Show Me the Money!

Why isn't there a World Series of Bridge on TV? Show me the money! Why isn't there a World Series of Gin on TV? Show me the money! How about checkers, chess, backgammon, Scrabble, and all the other games people play? Show me the money! People play some of these games without any wagers – and the games in which they do place wagers, the winners don't collect any money until the end of playing a round or possibly even at the end of the night. Have you ever heard of any adult playing poker when no money is involved? Even if it's just penny-ante poker, it's still money. It ain't poker without money. Money makes the world go around.

In college, I used to stay up until the wee hours of the morning playing a variation of speed chess called "bughouse." But if we got enough players for a poker game, the chess pieces seemed to run away of their own free will; the oddest things used to happen late at night in college. Playing poker for money is more appealing to many people than playing the other games. The other games have their appeal, but poker seems to have been the most popular home game in America since soldiers started playing during the Civil War. Now, it has come out of the home and into casinos and onto the Internet, and you can even look over the shoulders of tournament players on TV who are playing for the big bucks.

OK, one of the big differences between poker and other games is that the decision-making process in poker involves making wagering decisions on each round of betting of every hand. If you get involved in a hand, you're risking some money and making investment decisions to risk more money on each subsequent round of betting. Whenever you're involved in a hand of poker, you're basically stating that you may have the best hand or a chance of finishing with the best hand. And you're always telling the truth, right? Yeah, right! This leads to the next big difference between poker and the other games – bluffing and tells. Although there may be some element of psychological warfare in other games, and chess is certainly fraught with elegant tricks and traps, those other games have few if any opportunities for bluffing.

Besides the poker table, where else can you get away with "stealing" and have your peers nod their heads in awe and respect rather than having you hauled off to jail? That's right, in addition to stealing, don't forget about lying, bluffing, semibluffing, fighting psychological warfare, and so on. They're not illegal, immoral, unethical, unfair, unwarranted, or optional at the poker table. In fact, they're mandatory and expected of a great poker player. Just don't forget the difference between applying these actions at the poker table and leaving them there when you're done playing. It sounds like poker can turn you into a Jekyll and Hyde personality!

Now, you have to figure out when your opponents are stealing or lying or bluffing, or how they generally feel about a hand at any given moment. They all have tells – the old ones, the young ones, the men, the women, the quiet ones, the chatterboxes, and so on – all of them. The first step is to identify the "thieves" at your table and put them under "special surveillance." Like any good "criminal," they all have an "M.O." (modus operandi) by which they like to operate, and they always return to the scene of the crime. That's the key to success: As a good "detective," you become acutely sensitive to a "perpetrator's" every move, and after observing a few "robberies," you can start to build a profile and verify some tells. Unfortunately, oftentimes when playing in a no-limit hold'em tournament, very few hands are played, and you may not have enough time to build an "open-and-shut case." That's when you need to rely on your experience and gut instinct. And that's what separates the men from the boys, and what separates poker from the other games. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to play great poker. You just need to be a decent detective and a bully of a bandit! And you must be able to throw some money around the table!

The next time you make a "clean getaway" with enough pots to make it to heads-up action at a major tournament, while waiting for them to pour the cash on the table, don't forget to shout, "Show me the money!"

Editor's note: Robert is the 2002 World Series of Poker champion and the instructor on the WiseGuys on Texas Hold'em videos, starring some famous actors from the Sopranos. The videos are very informative, as well as entertaining, and are available at wiseguyson.com.