Poker isn’t like real sports. While there may be plenty of genius football or golf coaches that never reached the elite level as a player, only the elite players themselves can write the best poker books and provide the best training videos. It’s not really possible to be a mediocre, or losing poker player, but also be an elite poker coach.
You could be a great mental coach, preparing someone to be the best player they can be without also being a poker player, but that’s because the coach isn’t required to know what to do with AQ under the gun. It’s irrelevant when it comes to having a mental coach.
A good mental coach is one who helps YOU develop a plan that will help ensure you are the most prepared, and best poker player you can be.
In the last couple years there have been several books that have some crossover appeal between poker and mental preparation. The writers of these books don’t need to be elite poker players. They need to excel only in understanding psychology, what helps players be at their best, and what causes them to fail. They don’t give you the answer to how AQ should be played against a raise, they would simply help in putting your mindset in such a place that you will more consistently make good decisions.
It’s important to distinguish the difference between poker psychology books, and books that teach you how to play the game better. When it comes to learning how to play the game better, it is essential that the author is a successful, winning player over an extended period of time. There are still plenty of books on the market today written by people who simply wouldn’t be winning players today. The information is often totally wrong. A book that was written by a winning player in 2003, doesn’t mean that the information would be effective today. It may contain strategies that worked then, but would be totally outdated now.
I would strongly advise people to question the author of the information you are ingesting, or the guy doing training videos online. If they aren’t successful players, while it still may be worthwhile to soak in some of the information, you should not allow it to cloud your judgment.
Anyone can write a poker book and claim to be an expert. Literally anyone. Anyone can offer training videos online, even those that have a graph in the negative.
When considering a poker book, or deciding on watching an online training video, the absolute most important question you need to ask is:
Who is the author and what are their credentials? Are they successful with the strategies they are teaching today? If they can’t provide any relevant concrete credentials that are applicable to today’s game, you would be foolish to trust in their material.
There are books on the market today that would actually make you a WORSE poker player if you followed their advice. There are plenty of frauds out there because there really isn’t a basis to verify an authors credentials unless they release their personal poker records over an extended period of time.
I’m not looking to call out anyone in particular here, but I have seen poker coaches hired to teach the game who I thought were absolutely terrible players!
The truth is, many of the best poker books will never be written. Its rare for a top player in the highest stakes games to divulge his strategies. He is typically going to make a hell of a lot more money by keeping his strategies to himself versus sharing them with the world. It does happen occasionally, but it’s still quite rare.
So knowing that, it’s even more important to question the authors you are buying and making sure the information you are accepting as correct is coming from a source who can provide some proof of their authority on the subject.
What is the criteria for being nominated into the Hall of Fame? It’s quite simple, and people voting should read it before making their decisions this year and in future years:
A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
Played for high stakes
Be a minimum of 40 years old at time of nomination
Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
Stood the test of time
Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.
Notice is doesn’t say anything about being a nice guy, being a poker ambassador, or being well liked? It doesn’t give any points to players for their efforts to improve the state of the game. The only area where that is relevant is for NON-players. The criteria for players is based only on their skills as a player.
When Tom McEvoy was inducted people referred to his efforts to help ban smoking in poker rooms as a key reason for his induction. Was he then inducted as a non-player or as a player? If he was inducted as a non-player then a reasonable case can be made, but if we are adhering to the criteria there is no way he should have ever been elected as a player. He isn’t the only one, but he is the clearest case in recent years.
On this years list, we have exactly three people who should get consideration as a non-player: Matt Savage, Terry Rogers, and Bruno Fitoussi. Matt, for his many years as an influential player in the industry, and Bruno for essentially being the Godfather of poker to France and Europe as a whole. He single handedly brought many Americans over to Paris to play at the Aviation and played a significant role in bringing the first ever WPT event to Europe. Both of them also play, Matt more sparingly, but Bruno has a decent resume as a player. Not one that stands alone as reason to be nominated, but as a non-player he is certainly worthy.
As for Terry, I’m not too familiar with him at this point so I can’t really comment.
That leaves seven other nominees that should be judged based on their play, and their play only. I don’t care if they were nice guys, I don’t care about their contributions to the game, all of this is absolutely meaningless based on the clearly written criteria.
We recently lost quite a character in Dave “DevilFish” Ulliot to a battle with cancer. He was great to have at a poker table and helped make televised poker more interesting. He also had a great career, standing the test of time and continuing the grind until his death.
Having said all that, his passing should have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not he earns your vote. In recent years Thor Hansen suffered some health issues as well (he is doing pretty well now thankfully) and there was talk of inducting him into the Hall of Fame. I’ve played with Thor for 20 years, great guy, and solid player, but the fact that he was sick should have absolutely no bearing on the voting. If the voters deem him to best fit the criteria, he should get in, but not based on sentiment.
There are plenty of names that, while maybe not household names, have a resume that is even better than some of the nominees for 2015. They play the highest stakes cash games in the world and have been playing at that level for many years. Just to name a few:
David Oppenhiem
Ray Dehkharghani
Huck Seed
John Hennigan
Abe Mosseri
The Poker Hall of Fame used to essentially require that a player sit with killers like that to even get consideration. Poker has changed quite a bit, of course, and tournaments have taken center stage with the voters and the public, but if we are nominating based on the criteria, these guys have certainly stood the test of time and continue to play in the biggest cash games in the world and succeed.
There are two players on that list that continue, after 20+ years to play high stakes poker and find success: Jennifer Harman and John Juanda. JJ plays the biggest no limit hold’em games in the world in Macau and abroad, and despite skipping the WSOP 2015 entirely, he just won the biggest EPT event in their history.
As for Jennifer, she is easy to find. She is sitting in the same place she has been for decades, in the Bellagio poker room playing the world’s biggest mixed games. She remains the only woman in the entire world to be a winner in those games. An argument could be made that Vanessa Selbt could hang with the big boys if she put in the effort, but as of today, she hasn’t gone that route. The closest thing to a “Jennifer Harman” in terms of being able to hack it with the big boys in the big mixed games, is Maria Ho.
Having said all that, Jennifer Harman being a woman should have NOTHING to do with your vote. Your vote should be based on the players skill level, not their gender.
The last factor I’d like to address is age. The requirement is quite simple, you must be at least 40 years of age. Should someone who is 70 be considered more worthy than someone who is 42 despite not being as qualified? Should it matter? I say absolutely not! The person who gets in should be the person who best fits the criteria. I guess you could make a case that if two candidates are equal, the older one likely has exemplified “standing the test of time” more accurately.
