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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

May 15, 2004

Poker Arrogance

"I've come to win some money," Gamblin' Willie says, When the game finally ended up, the whole damn boat was his.
-- Bob Dylan

Having participated in and observed poker for a number of years now, I'm still amused when I see or hear people complain about certain poker personalities. I think in the past, this was an effort to put a tuxedo or ball gown on the game -- to dress it up so the public in general would see the game as genteel and embrace it as the All-American game.

Certain competitive players would be chastised in public forums for their unsportsmanlike behavior, a practice that still occurs, by the way, specifically on the Internet in newsgroups and chatrooms.

As one who believes only a person who is unhappy with his or her own personality can change that personality, I found the whole criticism of poker arrogance to be off base (and I still do). I don't find it useful or necessary to change any poker player's public persona. People are what they are and the ingredients that make up their personality are the same ingredients that allow them to make their way through the poker wars. They may not be unscarred, but they are alive.

If you want to be a winner, you first have to believe you are good-- no, make that great -- at what you do. Believing, of course, doesn't make it real, but it does help create a mindset that can give you a bead on winning. And if believing you are better than the next guy sticks you with a nefarious label, so be it.

I think perhaps what is often misnamed arrogance is actually self confidence.

When a guy comes up to you, his fists grasping his money, and he says, as in the Bob Dylan quote, "I've come to win some money," is he just kidding around? Of course not! He's there to win some money -- yours in particular‹and he must have the faith that he can do it.

The audacity! No, the assurance.

If he comes shuffling up to your table with his fist so tight around his money that his knuckles are turning blue, forget about it. This guy doesn't have what it takes to get your money. He doesn't have that conviction. His money is too important to put at risk.

And risk is the keyword. Every poker player worth her buy-in knows that she has to pay to win. Her job doesn't provide her with a weekly, tax-deducted paycheck. Unless she has a sugar daddy or a backer, she has to take funds from her "real" job to pay for the privilege of winning your money.

Think about it. Doesn't it take a lot of self-confidence to believe you can sit down at a table with six to nine other people and take their money at will? Does this attitude make you impertinent? Does it make you unlikable?

In the end, it doesn't matter because whatever your arrogance does, if it gets the money, it has accomplished its goal. And if it doesn't get the money, it's not unusual that the letdown will be apparent.

If you're a champion skater and you take a spill during a simple routine, your devastation, though short-lived, is real‹whether you show it or not. If you're an English teacher and you make a gross grammatical error during a speech in front of your peers, your embarrassment is strong enough to make you want to crawl in between the pages of your textbook.

How you display your displeasure with yourself will vary. You might even place blame for your temporary failure on the person who just knocked the wind out of your sails. But once you're away from the heat of the battle and you're back in action, either in another tournament or at another table, or in another venue, that blow is behind you. Your arrogance returns and you're ready to take the next player's money.

At least that's how it's supposed to be. The first word in successful poker -- arrogance. Have it and the whole damn boat could be yours.