Given the recent popularity of poker – Texas Hold’em or otherwise – I have to say that the run just continues to astound me. You see, I grew up around cards – for the two of you that have actually read Memoirs of an Italian Geek I can confirm that the bit about how I learned how to count with “ace two three” and stopped at eleven because I knew “jack” wasn’t a number is a true story. In fact, I learned how to add by playing black jack with one grandfather and I later learned ratios by talking about craps with my other grandfather [betting the 6 and 8 typically pay 6:5 which isn’t all that common in math class].

All this poker awareness this has led to a few observations in my poker abilities and other such skills.

“Lucky in cards but unlucky in love.” I dunno who said it first, but if it’s true, I should be able to shit out a full house at random [note that quads and straight flushes are overlooked on purpose – I had a lucky break every now and again].

It warms my heart to no end that I could buy a 300 set of pseudo-casino quality chips from Bed Bath and Beyond this past weekend. Not that I bought them, mind you – just that I could buy them there. I’ve seen chip sets like this nearly everywhere over the last year… I still remember those crappy Bicycle brand interlocking chips that I was stuck with as a kid. Drove me nuts. So much so that after bitching about it for a while, I was given a 600-chip case as a gift: this was the perfect excuse to fill the sucker with a set of real chips… white, red, green and black – the casinos stock that color combo as $1, $5, $25, and $100 respectively – with a gold S embossed on each chip face. The fact that new sets break with that tradition and add blue to the mix… ah, well, progress I guess, since WPT offers blue as a $50 chip. *shrug* My set is still pretty current and it’s in really good shape, given that it’s over nine years old.

Friendly games and tournaments have sprung up through work contacts: again I owe this all to the rise of popularity. Since I had never played in a tournament before these games – I usually stick to casino table games at casinos – I started slow… only played one game per meeting and never stuck around for the cash game or the second tournament. After a month, I started staying around the games for a little later… after two months, and 18 different tournaments and/or cash games, I have lost a total of $7 – meaning that all of my buy-ins have been with other people’s money for the last eight weeks.

Does that make for a good card player? Got me. Most people say that you’re only “good” if you win all the time, but I don’t always believe that as an absolute. I mean, there’s always an element of chance in any poker game, and since you’re playing against other humans, there’s a constant streak of inconsistency: people can always act in a surprising manner, myself included. Myself, especially. More than once I’ve heard “why didn’t you [fold/raise]?!” in hands that I’ve won and lost – I play more with my gut than I play with the “you have to do this because the odds say so”… I figure I’m about 65/35 successful in following my gut – I don’t mock odds, but I don’t let them rule me entirely either.

Personally, I think of it all as entertainment, and so far I’ve spent a number of hours around a card table and have spent less than the cost of one movie. I’ve placed in the money on two of the tournaments and come out ahead on two of the three cash games I’ve been a part of. To me, that’s a pretty decent player or a shitty player that had a really good run.

What’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned so far? You’re playing the player, not the board or the cards. The odds are a nice guideline, but they are not absolute: the should-have coaching doesn’t mean dick to me. I lost a hand last night with AK suited… I put money in pre-flop but didn’t go nuts with it: too many surprising hole cards had been turning up all night (including three full houses in a row for me). Two clubs showed up on the flop but so did a pair and I was last in the betting order: guy before me went in for a lot of money. I stayed with the hand and called the “all-in” on the Turn: missed the flush the whole time and didn’t even grab a pair – the all in had a full house on the Turn, never mind the River. Few people were all “you shoulda been more forceful on the pre-flop”. Maybe. But I knew one of the players in the hand that was betting before me: he doesn’t play loose… unless he plays loose. And he pushed a lot of money in on the first call – he had a hand and that prevented me from trying to buy my way out of the pot. On top of that, three weeks ago I raised pre-flop with pocket jacks. Hit another jack on the flop and pushed all in… lost to the guy to my right when he hit his set on the River: he called my all-in with pocket queens and got his third on the River. The odds we with me all the way… they just aren’t absolute.

And that’s the lesson: you can have a great hand at any point of the game, but that really doesn’t matter, does it? It’s “do you have a better hand than the other people that are sitting at the table” – that’s the question at hand. And knowing that I have to ask and answer that question… well, that’s the best lesson I’ve learned so far.

Just remember that the above lesson does not apply to matters of the heart: you’re not playing any other players, in that game… and if you’re lucky, you aren’t playing with yourself, either.