Rounding out the nominees are:
Chris Bjorin- a long time grinder who is among the all-time leaders in WSOP cashes
Carlos Mortensen- the all-time money leader on the WPT and also a WSOP main event champion
Max Pescatori- Italy’s all-time money leader and 3-time WSOP bracelet holder
David Chiu- 5-time WSOP bracelet winner and WPT Champion also won the inaugural Tournament of Champions, a concept that was well ahead of it’s time
All are great guys, as irrelevant as that is, but I figured I would add that because it’s true! Having said that, I would ask the panel this question: which of these ten players would you find the most difficult to play against in tournaments, mixed games, or even online? Who do you think would be the toughest to beat?
Lots of tough cookies to choose from, but ultimately I would say that having John Juanda at your table will cause you the most amount of difficulty on all fronts.
I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to divvy up my votes, but I can’t imagine John Juanda not being at the top of the list for 2015.
So let me start by saying, if you will, that there is, or better said, there could be, in the bigger scheme of things, a different perspective on such. So follow me for a moment, I mean, think about it right? Like what are we thinking? It’s like, Oh my lord, can you even imagine?
Which brings me back to my original point, it’s just, you know what I mean, like, just uncanny. Do you even, or have you ever, like, from a worldly perspective, had a more profound, or better said, earth shattering moment?
So it’s like this, follow me for a second. Just like when that massive event occurred and changed the dynamic, it’s like that. Crazy right? I mean, when you wrap your head around it, it’s just fascinating.
Wherever you stand on the issue, or lack there of, how do you justify, the spectrum, or vastness of the complexity involved?
Clearly, for those that read this far, it should sink in, or dissolve into our minds the importance of clarity.
And THAT is why I am supporting Deez Nuts for president and will suggest he chooses Alexis Texas as a running mate!
As I’ve gotten older, more mature, and better at tournament poker, the mistakes I make are much smaller, but not any less significant. When you look at professional golf as an example, what makes them better is not that they consistently hit perfect shots, it’s that their misses are not as big as the average golfer. When they are 105 yards out they are trying to sink the shot. They rarely do, but they often get the ball to within 5 feet of the hole.
The two mistakes I’m going to share with you may not seem all that big, but they are the two that stick out to me so I thought I would share them with you:
Hand #1 Justin Schwartz threw out a 500k chip in the cutoff with 80k-160k blinds and didn’t say anything. I know limping is part of his game plan, but he had smaller denomination chips that he could have called with. My thinking was that he did this on purpose to make it look like he meant to raise so that the rest of us left in the hand would be less likely to attack his limp.
I picked up 7d 8d on the button and limped. This is exactly the type of hand that plays well post flop and I didn’t think it was necessary to isolate Justin. The small blind folded and the big blind checked his option.
The flop came Kd 7s 6c and both players checked to me. Here is where the mistake comes: I bet 250k. The big blind folded, and a short stacked Justin check raised to 600k. I called with lots of back door potential with a 3 card straight, 3 card flush, and a pair.
The turn was the 3 of clubs and he went all in for about 3 million. I didn’t think about it for very long and folded my pair.
So what is the mistake? My bet sizing on the flop allowed Justin enough room to check raise me as a bluff. If I bet 450k he would have to risk a million or so to bluff me and that wouldn’t have left him enough wiggle room. By betting just 250k in a spot where I could easily be bluffing myself, I opened the door to get outplayed. I found out later that he had QT of clubs so he turned a flush draw but I was still ahead. I don’t think folding the turn is a mistake, besides, he had 15 outs to beat me, but that could have been avoided had a I made a more substantial bet on the flop.
Hand #2 Blinds at 150k-300k Alex (short stacked) raised from middle position at a 5 handed table to 600k and I defended the small blind with Ac 6c and we went heads up to a flop of 10-10-3. I checked, he bet just 350k and I called. The turn was a 9 and we both checked, and once again it went check check on the Jack river.
So what is the mistake? This one is a little more subtle so think about this one for a minute…
Some would argue calling preflop is a mistake. I disagree with that, and that’s not the mistake. When I checked and he bet 350k I felt like I had the best hand, but wasn’t certain. The play was to check raise to one million and put the pressure on Alex to guess. A 10 is a card that is very likely to be in my hand (9T, JT, QT, KT, AT) so even if he had a hand like 88 he may consider folding. Truth is though, he rarely has a hand like that and bets only 350k. To call my check raise he would have to call more than 25% of his stack and then be in no mans land on the turn whether I bet or check.
Turns out he had Q9 and hit the 9 on the turn to beat me that hand. Many would look at the hand and think “unlucky.” I don’t see any value in that. What’s the point in labeling it as lucky or unlucky? Did I play the hand the best way that I could? No. There is value in analyzing your plays, not your variance.
My last hand was the A4 vs J3dd hand on an AKTdd flop. Some will argue that against a player who opens 100% of buttons in that spot, that moving all in preflop is a better play. I think for most people that is absolutely true, but not for me, and not in that situation. The reasoning for that is a little lengthy but I’ll try to explain it in brief the best I can:
My goal was to win the tournament not make the final 9. I knew that Joe was abusing the bubble and the other players were not fighting back. I felt fine playing both in position and out of position against his very weak range post flop. My strategy wasn’t to just guess when he had a hand preflop that was strong enough to call a reraise, it was to see flops with him and eek out value wherever I could and rather than double up in a flip situation, GRIND my way to a double up.
It was working. I was able to go from 4 million in chips to 9 million without being in an all in situation. I was clawing my way back into the match by seeing flops and moving in with some hands when necessary.
Once I got over 8 million it allowed me to start defending my blind a bit more liberally against Joe. A few rounds in a row I had defended the blind, once with an all in reraise with KT, a much better hand to move all in with than A4, by the way, considering how he was playing.
So the reason I chose to call with A4 rather than reraise was threefold:
1) It balances my calling range from the blind a little bit
2) I WILL get extra value post flop when I hit an Ace. He can’t check an Ace
3) I avoid getting it all in preflop in spots where I will almost certainly be a 2-1 underdog when called
Once the flop came out, the hand played itself and it wasn’t meant to be in the end. Had I won that pot, though, I would be sitting on a very healthy stack of about 14 million. That’s the way I do it. Chop away, chop away, chop away, see flops, try to get it in good when necessary, and then hopefully the hand holds. It didn’t this time, but I’m quite happy with how I played overall and stuck to my game plan throughout.
I said this to a friend yesterday and I will leave you with this, “The game is much simpler than people want to make it out to be. It’s only complicated when you choose to complicate it.”
I recently spoke at a conference in Toronto called Discovery that is put on by the responsible gaming council each year. I was asked some tough questions, but none that I wasn’t prepared for. There was one question that inspired me to write this blog and it came from a man who asked, “I deal with teenage problem gamblers and many of them say they want to be professional poker players. What would you say to those kids?”
