The Scoop -- Jennifer Harman

Jennifer Harman is known for being a consistent competitor in the “Big Game,” and was a member of the group of poker professionals who banded together to play banker Andy Beal heads up for millions of dollars. She’s also had her share of tournament success, including winning two World Series of Poker bracelets. She sat down with Adam and Diego and discussed what it takes to be successful in playing the toughest cash games in the world.

Jennifer Harman: At the higher levels, there is definitely a lot more skill. In certain games, you can just throw the cards out the window and play the whole psychological game, because that’s basically what it is.

Diego Cordovez: Psychological game meaning that …?

JH: You are playing their heads, because everyone is playing basically the same as far as the cards are concerned; you just have to know when to lay down hands, when to raise, and when you can get them off a hand. It’s tougher. I also believe that to be competitive and successful at those limits, you have to have an ego, but not too big an ego, because you have to be able to be objective about how you are playing. It’s so important.

DC: Objective in terms of how you are playing that day? Or, whether that is a lineup you can beat?

JH: How you are playing that day. Sometimes if you aren’t playing well, you have to get up and quit. You have to be objective enough to know that, and to say, “OK, it’s not my day. I just quit,” and to go home, with however much you lost, and get up the next day.

DC: Is that one of the biggest weaknesses you see in some players who might have all of the technical skills but won’t allow themselves to go home a loser, and as a result, they end up losing a lot more?

JH: Yes, that’s very common.

DC: Sometimes, and I say this looking from the outside, you look into Bobby’s Room, and there are one or two obviously super wealthy guys whom everyone wants to play, but other times, it’s a very tough lineup, tough players.

JH: You’d be surprised how good that game can get. When you look in there and it looks like all tough players, the game can be just amazing.

DC: Is it just because of tilt that someone is in the hole, or is it because maybe he is just distracted by something else or is just not playing his best game due to some external factors?

JH: It’s possible that players are not playing their best game just because of external factors or because of what happened in the game, or, for some reason, they are deciding they need to go on a death wish and lose all of their money.

Adam Schoenfeld: [Laughing] That’s the best.

JH: That happens, that definitely happens. I remember one guy who came into the game; I’m not going to say the name, but most people won’t know him anyway. He was completely drunk, so drunk that the supervisors wouldn’t give him money from the cage.

DC: So you had to give him money [laughing]?

JH: Well, he borrowed, but I wasn’t one of them. I told him to go home, and he said, “No, because I want to go completely broke.” So, what do you do for that?

DC: You accommodate him.

AS: Someone’s going to take it. You’re a nice person. It might as well be you.

JH: So, you get that kind of stuff happening, too. People have to figure out how to deal with the stress of poker, maybe.

AS: Just watching you from the outside, it seems to me that you are not emotional at the table. You always seem to be on an even keel. I don’t see you flipping out or anything.

JH: Oh, I flip out once in a while [smiling].