Skill of Poker under scrutiny

From BBC Text-TV today:

Poker requires its player to absorb a «staggering» amount of information, a court has heard. Speaking at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Derek Kelly, 46, is accused of running unlicensed games at the Gutshot Club in Clerkenwell, central London.

He denies two counts of contravening the 1968 Gaming Act which states a license is needed to host games of chance, but not games of skill.

Mr. Kelly, from Co Wicklow, Ireland, also compared Poker to a game of life.

holiday games

First of all: I failed totally in becoming independently wealthy during the holidays. The fish was present at my table, but I had to sit there watching, as everybody else on the table took their money, or most of it. I took some of it, but only crumbs on the table of riches, I'm afraid. Did I play badly? Was random chance not on my side? Yes. And no. I didn't play badly, but I clearly didn't play well enough.

Back to the drawing board.

On the bright side I would say I played better than ever, when I played great, even though it didn't yield the desired results. I'm getting better. I make more good decisions, and that, like timing, is crucial. In short: I'm slowly getting where I want to be.

I am a little envious of those making it to the big league after just a few months of playing, though. It has always been an uphill struggle for me, and I suspect it will always be.

Playing Poker on Christmas Eve

I plan on playing a lot of Poker on christmas eve and during christmas as a whole. I celebrate the Pagan New Year on December twenty-first and don’t celebrate christmas; so to me this will be a double positive. In my opinion most people aren’t, generally speaking, more generous during this fine holiday, but many poker players are. I almost always win during this time of drunkenness, wife-beating and mindless Poker playing.

At the very least I would say my changes of winning are increased with at least twenty percent. And since this is a marginal game in the first place, I would say this should be a feast for many players staying sober. The trick is to avoid most of the other sharks swimming these waters.

I’ll see you at the tables…

wsop 2006 toc

It was great and interesting watching Mike Sexton beat the crap out of a number of players, among them Daniel Negreanu and Mike Matusow. Especially his call with seven three offsuit against Mike the Mouth's bluff was impressive. Sexton has learned a few tricks lately. He's still the quiet, dependable player, a little unimaginitive, but different from before. Negreanu, very imaginitive had him, really, but botched it. If Negreanu had stuck a bit to playing post flop he would probably have won (or perhaps not). There was no need for him to go all-in with his diamond draw. And afterwards, when he said «back to the drawing board» he didn't stick to that either. I guess he got impatient, while Mike (not the mouth) was patience incarnated.

Professional Poker League

Just a brief comment about the Professional Poker League» (ppl).

It's rather uninteresting, really (to be kind). Poker is not a sport (fortunately not), but a game of skill, one played person against person, not team against team, and should never attempt to become such thoroughly boring entertainment like baseball and such.

It's overrated hype. Ignore it.

Bay 101 ppt

Tom McEvoy won Bay 101 ppt. I'm still attempting to figure out how that could happen...


I mean, he didn't play any better than he usually does. He was just as nervous, just as timid, just as easy to read, and all.


I guess miracles do happen.

Bad Beat Stories

Nobody like hearing bad beat stories, they say, but that isn’t exactly true.

I love ‘em.

Everybody got stories, an old, fairly well known poker player told me in London years ago. Bad beat stories, the most incredible stories about luck gone awry. He did this while I was venting in his presence about the unlucky break life (and poker) had recently given me. And I realized he was right, that he was right beyond right. And since that moment I have never told a bad beat story, or at least not told it without a modicum of irony in my voice.

But I love listening to them. They have to be real bad beat stories, though, not merely a tiny shift of advantage during an all-in degree moment. In other words fifty-three/forty-seven is not, and should never be presented as a bad beat. Neither should 60/40 or such, and even aces being cracked all-in versus a single opponent with lower pairs. I’m talking a beyond bad Bad Beat here…

I find them interesting and also educational, both concerning poker and the concept of Chance itself. A pattern is eventually and inevitably emerging. It always is.

We’re striving to beat the odds, or to make them work for us. We always are. What would otherwise be the point of living? In my fairly recent enlightenment people ranting about their misfortune, doing their attempt at evoking pity, are shying away from the Great Game, from Life. They fail to understand the obvious: that there is no luck, no Fate, no meaning, only Change, a random, totally unpredictable pattern of coincidences. You can lessen Chance’ impact, but you can never negate it, and you shouldn’t try. Without the spark of unpredictability life wouldn’t be… life.

Some players claim, to the point of turning blue that poker is mathematics, is predictability, that everything can be measured and weighed and calculated, but they would be wrong. That’s just yet another way of closing oneself off from life, from the true burning wheel of fortune. Throw the dice and you get anything from one to six and even beyond. Don’t throw it, and you don’t get anything, except your own, empty heart.