I think the most important aspect of dealing with kids like this is to have an honest, coaching conversation with them. One that illustrates the complexities involved in making a living gambling. You don’t want to come from, “It’s not possible,” because obviously it is. There are thousands of professional poker players in the world, but I can’t think of a handful of pros that are successful today that are not treating it like a serious job and working hard both playing and studying the game.
So my intention in this coaching conversation is to really illustrate what it takes to make a living doing this. To have them fully understand what it really looks like, but doing so in such a way where it’s they themselves that are realizing it, rather than me preaching to them that they shouldn’t bother trying.
I start by explaining to them that a professional poker player is a small business owner, in the business of entertaining their customers (players who aren’t as skilled as they are). Most every successful business has a mission statement. Since this is a one man small business let’s call it a vision statement.
The vision statement should be one to two sentences on exactly what you want to see for the company. You are the company of course, so I would encourage you to write this vision statement now. It could look something like this:
My vision in poker is to use it as a vehicle to create abundance in my life. To passionately dedicate myself to learning, improving, and developing my skills, while also being financially responsible.
That’s just one example, you need to write one that speaks to you personally because you will be coming back to this statement often. It is the statement that will guide you during your career. The next step is to get a little more specific and quantify what abundance looks like for you. A concrete yearly income you are hoping to achieve. For this example, let’s use $100,000 as the goal.
So now we have the vision statement and the goal, next up is the HOW. The real plan. Drawing from our vision statement, we need to make sure that our plan is financially responsible and that we are continuing to develop our skills away from the table. To hit the $100,000 a year mark, it also requires that you are able to gauge how much money you can expect to make hourly in the game you are playing.
For example, let’s say your bankroll and skill level have you playing $2-$5 no limit hold’em at Bellagio. It’s important to know how much that game is worth to you. The best place to start would be to ask around and see what the best player in that game can expect to make, then deduct about 30% from that total. Yes, you may become the best player in that game, but until you have proven you can be, lets assume you are still in the learning phase and shouldn’t expect to jump out of the gate and be the best player at the table.
Based on what I’ve heard, the best players in that game may make as much as $30 an hour. Deduct 30% from that, if all goes well you can target $21 an hour. To make the math easier, let’s just make it $20 flat per hour. Since our goal is to make $100,000 a year, now we can have a rough idea of how many hours we actually need to spend at the table playing poker. That comes to 5000 hours a year playing. If we break down that further, that comes to 417 hours a month, which breaks down to over 100 hours a week! This is before we even add all of the study hours required to be in line with our vision statement. For ever 10 hours of play, you should add at least two hours of study time. Add on another 1000 hours a year of study, which boils down to 14 hours a week.
So now we have you playing 105 hours a week, and studying around 14 hours a week for a total close to 120 hours in a week. Do you know how many hours are in a week? 168. If you plan on sleeping 8 hours a night, that’s another 56 hours a week. With work/study at 120 and sleep at 56, that totals 176 hours a week.
Uh oh, Houston we have a problem! While your vision statement was quite clear as was your goal, your plan just isn’t feasible. It’s just not humanly possible unless you plan on skipping out on sleep entirely and having absolutely no social life whatsoever! No matter how good you play, your plan is destined to fail and it will.
So the most obvious thing to adjust is your expectations on your yearly income. Maybe lowering it from $100,000 down to $50,000 a year. To save time, let’s assume you can make a plan work where you make $50,000 a year working very hard. Will this allow you to create abundance in your life? Maybe, maybe not. That depends on your monthly nut, meaning how much your expenses cost you monthly. We are also going to assume you are a law abiding citizen who pays their income tax, so right off the bat let’s whack of 30% of that $50,000 a year. That leaves you with $35,000 to spend over a 12 month period, or about $2900 a month.
You want a car, you will have rent to pay, and I assume you also may want to eat food at some point. Maybe even have a telephone and wifi in your apartment. So let’s say you find an apartment for $1200 a month, spend another $300 on your car and gas, and then $1000 a month for food. That’s $2500 total, leaving you $400 a month to cover EVERYTHING else! Not to mention the fact that you need to maintain a bankroll big enough to deal with the inevitable swings. Heaven forbid you ever have to fix your car or get a speeding ticket!
If you aren’t playing with a bankroll big enough to play the games you want and live the lifestyle that you want, then what is your plan if you run out of funds? How will you stay in action? Borrowing from friends is one option, but how will you ever build a bankroll big enough to pay them back? At best, you have an extra $400 a month. If you borrowed $5000 it would take two years of everything going perfectly for you to pay them back. How many people do you know that will loan you $5000 on the hope of being paid back in two years if all goes well? So you will get staked you say? Ok, so now someone is putting up the money for you to play in the $2-$5 game and you get to keep 50% of your winnings. Now you will also have to slash your monthly earnings to $1450 a month while your living expenses are at $2500. You are still underwater. Well what if I get staked to play higher limits? OK, so you are going to find a backer to put you in $5-$10 games where you have no experience, there are tougher players, and your win rate isn’t guaranteed to be any higher than the $2-$5? Good luck with that.
This is all painting a dark picture by design. It is the reality that most of you who are hoping to become professional poker players face. One that can’t be ignored. Is it possible that you have the work ethic, the modest monthly nut, the skill set, the emotional stability, the drive, the will, the bankroll, etc. Sure, but don’t be fooled. There are maybe 2%-5% of people that can make this lifestyle work. Less than 5% of ball players in the minor leagues will ever make the big leagues. Even less high school football players putting on weight in the hopes of an NFL career will make it. There are many careers where the odds are heavily stacked against you. There are heroes, those special people who have “it” and find a way to make it, but most will fail. This holds true in poker as well.
My intention wasn’t to discourage you from chasing your dreams, whatever they may be. My intention was to illustrate to you that it will require HARD WORK. It will not be as easy as it looks on TV. Are you willing to put in all that hard work, all the while knowing that even if you do, it still may not be enough?
Recently I got involved in a twitter conversation about health. When I go on road trips I like to plan ahead and make sure I do everything I can possibly do to ensure that I will find the kind of foods I’m looking for. I typically do some research online and find suitable options almost anywhere.
Well, I’m planning on playing the WPT Championship in Atlantic City in a few weeks and it has been quite a while since my last trip to A.C. I was a little surprised how difficult it was to find the kind of healthy food options I am looking for. It’s quite easy to eat well at home. My chef Joel makes me exactly what I want using only the best ingredients possible. It’s a luxury I don’t take for granted. On the road, I have to plan ahead, and even then it’s not quite the same as Joel’s cooking.
I went to twitter for help, asking people if they could direct me towards a Whole Foods Market type store, and I want to thank all of you who helped me. I really appreciate it, truly.
