Why do people play poker part 2

This is part 2 of why I think people play poker. If you haven’t read part 1, you may want to go back to the last entry before you read this one.

After I posted part 1 of “why people play Poker”, I realized that my focus of poker player was very narrow. I was only focusing on the people, who play at public poker rooms for money. The home poker player may share similar traits to the public room player, but probably has a much higher need for community and social interaction then the public poker room player.

Therefore for both Part 1 and Part 2 of “Why people play poker” I am only going to be discussing the public poker room player, the ones I know best. My experience includes frequent play in San Diego, L.A. S.F. Las Vegas, Washington & Oregon, Vegas and a trip to the Midwest.

In part 1 I defined the traits of competition & “Role Playing” and their relationship of poker. The last two traits ego and mastery are slightly more obvious.

Poker historically has been a game of bravado, (especially when guns were on the table or pulled after a bad beat) and seats are primarily filled with “alpha males”.

Often many poker players seem fueled by a volatile mixture of testosterone, youthful egotism, and too much “red bull”.

By the way, the only poker room I have found that gives you free “Red Bull” is Sam’s Town in Vegas. I always have a couple of sugar free red bulls mixed with pineapple juice when I play there. The poker room manager of Sam’s told me a funny story about a guy they had to ban from the poker room. He would drink 16-18 “Red Bull’s a day. After about a dozen he would get very aggressive. He even got into fights with other players from too much “Red Bull”.

But, I am writing today about ego and mastery. With the notable exception of Phil Helmuth, ego seems to be something that better players, soon learn to diminish, because it often leads to poor play.

I love to play with a player who has a large ego. I especially love one who tells others how bad they play. If you listen carefully, while he thinks he is impressing people, he will tell you and anyone, who listens through his b.s. exactly how he plays and what he doesn't know about poker.

And I promise that anything you say at my table, will be used against you at some point or another.

Anger is another emotion that can cost you money at the table. It of course, can lead to bad play, but it has another less obvious purpose, that I have learned to take advantage of.

Let me illustrate it in two cases, where I won large pots. I would not have won them if a player, had not exhibited anger.

The first occurred very early in my “learning to play better poker” days. I was playing a 1/3 no limit game with a very friendly, slightly manic, very talkative player, who was leading the betting into me. I appeared to have a large pair, and he looked like he could be betting small trip’s or a flush draw.

On the river the third flush card appeared, and he went all-in with a sizable stack. I thought about it for a moment, asked for time, thought some more, stared at him for a moment, thinking “I need to fold this”. He abruptly said “will you either hurry up or call or fold, or do something.”

I almost folded in reaction to his challenge. Then I thought, “if he has the best hand, how come he is so irritated that I am taking my time?”

When I “believe” I am going to take a pot unchallenged or scoop a large one with the best possible hand, I feel pretty calm and patient. But he seems angry and irritated

That’s when I knew I had to call him. I turned over my one pair. He slammed down, his “busted flush”, stood up, and walked straight out of the poker room in an angry huff. I would have folded, had he not expressed anger, causing me to wonder why?

A similar thing happened last night here in San Diego. A young man who looked like he might be a body builder and I were head’s up. I had Qh, 9h, with a board of Qc, 9s, Kc, 7h & 10c.

When I flopped my two pair Queens & nines, I bet $50. Then I bet $100 on the turn. He called me both times, after initially checking it to me.

I suspected he might have flopped a straight! Now on the river, a very bad card for me came. It was the Ten of Clubs!

He now could have two larger pair, a straight, a flush or even a Royal Flush for that matter.

He went all in for $250. I was “cursing my bad luck” in my mind, but decided to analyze a little more, I was finding very little, I could beat on that board, after that river.

I took some more time, and stared at him. He locked eyes with me, and started “mad dogging” me. My first reaction was “don’t get this guy pissed, he could break me in half!

Then I thought, “Why does he want me to fear him or get uncomfortable?

So I will fold?”

If he has the best hand, he would want me to call.

After a moment, he breaks eye contact, looks away and kind of sheepishly grins. He turns on the charm by smiling. He then said in a friendly voice,“go ahead and call, maybe you have me beat”. Then he smiles some more.

In “Poker speak” that usually means “I want you to call, I have you beat”. But, wait, he could be acting and trying to deceive me. He might be thinking, that I know what that means, and so I will do the opposite and fold because he said it.

This didn’t seem as “congruent or primitive” as his “attempt to intimidate” me with his eyes. So if this is acting, then the other is more genuine, and he really doesn’t want me to call!

So, I called in an act of blind faith on my initial tell of his challenging eyes.

He said I have “a straight”!

My heart sunk, that was my greatest fear from the flop. As a novice player, I might have mucked, my two pair, after he said he had a straight, but I have seen guys angle this one, and I said “show me!”

I saw a guy lie once, and say he had a straight. Then when his opponent, holding two pair, mucked his cards, the first guy said oh, no, I made a mistake I only have one pair. (In that case he still got the pot, because the guy with the winning cards, had mucked his hand.)

To counter this, always turn you cards face up, whether you think you are beat or not. Never just take somebody’s word for what they had.

So I turned my two pair face up on the table.

He threw his cards face up on the table, revealing only a pair of tens. As the sizable pot was being pushed toward me, my opponent went to the ATM for more cash.

The “chip runner”, came up behind me and said do you know who that is?

I said I have no idea! It turns out, he is a well know football player for the San Diego Chargers, who just started playing poker a few weeks ago.

No wonder that “locking eyes” of challenge was so congruent for him! He has probably done that thousands of times on the football field.

I ended up taking down two more good sized pots from him before he left frustrated.

He will come back, he has fun playing poker, and he probably spends more on an expensive meal out with his teammates what he lost to me.

I wonder if the irony was lost on him, that I was wearing a Chargers t-shirt.?

In a future blog I will discuss the concept of Mastery as it applies to poker.