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.

June 20, 2009

Scared Poker?

I was watching some televised poker tournament late one evening. Half asleep but not able to get there entirely, I switched on the TV and worked my way up from channel 3 to some place in the 700s and found this event. I believe it had to have some kind of World Series of Poker connection because the commentators were the now familiar Lon and Norman. I recall the event was in Atlantic City.

Lon and Norm talked about the players by name, commenting how most of them were regular tournament and live action players but I didn’t recognize anyone. Take that back. I did recognize the 2006 WSOP winner, Jamie Gold, dressed in black, smiling like the Cheshire Cat with is mouth closed, looking exactly the same as he looked when he won that tournament. On his way to winning the title in 2006, Gold did get lucky a lot of times but he also aggressively bullied the others at his table and didn’t let them get away with any chicanery.

In this particular televised event, however, he didn’t have to do that, at least not during the time I watched. Three times in succession I saw strong hands go into the muck when Gold raised. Granted, I could see his cards and I knew he had junk but the board didn’t look very threatening no matter what he was holding.

I concluded that Gold’s reputation alone was enough scare to shake up his opponents. (I bet the guys who folded the nuts are kicking themselves every time ESPN airs their mistakes.)

The power of a million-dollar championship: what an edge!

On the opposite edge of Gold rainbow sit the young guns who don’t seem to be afraid of anybody, including reigning champs and big winners. For a few years, any one of the Internet Turks and college dropouts could invade this hallowed ground known as the tournament trail and completely befuddle the pros. They played a devil-may-care brand of hold’em that made them look like impetuous children who had no idea how dangerous jumping into a ring of fire can be.

For a while, the professional players were befuddled by these youngsters but as witnessed lately, that’s no longer the case. The fellows and gals who have been in the business for a while have figured out how to take on the intruders. They’ve found their way back into the winners circle, and they’ve done it because they are pros. They know the game and they know how to play it.

So what we have are two different scenarios that players should keep in mind at all times. One: Like everything else, the look and feel of poker changes, and players have to adapt. They need to have confidence in their own decisions. (I’m sure the guys who faced Jamie Gold will realize that and become even better players, able to beat the big-money winners.)

Two: Real pros don’t play scared poker.