Anyway, the discussion of health came up and it inspired this blog. For me, the idea of living a healthy lifestyle that includes eating well and exercise really hits home. I’m 40 now, and both my parents have passed on. I was blessed, in that, I had the absolute greatest childhood ever with two parents who showed love daily, but I have to say, I wish they could have stuck around a little longer…
My father passed away at 65. Just when I was starting out my poker career in the late 90’s. He went from being a super strong 63 year old that could kick ass, to a brittle, emaciated, shell of the man he was. The last six months of his life were tough. He had good days and bad days, but seeing Superman reduced to the frail man he had become wasn’t easy for either of us.
My dad was born in 1931 and really came from nothing. He made a life for himself, running his own radio shop by age 16. No real parents to speak of, he never knew his father, and his mother was mentally ill and not around. He was a street kid since from about the age of 4. He didn’t do school, he was trading on the black market at a young age and was your prototypical hustler. Doing whatever he could to make money. He even boxed in his late teens and early 20’s, breaking his nose 7 times!
My dad liked to drink, he loved fried foods, pasta, bread, salami, typical European style diet. He also smoked, but only when he was drinking, which was almost every day. Some of my fondest memories of my father was when we would sit by the pool in the backyard, he would have a glass of wine and usually a cigarette. He would put apples in his wine when I was a kid, let them soak, and then let me eat them. I still remember how good that tasted!
By 64, all the drinking, smoking, and eating a suboptimal diet caught up with him. His body broke down and it was too late for him to make any changes to recover. He died at 65.
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My mother, who many of you have likely seen cooking for me on ESPN and High Stakes Poker, was the youngest of 10 children. They were a very poor family in Romania and lived in a house smaller than my bedroom. At a young age, my mother learned how to experience love by being in service. Since she was the youngest and shortest, she was the only one small enough to crawl under the fence across the street where the hens would lay eggs. When she heard the cock a doodle do, she would sneak under the fence, grab an egg or two, and feed the family. She wasn’t even 4 years old at the time, but it set the tone for the kind of woman she would become.
Nothing made my mother happier than watching people eat one of the feasts she prepared. If you came to the house, she would always ask if you were hungry, but it didn’t matter if you said yes, no, or maybe a little, she was going to feed you! My mother was a great cook and her dinner parties at our house were legendary. 7 to 11 course meals!
My mother, before having me and my brother, had 9 miscarriages. 5 boys and 4 girls didn’t make it, including triplet girls and twin boys. She spoiled me and my brother so much, partly I think because she cherished us so much after all she had been through to have us. All those pregnancies took a toll on her weight and she wasn’t one to exercise.
My mother quit smoking when I was a teenager. She went from a 2 pack a day habit to quitting cold turkey! I was extremely proud of her for doing that. Later in her life she spent a lot more time in Las Vegas. I bought her a house 5 minutes down the road so she could still cook for me and do my laundry. I never asked her too, but she was my Mommy and she was going to do it anyway! To her, I was, and always would be her baby.
From about 60 on I would say that my mother really did make an effort to be healthy. She was limited in what she could do exercise wise because of a broken leg and the fact that she couldn’t swim, but she still made an effort by going to the mall and walking around.
Truth is, she really didn’t know what healthy looked like. Most people from that generation weren’t given the opportunity to really know much about nutrition and what is actually good for the body or not. My mom would always have a beer with lunch and I remember the first time I told her that beer is quite fattening she looked at me like I was crazy! How could liquid be fattening she said! She was adorable.
As much as my mother made efforts to improve her health, ultimately she died of a stroke at age 70. She had a smaller stroke in Las Vegas and seemed to be recovering, but the doctors informed us that they needed to remove some blood clots otherwise she would likely have a bigger stroke. They warned us it was a high risk surgery, and during that surgery she had a stroke that paralyzed her left side, and she never spoke another word for the rest of her life. The last 8 months of her life were spent in a hospital bed, unable to eat food or drink water, unable to speak or move any part of her left side. That wasn’t living, and finally God showed mercy on her soul and took her in her sleep.
I share this story with you to give you a sense of why, for me, health is such a top priority. Like anyone who misses a parent, I wish my father could have been alive to see me win my first WSOP bracelet. I wish my mother could have been there at my Hall of Fame induction. As I said before, I had the most perfect childhood a kid could dream of. My only regret, or thing that I wish I could have changed, was that my parents took their health more seriously so they could still be around today.
If you ask older people what they wish they would have done differently in their life, living a healthier lifestyle is right up there. It’s not something we can truly understand until we age, but I think it’s wise to listen to our elders like Doyle Brunson and others when they share this knowledge with you. It’s never too early to start caring about your health, but it can get to the point where it’s too late.
So what does living a healthy lifestyle entail? Eating brussel sprouts and carrots while drinking only coconut water? No, a healthy diet and exercise seems to make the most sense, and the definition of both those things varies from person to person. Science has come a long way in terms of nutrition, but it is far from solved. What seems to have been proven, is that different body and blood types do best on different diets. So what works for one person, isn’t necessarily the ideal diet for another.
Personally, I choose a vegan diet and I think that works for me. I’m open to being wrong, and that another diet may be even better for me, but I feel great and the doctors I see all say I’m extremely healthy.
This blog isn’t about telling you to become a vegan. Not at all. I don’t think eating McDonalds occasionally as a treat will kill you, but if you are eating junk food regularly then I think it’s pretty clear that it will have long term effects on your health, and ultimately your happiness.
In addition to diet, you can read a varied amount of studies on how exercise actually releases endorphins in your brain that make you happier! In one book I read called The 8th Habit by Steven Covey, he explains that while there is 168 hours in a week, if you spend just 1.5 hours of that week doing some form of exercise, it improves the quality of those other 166.5 hours you aren’t exercising. It makes you happier AND more productive!
Lots of people say they don’t have time, but they are looking at it the wrong way. You don’t need to spend 4-6 hours a day in the gym to be healthy. It takes 2 minutes to do 10 burpees and another 30 seconds to do 20 pushups. Do that once a day and you will likely find time to do more as you crave the high you feel after exercising. That mini routine isn’t easy by the way! 10 burpees will get your heart rate up there in a hurry!
Some of you reading this are mothers or fathers and you love your kids so much that they are your priority. I don’t have kids myself, so I can only imagine how strong that bond is for you and how important it is to you that your kids live a happy life. A bond so strong that you may say to yourself, “I work hard so my kids can have a good future. I don’t have time to worry about my health, because I live for my kids.”
That’s admirable, but as Carl Gustav Jung once said, “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.”
As a parent, you are a role model for your children and the choices you make will dictate their own when they grow up. What do you want for your kids future? Do you want them to be healthy, fit, happy, and fulfilled? What example are you setting for them to help guide them down that path? If you are not healthy, and aren’t making an effort to exercise or eat better, than why would you expect your children to live any differently?
