it.
I doubt any self-respecting poker pro would give said game a chance, but it was a fun diversion from more serious games. We called it, Follow the King and Queen through downtown Chicago.
May 7th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
Liar’s Poker comes in a couple of different flavors. The first may be more comfortable as it is a tradition card game and the later is not. The game begins with each player starting with two quarters. Everyone is then dealt two cards down. The first player calls a poker hand. The next player has the option of either calling a hand which beats the previous hand or challenging the previous player’s call. If a person challenges the hand, then everyone’s cards are pooled to determine if the hand exists. If it does, the person who called the game loses one of his quarters and starts the next game, with only one card dealt to him. If it does not, the player who called the hand loses the quarter. After a player has their second quarter taken away, the player is out. Deck is reshuffled after each round. Game ends and the pooled change is awarded when only one person has a quarter left.
Liar’s poker is also a popular bar game that only requires a dollar bill to play. In the place of cards, the eight-digit serial number on the dollar bill (see below is blue) represents each “hand.” The object is similar to the card version–to make the highest bid of a number that does not exceed the combined total held by all the players. The numbers are usually ranked in the following order: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 (10) and 1 (Ace). For example, if the first player bids three 4′s, he is predicting there are at least three 4′s among all the players, including himself. The next player can bid a higher number at that level (three 5′s), any number at a higher level (four 2′s) or challenge. The end of the game is reached when a player makes a bid that is challenged all around. If the bid is successful, he wins a dollar from each of the other players, but if the bid is unsuccessful, he loses a dollar to each of the other players.
Both games are fun diversions that combine statistical reasoning with bluffing. The barrier of entry is small in that the most you can lose is a matter of dollars and cents. However, for you high rollers, currency substitutions are always an option.
If you practice any other variations on Liars Poker let me know in the comments. This is one game that can easily vary in rules.
May 1st, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
Poker play/mad scientist SeanLind is playing poker using the motion-sensing Microsoft Kinect. Impracitcal? Absolutely. Awesome? YES!
If you have the time to set it all up, you will surely impress. Instructions here.
April 28th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
So that happened.
I assume all of my American readers have been affected by and/or heard about the government crack down on on-line gambling. The quick version is this: suits from major sites like Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker have been formally charged with fraud and all funds and transfers from US players have been frozen, which, by all accounts, sucks.
I think we were all hoping that little bill in 2006 making on-line gambling illegal would never be enforced. Now it looks like Uncle Sam just took its sweet time making a case against the big three gaming outfits. To be fair, the enforcement is justified in my opinion. Just like I feel about immigration in the US, what laws we have in place should be enforced, but I also think we should change the laws. It appears Poker Stars and the rest were laundering money, which is illegal. They may have been forced into a life of crime by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, but “enforcement” is right their in the name, they should have saw this coming. Let’s face it, with their assurances of safety from the bill, they weren’t honest to their customers either.
As a fan of the game and the profits it allows, I’m still rooting for the gambling sites. I hope PPA lobbying and Full Tilt lawyers put this madness behind us. However, the perfect solution is now being called for not only by Bluff and Cardplayer, but also by Fortune and the Washington Post–legalize the damn game! Let the rake go to American businesses and provide American jobs. Let Harrahs and the Bellagio make sites to compete with Poker Stars and Full Tilt in a free market.
Will this happen? I thought so, but who the hell knows anymore? Color me jaded, which I think is a shade of green. At this point, I just hope their vague promise of letting us cash out our account comes to pass.
I guess I’m back to selling my body for cash. What? That’s illegal too?
Crap.
April 17th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Grundy
Ever go on a winning streak? I know I have. Game after game of hot cards, genius calls and well placed confidence…then it all goes to hell. Hundreds won, then hundreds lost. Gus Hanson knows what I’m talking about, but you’d have to add a few more zeros to the end of his streak.
Hanson started off 2010 with a million dollar poker profit after just one month. (Maybe that should read WON month.) He continued to pad his account until he managed to lose nearly a million in the span of a week. In the first week of April, he played 8,00 hands online, including some $300-$600 Pot Limit Omaha Poker. It did not go well.
Morale of the story? You can’t win them all, but I have a feeling Gus will land on his feet.
April 12th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Grundy
Do you yawn when you see or hear someone yawn? I do. I even yawn when I hear the word “yawn.” What does this mean? It means I’m tired.
I may be tired, but studies show contagious yawning is a function of empathy. You yawn because you relate to the emotional state of being tired, bored, or whatever. You are yawning vicariously though the other guy.
In poker, empathy helps to get you into the mind of your opponent. This is a beneficial place to be as long as you don’t get too attached. I theorize that bad play, like yawning, is contagious.
In my own “studies” I have seen a maniac sit down among responsible, veteran players and slowly drive them insane. Before I know it, the whole table is playing every hand, chasing to the river, consistently over betting the pot…madness! I admit nothing changes a player’s outlook like a bad beat, but even before the maniac draws out on someone, the maniac flu spreads. This is true live, and even more true in US Online Poker, but is there a strategy around it?
I know the strategies at play here: “you must become a maniac to beat a maniac” and all that, but these are BAD strategies. If you can’t inoculate youself from maniac flu, the best strategy is to find a new table. Put emphasis on empathizing with the pros.
Grundy's goal is to build the better poker person. Thanks for visiting Hell's Cold Day, I'm Grundy. I've been playing cards since 2000 and have raised in stakes just short of considering myself a "pro," profiting (mostly) the whole way. I am happy where I am, even though I believe in my heart of hearts I could rely solely on poker for a living. Why not? That is a personal choice you may find in the posts to the right. Enjoy the journey, I hope I can help along the way.
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