CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

POCKET ACES

Columns

• Back to Maryann's index

• Back to columnists' index

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.

March 15, 2008

The New Young Turks of Poker

Years ago WBTVP (Well Before TV Poker), the standard joke among the poker in-crowd focused on the hometown hero -- the guy who could beat the pants off everyone in his private club games. Ostensibly, he was a fish and the sharks in Las Vegas were waiting patiently for this hapless adventurer to swim in their direction so they could gobble him up.

The standard line was that this fellow might be the best in Podunk but he'll never make it against the pros. This attitude extended into the heady atmosphere of the coveted World Series of Poker championship, a place where everyone, including those who believed in an inordinate amount of luck, assumed an amateur, no matter how good, would never be able to beat the best. A bumpkin could never successfully match wits with the likes of Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim Preston, and their cronies. In fact, when the relatively unknown Hal Fowler limped in from Southern California and won the World Series bracelet in 1979 everyone gasped and marveled at his incredible luck.

So much of poker has changed in the past half-dozen years that some heads will never stop spinning as they try to justify, figure out, or condemn the current state of affairs.

One thing is certain. Tournament poker as seen on TV has changed the face of poker forever and those of us who can't recognize the need for gear changing (and perhaps a complete transmission overhaul) might as well kiss much of our profits goodbye.

Case in point is the older generation of tournament players: Watch them play if you can, and notice how unreasonably cautious they appear to be. Whereas the young punk in Seat No. 1 who got to a tournament by way of some miraculous satellite win is flinging chips in and laughing about both wins and losses on his part, the old pro has grown, what, fearful?

The fellow who stood a good chance of finishing well into the money a decade ago, now thinks about how big that top prize is, about how much money he's spent this year in tournament entries, about how much he needs to pay the mortgage or get his car out of hock. Suddenly his game becomes fair game and the upstart who came in with nothing to lose and kept that attitude is laughing all the way to the final table. The Young Turk didn't even have to try to be the pro; the pro beat himself.

However, WBTVP, a better-than-average player from the middle of anywhere could spend a few weeks in Las Vegas, play some low-limit, non tournament poker and come out alive, even, ahead and conceivably way ahead. Back then, at that level, he was competing against only one or two regulars and a bunch of other tourists who didn't measure up to average.

Once again, though, the complexion of the tables has changed. Everyone at the tables now seems to think the game is easy money and the best way to get that money is to imitate the TV tournament players. This causes myriad problems for bankrolls.

The phenom, who has become the hometown poker hero because he is fearless at the table, comes face to face across the green felt against equally fearless players. If he tries to emulate the champions, he's on equal footing in his foolishness. If he tries to play by the books, he's going to get blasted away.

Yes, the texture of hold'em has changed drastically. But then, most things experience some kind of evolution, so this should not come as a surprise. The good news is that you can still survive in live-action poker if you tailor every session according to the tone of the table and not to what you learned from TV or from a step-by-step book.

Start by resurrecting the single most important rule of poker: Know thy opponents. Only a fool who wants to part with his money will jump in and start playing a game without observing his competition. There's nothing in any book that says you have to get into action immediately. Even if you have to post the blinds you don't have to defend them. It's far better to lose the blinds than to lose your entire buy-in.

Roy West, the long-time poker instructor whose focus has always been the stud version of poker gives all his students this advice: Fold every hand for at least the first five or six deals. This gives you time to watch how hands develop and how each player reacts to the game.

Additionally, you should be ready to shift gears as soon as the speed and driving habits of the table become apparent. If you are staring into the eyes of a fool, bring out your April Fool's approach. If you are up against the rock, think like a geologist. If Chatty Cathy can't wind down and be quiet, sit back and listen because she's going to give you a lot of information. In short, develop many different game plans to handle many different situations.

And don't talk. Don't try to spread out your thoughts about what your opponent has; don't try to convince him you're holding something you aren't (or are). The best kept secrets in the world are those that never get to the tongue. Bite yours and stay silent. Develop many poker faces and use them alternately as an actor would in a play. Use several at a time, switching from pathos to anger to satisfaction to inquisitiveness.

Here's the important message, whether you are just getting started, have been playing for a short time, or happen to be a pro: This is your game. Don't submit. Take charge of it. Tame it to your preferences the way you would tame a wild horse. Take your time. Eventually you'll own it and you'll be a winning Young Turk rather than the one trying to sell his jewelry for the price of a ticket back to nowhere.