So that statement I have heard from many parents, “I don’t have time to worry about my own health, I need to work hard so my kids have a better life,” I would challenge. I would suggest that you owe it to your kids to set an example for them so they are guided down the path you want for them.
As I shared previously, this issue really hits home for me and I don’t think it’s funny. You can be on #TeamBacon if you choose to. I’m not trying to be a stickler here and suggest that you can’t enjoy eating whatever you want at times, but if you are not living a health conscious life and you are a parent, just be aware of the message you are sending your children. If you want your kids to live a happy, healthy life, then I think it just makes sense that you show them how by example.
I will leave this blog with an invitation for those that want to make an effort to improve their health: today think of at least one way you can improve your diet and one small form of exercise you can do daily. You can pick from this list if you like:
Diet:
Quit smoking
Cut out soda
Cut down on sugar
Eat less fast food
Drink alcohol less often
Eat more greens and veggies
Exercise:
Do 10 burpees (start at 5 if it’s too hard then work your way up)
Do Push-Ups
Go for a walk
Go for a jog
Do an exercise video
Try Yoga
Or come up with something on your own. Stay consistent with it, and you may find that it starts you down a path where you want to do more and more.
“A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.” -Laozi
“Just Do it!!!” -Nike
I was watching the final round of the Shell Houston Open PGA tour event and saw Jordan Spieth on hole number 18 hit a really bad bunker shot that cost him a chance to continue in the playoff. He also hit a bad tee shot, followed by a bad approach shot, but during his bunker shot he heard a camera click at the top of the swing and in the moment was upset about it and blamed the camera click for the bad shot.
I was so happy to hear in his post game interview that he did NOT blame the camera click and stood fully responsible for the way he played the hole. I then tweeted that this kind of mindset is what champions are made of. Champions stand responsible for their results rather than blame it on bad luck or circumstances.
Now, is it possible that the camera click affected his shot? Absolutely, but what is the value in focusing any energy on that? It wasn’t within his control to stop people from taking pictures, and this sort of thing is part of the game, it happens to every golfer. Sure, maybe not in such high pressure situations, it certainly shouldn’t happen, but it does.
When Tiger Woods was young and his father was coaching him, he used to throw things at him during his backswing and do all sorts of things to try and distract Tiger. His father knew that if he practiced under those conditions, he would be better suited to handle them when they happened out on the course. I think it was brilliant. Rather than complain about the “bad luck” of a bird chirping, a dog barking, or a child crying in your backswing, understand that it could happen and that you are 100% responsible for how you react to it!
Was the reason Jordan Spieth didn’t win this tournament due to bad luck? Certainly that camera click can be viewed as an unlucky break, but that’s not where champions focus their energy. They focus on the poor tee shot that put him in a bad spot, and the difficult approach that led to being in the bunker. Point being, there is no value for him to blame the camera click. Instead, a champion looks at how he can stand responsible for what happened and look to improve upon it for next time.
Maybe for Spieth that means hitting some balls with people trying to distract him, I don’t know, but I was thoroughly impressed with how the 21 year old handled himself. Sure he was upset and played victim in the moment, that’s understandable. He was frustrated. After reflection, his mindset shifted and he realized that he was fully responsible for not winning the event and it’s one reason I think he will be around a long time- aside from his natural talent and skill.
I can’t help but think about how this was an excellent example of how so many poker players deal with situations. The best players, when they bust from a tournament ask themselves this:
-What could I have done differently?
-Were there any previous hands that I misplayed that led to me being short stacked?
-Did I miss any opportunities to steal chips that could have helped me?
Sometimes the top professional will answer those questions and be content to know they did their best and the bust was unavoidable. So what do “victims” do? Instead of asking themselves questions that empower them to be better for their next event, they may say something like this, “Brutal, I lost all seven races I was in, and then finally get KK cracked by QQ to bust.”
I ask you, what value is there in telling this story? How does it help you? Does venting help you get it off of your chest? Do you crave the empathy from others? Do you want approval, as in, “Yes, you poor thing you are so unlucky?”
Some people absolutely do crave that sort of attention and I think it’s both unhealthy and unproductive. This player would be better served to ask himself the following questions:
-Was it correct to play such big pots in race situations?
-Was I stealing all the chips I should have been stealing?
-Did I make too many bad calls on the river because I was steaming about losing races?
You see, from these questions you can create real value! Introspection, learning, and being open to growth and new possibilities. This is what champions do. I promise you. They may bemoan their bad luck in the moment out of frustration, but ultimately the real winners in life are those who look for the lesson and stand responsible for their results.
Now, if the first hand of a tournament I get all in with AA against AJ and lose, was that my fault? Well, it was my choice to play the AA for all my chips so I stand 100% responsible for the result. That doesn’t have to mean I did something wrong or that I wouldn’t do it again, but it’s me who is responsible for every decision that leads me to bust out of a tournament.
The tweet that caused some discussion was this one that I wrote: “Losers blame bad luck and circumstance. Little do they know they actually create more of it. If you believe you are unlucky, you are right!”
Some took exception to this way of thinking, but I think they are missing the deeper meaning here. If you believe you are unlucky and flip a coin for $100 with a friend who thinks he is lucky, the odds are still 50-50. The deeper meaning here is all about PERCEPTION shaping your reality.
For example: John Smith finishes 3rd in a tournament where he was the best player left, but got AA beat by Q9 all in preflop to bust. He won $118,000. Earlier in the tournament he was all in with QQ against AK and won that hand to stay in the tournament. Is John Smith unlucky to finish 3rd, or lucky to have gotten there?
We all are entitled to an opinion, there is no right or wrong answer here. For John Smith, all that will matter is how HE perceives it! if he thinks he was unlucky, then absolutely, he gets to be right! Or, if he chooses to look at it a different way, he may see it as a lucky result.
What defines being lucky in a poker tournament? Ultimately, who decides if John Smith was lucky or unlucky? John Smith does.
We are talking within the parameters of poker, but this philosophy extends far beyond the poker table. If you are looking at life through the lens of “I am unlucky” then that is what you will see. If you look at the world through the lens of anger, then anger is what you will see. If you look at life through the lens of joy, then joy is what you will see.
If you believe that past “bad luck” you have experienced makes you an unlucky person, then it’s likely that you will create a life where you make yourself right, while missing out on opportunities you can’t see through the foggy lenses you are wearing.
A poker example: I used to play cash games with Mike Matusow a lot in the old days and he was the unluckiest player in the world- just ask him. He believed he was a great player and the only reason he didn’t have a big bankroll was because of how bad he runs. By sharing this with the table, he has no idea how much more money it actually cost him.
