Poker Tips

Poker Dreams Part 1

October 2006

It began with all the ambition of a pipe dream, earnest and well-intentioned perhaps but fraught with the obstacles and pitfalls that characterize the dream that was ours. Previous to discovering the hidden gem that is online poker we operated as casino prowlers, roaming the windowless grounds of the local brick and mortar casino in search of the elusive slow fortune. To an onlooker the bizarre similarities that seemed to develop among the poker players during any given night would make us appear bound by blood rather than circumstance or desire, a thoroughly dysfunctional family caught up in the throes of chronic gambling. Red-eyed and stiff from self-induced paralysis, we waged our battles with deft calculation or mindless tilt, (depending on which "family" member you were observing), heeding to whatever poker lore we abided to or disregarded as trash. Fatigue would set in eventually and swaddle our bone-tired features in a pale and ashen cloak. Mingled with the murky blue-tinged smoke that enveloped us, we could have passed for corpses playing dress up in a macabre game of hold-em-for-the-dead. Our collective soul-windows, however, told a very different story - lit by desperation or determination, our eyes were alive.

I've come to believe that this is the mitigating factor that forever binds us to the game for better, and more often, for worse. Poker players believe as though it were all-mighty gospel that they can beat the game. That their ability, however ineffective thus far, will lead them into the elite group of Winners where profits abound. This theory is terribly flawed in both premise and practice. Players tend to rely on this ability rather than improving it. Poker education is plentiful and readily available but many script and recite their strategies based on ridiculous intuition and continuous prayer "please let it hit please please!!!". This isn't to say that instinct isn't valuable when properly used - applying it exclusively, however, is like offering someone a coffee only to hand them a sugar-and-cream filled cup. Knowledge, as it is in business, crisis, life, is power. It is the pure and simple guts of poker success, of consistent opponent-crushing sessions and hefty bank rolls. Crucial as it is, many players cast it aside like an old sweatshirt, that although durable, clean, and comfortable, is perhaps no longer trendy. It is this group that feeds my family, that streams unknowingly into shark-bred water, and that will almost certainly fail. These are the fish.

For sport, fish can be elusive or easily baited, inconspicuous or clear as day. In poker, fish can be picked out as easily as a sunfish is caught by a 10-year-old with a pole. Fish tendencies do not favor gender or age and can be seen swimming madly in the play of an assortment of players. Many fish can be characterized simply by their weakness in both stature and play. These passive and demure players can be found in most low to mid limit hold-em games and make for easy but slow pickings. The stronger, or even plainly average players will tear these fish apart. Weak fish, or as I playfully refer, the poker minnows, will deplete their rolls at a slow and steady pace and can be counted on to grace the tables of your local B&M for as long as their pay cheques allow them. The minnows lose in smaller increments and see themselves as "unlucky". They understand that poker is a grind but do not realize that the game is full of grinders far more educated.

RB...

Part 1 in a series.