Living In the Poker Community

If you play poker any sort of seriously, then you are part of a community. This community is made up of professional poker players and hobbyists, and membership in this community is involuntary — it exists as an entity, and when you play poker, you are in it.

Being part of the poker community carries certain perks and expectations. Violate these and you hurt yourself and the community; uphold them and your esteem within the community will rise. As your prominence rises, so does the level of expectation people hold you to. Here’s what I’ve learned in a decade as a professional poker player:

Professional poker players are entertainers, just like athletes. We get segments on ESPN not because we are boss, but because our trade and lives are interesting. New interest and excitement about our game generates more money and more exposure which grows like a hurricane, as long as the game is fun and exciting. If we want new people to try our game and make it their hobby too, then the game has to be interesting. Like athletes, fans enjoy interaction, smiles, a positive attitude. Nobody wants to watch or play poker with a bunch of sour-faced mugs hiding behind sunglasses and under hoodies and headphones. That just isn’t much fun. Save that for the Internet.

Speaking of the Internet, I can’t think of a less fun environment to play poker. With our second shot at online poker looming on the horizon in the States, if we can build a pool of players who make online poker their hobby, then we have a sustainable economy that many people can profit from. My mother loves to play cards, and I set her up with $50 online a long time ago. She lost it and hated it, saying they all sucked out on her and said nasty things while doing it. Never again, and she’s my mother.

The tournament circuit is its own community within the poker community. More and more it’s becoming filled with talented poker players and less with casual people with money to spend on their hobby. At the higher stakes, the true winners are the guys who aren’t professional poker players. They’re crushing life at something else for enough money to be able to lose it to professionals at high stakes poker. They don’t care about the money, and they appreciate the challenge of playing a mind game against the best in the world. When those professional players then create a negative environment for the rich guy trying to relax, that rich guy is less likely to come back.

As a regular on the tournament circuit, you will be known and recognized. You will be talked about. You will be judged on how you carry yourself, who you hang out with, and how they carry themselves. You will be judged on what you say, how you play, how you handle winning and losing, your money, and lack thereof. This community travels all over the world, and within our community are friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and opponents, but all fans of the same game of poker.

If you are a professional poker player, the money has to come from somewhere. If a bunch of professionals are playing against each other, eventually most of them will not be professionals any longer. We need to welcome non-professionals to our community as friends. We need to create an environment that is fun and welcoming to those entering, an environment that they willingly enter despite knowing they are at a disadvantage. Variance is kind enough to give them hope, it’s our job to insure that the game of opponents is fun.

Smile. You can get away with anything with a smile. If you wanna talk trash, do it with a smile that’s genuine, because then you are just teasing and that’s what boys playing cards do. Don’t make losing poker players uncomfortable, ever. Don’t critique their play. Don’t talk about advanced play around them, unless they want to talk about it with you, and then be honest. Always be honest. In all situations in the poker community, honesty is the best policy and our most precious commodity.

Honesty breeds trust. Trust grows relationships and opens up opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Contracts imply a lack of trust, and amongst poker players whom are trustworthy, contracts are non-existent. If you break trust, then you can’t get it back. Once trust hits 100 percent and then reduces for some reason, it can never hit 100 percent again.

With winning comes notoriety. With notoriety comes fame, recognition, fans, interviews, and hopefully a sponsorship. Always give an interview. If you cannot for some reason, explain why and try to reschedule. Smile. Shake hands. If somebody wants to buy you a beer, drink it. If you want to maintain your status, then it is your responsibility as an ambassador to grow the game. If there isn’t new money coming in to be lost at the lower stakes, then there won’t be smaller players taking shots at the mid stakes, or mid-stakes guys taking shots at high stakes. Instead, as the trend has been for several years now, players will progressively move down in stakes as money dries up.

Be humble. When you win, it doesn’t make you the best player. Many wins can put you in contention for the best player, but it still doesn’t mean that you’re the best. Accept victory with gratitude, accept defeat honorably.

Don’t loan to people you don’t trust 100 percent. Don’t trust people unless you believe that you can trust them. Don’t hold back trust without reason. Don’t go over the top for the cameras, but they would like to see something more interesting than headphones and staredowns. Don’t do stupid things. Don’t get drunk the night before playing. Don’t ever forget that you’re playing a game. Don’t forget that you don’t have a boss. Be thankful for today, learn from the past, and be optimistic about the future. Be nice and smile — it will get you farther than anything else ever will. And trust me on the sunscreen. ♠

Bryan Devonshire has been a professional poker player for nearly a decade. With over $2m in tournament earnings, he also plays high stakes mixed games against the best players in the world. Follow him on Twitter @devopoker.