You see, when you play against an opponent who truly believes they are unlucky, they can be exploited in many ways. With Mike, I would run bluffs in spots where he would think, “Of course he made the flush. This is how I run!!!! (as he shows top set to the rest of the table) Y’all couldn’t last a month if you ran like me. This is the fifth straight set I flopped and lost to a flush.” He mucks his hand, and I quietly muck the middle pair and backdoor flush draw that I missed.
If you allow yourself to let luck clutter your decision making, then you won’t be making decisions based on logic, math, and the play of the hand. You lose out, all because of your mindset. Those voices in your head saying, “How the hell can I keep getting screwed like this??? These lucky bastards have no clue how much better I play than they do. If I had 10% of the luck they had I would bust them all.”
I used to watch the old WSOP tapes from the late 70’s and early 80’s on ESPN and I find it remarkable how in every interview, or at every opportunity, the players with mostly inflated egos would say, “Well, I tell you what, he is gonna have to draw out to beat me.” They took pride in getting it in with the best hand. If they win, they get the money. If they lose, they can stake claim to still being the best player, but clearly just unlucky. Calling someone lucky in this context was used to insult the other person. “You didn’t win because you are good, you only beat me because you were lucky.”
In closing, your perception of events creates your reality of those events. If you see an event as unlucky, then in your reality, that’s exactly what it was, unlucky. Another person may see that event as lucky for you through different lens, that is their reality. Same event can derive totally opposing views. You may see it as unlucky that you bubbled a $10k buy in tournament with AA, while another person may see you as lucky to have even had the opportunity to pay $10k to enter a tournament. An opportunity they can only dream of one day having.
What is the actual reality of this event? It’s completely neutral. It’s an event that happened. That is all. Not good, not bad, just is. It becomes good, bad, lucky, or unlucky, only after you add your perception of what happened.
So Steve asked me to get this out to the poker world so I figured the best way to do that would be via my written blog. Steve won an award at the American Poker Awards in LA recently, and wanted to make sure he thanked everyone he didn’t have time to get to. So we are clear, these are all Steve’s words and don’t necessarily represent my own. Except for the part about Shana Hiatt! Is there a poker player who didn’t have a massive crush on her? If so, I’ve yet to meet one!
***
Dear friends:
I was touched last Friday to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award (otherwise known as the Out to Pasture Award?) from Alex Dreyfus and the American Poker Awards jury. I tried to thank some of the people who made this remarkable journey (poker boom/modern era of poker) possible at the ceremony. But, any list, no matter how long, would be woefully inadequate and incomplete. So many people have been and still are critical to all of this being possible — from players to casino executives to broadcasters to producers to visionaries as far back as Benny Binion …
So, knowing that the larger the list the more likely I am to upset people, I still feel compelled to thank some of the extraordinary individuals I had the pleasure of working with or whose foot steps I had the honor of following …
Thank you to Lyle Berman (and Lakes Entertainment) for being open enough to listen … and crazy enough to invest … and genuine enough to be an unparalleled partner (and good friend)…
Thank you to Robyn Moder and Audrey Kania for taking the crazy leap of faith it took to stop your lives and come help start the World Poker Tour. And, Robyn, thank you for moving mountain after mountain to make the impossible seem mundane. We all owe you both a debt of gratitude for all the hard work and the grace you exhibited every day …
Thank you to Adam Pliska for taking all that we did – all of us – and finding a way to make it better …
Thank you to Linda Johnson for believing from the start … for adding your unmatched legitimacy to the WPT … for getting cigarette smoke out of poker rooms and tournaments … for guiding the WPT and me personally through so many years …
Thank you Mike Sexton (and Chuck Humphrey) for the Tournament of Champions (so many years ago) that planted Mike’s voice in my brain as the ultimate voice of poker. Thank you, Mike, for understanding and pioneering the link between television and online poker when you orchestrated PartyGaming’s integration in and around WPT shows – that changed the poker world forever …
Thank you Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton for being the best talent any television producer has ever worked with. And, Vinnie … you never get the credit you deserve because you are always working so hard to take care of the people around you and to make them look good. That simply makes you the best guy in poker. Thank you for you …
Thank you to David Egan … the editor who worked so hard during the eight months it took to edit the first WPT show. I admit that I wondered whether you would survive the project. I’ll never forget how you invented new ways to use the AVID title tool to make the graphics vision work. And now, every time a poker show airs in any media around the globe, it runs with that format that seems so intuitive today … but we both know better … because we saw all the things that did not work …
Thank you Joe Grimm for being the first guy who actually got the WPT format so completely that I could step into other roles. And thank you to George Sylak, Mandy Glogow, Kristin Cranford, Johnny Kedj and so many producers, editors, coordinators, PAs and more for caring about every frame of the show … and making every poker show into a 5 act Shakespearean play …
Thank you to Doug DePriest and Steve Cheskin at the Travel Channel for offering something no one else dared to … a weekly prime time, two hour, “appointment television” spot. If the WPT had been relegated to late-late night as poker always had been, maybe none of this would have happened …
Thank you to Shana Hiatt for becoming America’s poker sweetheart overnight … and somehow never having a bad frame on camera … impossible, but true. Thank you to Courtney Friel, Sabina Gadecki. Layla Kayleigh, Kimberly Lansing and Lynn Gilmartin for making poker look and sound that good …
Thank you to Benny Binion and Jack Binion, for launching, fostering and growing tournament poker. Thank you to Jim Albrecht, Jack McClelland, Matt Savage, Linda Johnson, the Tournament Directors Association together with all the staff and dealers who are the backbone of the industry … every day … every tournament … all over the world. There would have been (and would be) nothing to televise without you. And a shout out to Bob Thompson and Robert Thompson for being so welcoming and kind when we first filmed the World Series for the Discovery Channel (and then for the Travel Channel).
Thank you to Kathy Raymond and Foxwoods Casino for “getting it” instantly and calling twenty minutes after our pitch meeting to be the first casino in history to sign up for the first poker tour ever. (And what Kathy has done at the Venetian is worth serious kudos). Thank you to Jim Barbo, John Griffo, Tim Gustin and the Commerce Casino for being the second to sign on. Thank you to Doug Dalton, Jack McClelland and Bobby Baldwin for adding a whole new layer of credibility when the Bellagio joined the tour (players will remember what a big deal that was). Thank you to Bruno Fitoussi, Isabelle Mercier and Sabine Hazoume at the Aviation Club de France for signing on Season 1 to take poker outside of America … when the game was played almost nowhere but in America. And thank you to all the Charter member casinos and the people of vision in their organizations that took the leap of faith that first year … at a time before televised poker tours existed …
Thank you to the WSOP staff and executives who have grown the event to heights no one (and I promise you, no one) imagined possible … Ty Stewart, Nolan Dalla and so many more.
When it comes to players, I am going to leave so many people out that I know I’m headed for a mine field (but, that’s the nice thing about being out to pasture …). As a guy who came from the world of media, law and entertainment, I was always (and still am) impressed by the caliber and character of so many people in the poker world. When we took poker out of the back rooms and into the limelight, it was easy because of the diverse excellence of the people we were fortunate enough to have at WPT poker tables. So, please forgive me if your name is not here. Every final table participant, every entrant in a WPT event deserves more than a mention and our eternal gratitude …
With that in mind, I want to thank a few of the players …
Thank you to Lyle Berman for continuing to play in WPT events … even when we asked you not to. We were wrong. Having you there was the right thing. And, according to the people who play with you in the BIG GAME, you always hold your own [which may just be how they get you back in the game …]
Thank you to Barry Greenstein for ushering the new era of giving into poker. Long before the charitable aspect of modern poker was well established, you played all WPT events specifically to give any winnings (and there were plenty) to charitable causes (giving rise to your nickname “The Robin Hood of Poker”). With poker now being one of the leading ways that organizations around the world raise money for worthy causes, you should be remembered as a pioneer in that important arena …
Thank you to Phil Hellmuth for being the first true poker player brand. Even before the WPT launched, you were that guy. And, whether America rooted for or against you … we rooted … and that made a huge difference …
Thank you to Gus Hansen for making poker sexy, Alan Goehring for making poker smart and Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak for making poker fun. It was more amazing to watch you guys and everyone else on the first few seasons of the WPT than anyone could have imagined. And, Antonio, I particularly thank you for being the guy who (no matter how big you got) always appreciated the good things that came to you from poker. The Thanksgiving Day calls were a highlight of the whole WPT ride …
Thank you to Daniel Negreanu … for growing up on camera to be so much more than the most successful tournament player of all time. You have dared to transform that bully pulpit into something that makes people better (themselves and to each other). If the WPT were simply a conduit to help get you on that stage, it was all worth it in my mind …
Thank you to all of the great poker players that came before the modern era … and/or who helped usher it in: Johnny Moss, Stu Unger, Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson (and his book), TJ Cloutier, Tom McAvoy (and their book), Amarillo Slim, Johnny Chan, Bobby Baldwin, Lyle Berman, Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Mike Caro (and so many more). The unforgettable women: Barbara Enright, Linda Johnson, Jennifer Harmon, Kathy Liebert, Annie Duke, Susie Isaacs (and so many more …).
Thank you to Phil Ivey for coming back to WPT events and final tables despite the bad beats and A-Q curses …
Thank you to the seven players who sued the WPT under the anti-trust laws as a monopoly. Even THAT in hindsight is a fascinating part of the story …
Thank you to Hoyt Corkins for being the nicest poker player I ever met and Isabelle (“No Mercy”) Mercier for making poker translate into something unique and special. Thank you to “The Dentist” at WPT’s season one Reno event … you inspired us for years to make every WPT finalist shine. And, I am particularly sorry to Bradley Berman for conjuring up the Ace that cracked your kings at the season six Bellagio Five Diamond final table … I didn’t think the director had that kind of power …
Thank you to the online sites that made the biggest, boldest bet in the history of poker when you took US bets after UIGEA. None of the rest of us had the guts … and, it turns out, you were so right …
Thank you to Isai and Mark Scheinberg for creating the best poker business in history (bar none). You are an inspiration to us all …
Thank you to PlanetPoker for pioneering online poker and to ParadisePoker for showing how it can grow…
Thank you to Barry and Jeff Shulman and Linda Johnson for CardPlayer Magazine … what an important role it played. Thank you to Bluff Magazine for opening up the market. Thank you to Wendeen Eolis for the amazing article in Poker Digest when the WPT launched. And, thank you to all of the journalists and publications that took an interest in the WPT’s sportification of poker (as Alex Dreyfus would put it).
Thank you to Tony G and PokerNews for gathering the poker world and expanding it online. And, for showing us that poker players can be in parliament …
Thank you to Sue Schneider for helping the industry grow and mature by establishing the first poker and online business conference and scaling it as the business grew …
Thank you to all the members of the WPT Board of directors: Lyle Berman, Mimi Rogers, Glenn Padnick, Tim Cope, Bradley Berman, Michael Beindorff, Joey Carson and Ray Moberg. Thank you to the long-time employees (forever really): Allison Husheck, Allison Myers, Kristin Cranford, George Sylak, Debbie Frazzetta, Raul Sala and so many more. Thank you to the many who contributed so much but are no longer there … Cindy Frazer, Kat Kowal, Bren Fitzpatrick, Jon Kaplowitz, Laurence Kalinsky, Rohin Malhotra, and so so many more …
Thank you to Paul Hannum … who brought out the best in all of us … and was taken from us far too early …
Thank you to Mark Hickman … my junior high school buddy who introduced me to the poker world when he sold a one-hour documentary to the Discovery network and hired me to produce/direct it …
And, finally, thank you to all the players, casino partners, colleagues, friends and family who are the only reason any of this could have happened. Thank you for making this the greatest possible adventure!
Officially out to pasture …
So last night I got involved in a twitter discussion that started with poker pro Jordan Cristos condemning the WPT’s structure change to one hour levels at the final table. This has been the practice on the WPT for as long as I can remember, and while it certainly adds less skill to final table play, I fully support this decision. I’ve said this many times and I will say it again, when you think about what’s best for an event, you have to think of yourself as a small business owner (if you are a pro) that has two partners- the venue, and the tournament organizer.
In this case I’ll focus on the organizer. Many of you don’t realize how expensive it is to pay for a televised production. When you start going into overtime, the costs skyrocket to a point where it’s hardly feasible. PokerStars is able to fade the costs because they use these broadcasts as an advertising vehicle. The WPT isn’t quite set up the same way with a significant back end revenue stream. There is a huge misconception that the organizers are making tons of money off these broadcasts- it’s simply not true.
I said this 10 years ago and I’ll say it again, the skill is in getting to the final tables, then sure, you will be in a faster paced structure when the money is on the line, but it’s not like one hour levels create a total crapshoot. There is still plenty of play, especially if you don’t have players tanking for 4 to 5 minutes for every decision…
Which is a good segue into what this blog is really about- excessive tanking. The player who raised his concerns, Jordan Cristos, is widely considered by most in the community to have taken over the reigns as the new king of tanking. On twitter, various pros chimed in hoping to help Jordan understand that it’s not appreciated. At first, he came out forcefully defending his right to tank as long as he’d like to make decisions:
@SavagePoker poker is a game of patience and I’m fine with making k’s while they complain. #goodformygame #cameforme #tankingchangedmylife
@DarryllFish @RealKidPoker @SavagePoker I acknowledge a lot of peers/elites disagree with me but that won’t change who I am or how I operate
This tweet was very telling. Got it, you came for you. Got it, you see it as good for your game. Got it, you are gonna do you and not change at the community’s request. Fair enough, but later you claim that we should all “respect the game and respect your tanks,” but if you are unwilling to respect the structure and the other players, why would that warrant us respecting the fact that you are sabotaging the structures for the rest of us?
@RealKidPoker @DarryllFish @SavagePoker Ive never clocked anyone in my life cause I respect the community and the game. Get off ur horse KP
I clock people because I actually DO respect the community and the game! You came for YOU, remember? You are focusing solely on what you think is best for you, and despite the community telling you that you are being excessive with your tanking, you ignore their pleas to have you act more quickly.
You have every right to do that. It’s extremely selfish and shortsighted, but for now, you have that right as we don’t have a shot clock in poker.
@RealKidPoker @DarryllFish @SavagePoker so much hate for thinking thru decisions like everyone does when it’s crucial. I don’t get it.
Let me try and explain it for you. No one is saying that it’s inappropriate to take your time when decisions are crucial. However, when you are under the gun, first to act, and go into the tank, most everyone agrees that this is crossing a line! When someone 4-bets you before the flop and you take more than 2 minutes to respond, most everyone agrees that this is excessive tanking.
When I play with players who consistently act within a reasonable amount of time, I don’t call the clock on them when they occasionally take a few minutes to make a decision. If there is a habitual tanker like yourself, then you have lost that privilege and courtesy.
Dan O’Brien @DanOBrienPoker wrote:
@jcinblue @RealKidPoker philosophical principle Universality: if everyone operated that way, would the system be able to function? I say no.
This. If everyone acted the way Jordan Cristos does in tournament poker, it would cease to exist. Not only would it destroy the structures where you get only 10-15 hands an hour, it makes the game boring for amateurs, which also eats into a pros profits. This is a choice. Jordan talks a lot about respecting the game and respecting the players, but his actions show absolutely no respect for other players time or what is best for the game or the community.
We can all agree that there is a line somewhere. If a player took 20 minutes per decision, I would imagine even Jordan Cristos would think that is crossing the line? So there is a line, there has to be, and the vast majority in the poker community that Jordan Cristos claims to respect think he is crossing it far too often. He claims he isn’t going to change. He has that right, but no sir, that will not earn the respect of the community.
In closing, while you claim you are being berated by your peers, I don’t see it that way. I have no problem with you personally, you seem like a really nice kid. Having said that, I vehemently disagree with it being ok for you to consistently take as much time as you wish to make decisions. In the future, when I call the clock on you repeatedly, it isn’t personal. I’m just doing what’s best for me, the structure, the other players at the table, the poker community, the broadcast, the fans, and ultimately YOU.
I get that you don’t see it that way, but I tend to think bigger picture when it comes to stuff like this and I know that if behavior like yours becomes the norm then you and the rest of the pros will be out of a job.
So I just busted my first bullet here in San Jose at Bay 101 casino. It’s the only tournament I show up on time for. Normally I wake up around 11am, head to the gym at noon, and skip the first 3-4 levels of tournaments, mostly the no ante levels because I find them to be quite boring and mostly useless for my overall chances of winning the event. The adrenaline I get from the gym outweighs whatever value there is for me in increasing my stack.
This event starts at 11am, and because I am a bounty I feel a responsibility to respect the venue and show up on time. Outside of the $50k Player Championship, the WSOP Main Event, and the $1 million One Drop, I simply do not plan on attending any tournaments right on time. I know after 20 years of playing what works for me and I’m clear that it’s the best way to approach these long, grueling tournaments.
So I was doing just fine up to the 100-200 level when I raised next to the button with 77. Owen Crowe, a fantastic Canadian pro, 3-bet me to 1300 from the button. I of course called and the flop came KQ7 with two diamonds. He is an aggressive player, so I elected to play possum and let him hang himself. I checked and he bet 1600. I called.
The turn was a 5, I checked, he bet 4200 and I just called hoping he would fire a big bet at the river. The river was a 2. I checked, and he bet 6000. He had about 14,000 left after making the bet, so I had to decide whether or not to raise or call. Folding is not an option at all.
I allowed a thought to creep in my head, “Well, if he has a bigger set I can always re-enter.” To me, the right play in this situation, if my tournament life is essentially on the line is to CALL. That’s especially true for me and the way that I play tournaments. Everyone knows that for me to play a hand this way, then check-raise the river, I have a REALLY strong hand. Minimum KQ. Owen is a great player and he knows this. So what is the point of raising? I need him to have AA, AK, or KQ, then I need him to actually call. I don’t think he is going to call with AK, he is likely to call with AA, and he is all but certain to call with KQ.
That doesn’t equate to enough hands I can beat that he would call with for me to warrant check-raising, but I did. I made it 15k and he put the rest in which I called. He turned over KK leaving me with just 7k left of my starting 30k stack. Sure, I could chalk it up to a “cooler” and be a victim to circumstance, but no way! This was a clear mistake. I chose poorly by raising that river, and the main reason I did so is because my mental state was off. Not on my usual routine, and allowing the re-entry to cloud my judgment.
I’m writing this blog as a journal entry where I am acknowledging to myself that I made a mistake and why. I’m also taking some time to digest it, reset my mind so that I will be prepared to play well when I re-enter this tournament after the dinner break tonight. If I don’t feel “up to it” by around 6pm, then I will go ahead and re-enter on day 1B. Playing right now would be a mistake. Not because I would spew off my stack recklessly necessarily, but because I haven’t quite let go of the mistake fully just yet.
So now that I have acknowledged my mistake, the next step is to declare my intention going forward. My intention is to re-enter at 6:30pm tonight and run up my 30k stack to 100k by the end of the night. I get the day off tomorrow so I’ll hit the gym and maybe drive around the city. I have come here for almost 20 years, but have yet to visit San Fransisco! My intention ultimately is to play well and win this tournament.
There has been lots of talk about re-entry tournaments, and I have chimed in various times. You can read that blog here.
As I mention in the blog, I personally much prefer freezeout tournaments to re-entry events, but I understand why organizers and the venue implement them. Based on conversations I’ve had with pros across the world, I feel like more and more of them are of a similar view.
The easy way to accommodate players who travel a long way to play the main event yet bust out early, is to offer tournaments on days 2, 3, and 4 of the main event. They will be there anyway and want to play, so instead of making the main events longer by allowing re-entry, you are better off holding more tournaments for the bust outs. In the past, venues would hold tournaments to bring players in to fill their cash games. It’s time we realize that times have changed. Tournament players come to play a tournament, because they want to play tournaments! They just don’t spill over to cash games like they used to, so venues should give the players what they want. Not re-entries, but postliminary tournaments.
***postliminary is not an actual word but I like it!***