The Poker Player’s Manifesto

Poker is and has always been a game of people. Professionals play to make money, amateurs play to have fun and socialize. Unless there are amateur players, most professional players won’t be professional next year. Therefore it is the job of the professional to insure that the game is fun for the amateur so that the game will continue to exist.

In part one of this series we discussed attitude and how essential it is to any poker player, professional or amateur. If you’re a pro then it is your job to keep the game fun. If you are amateur then it behooves your own sanity to have fun doing what you mean to have fun doing. In part two we discussed bankroll, and how the amount of money you have behind your stack directly correlates to how relaxed you are at the table. If you’re professional and sweating this pot, then you’re playing too big and it will be impossible for you to be relaxed at the table. If you are an amateur and getting upset at the dollars being lost, then you’re playing too big and it will be impossible for you to have fun playing poker when you’re supposed to be having fun.

This article is directed at those who make a living off of the game of poker, both players and hosts.

Staying on the subject of game size and houses first, I believe that it is imperative for the house to manage the game size and peripheral items. If a game is so big that it will break the fish in half a year, then it is wise for the house to offer a smaller game instead. Rake is a touchy issue that needs to be fair. As long as the game goes then the house will make plenty of money, but if they run the game into the ground then nobody will make any money. I believe that bad beat jackpots are broken across the spectrum. They take money slowly out of the poker community and award it to one lucky person. Any time a big chunk of poker money is given to one player, then some chunk of it will inevitably find its way out of the poker economy.

Bad beat jackpot rakes need to be smaller. In my home state of Colorado, most houses take $2 per hand for the bad beat. This should be no more than $1. Second, the qualifier for the big jackpot is way too tough, quads beaten, using both cards with mutant rules that makes A-Q and 7-7 on A-A-A-7-7 not get there. Therefore, most jackpots are capped over a quarter million with one or two capped resets behind them, and thus a million dollars that used to be in that local poker economy in recent months is sitting in a vault held by the casino collecting interest. Pretty brutal. Jackpots are good when stewardship is good. Make the qualifier easy, like aces-full beaten, and keep those four and five digit paydays flowing. That keeps money in the poker economy, games going, and rake flowing.

Lastly, houses need to cultivate games. The hardest part about a game is getting the cards into the air. This summer at the World Series of Poker I started a $40-$80 mixed game with enough players to nearly fill up the game at 5:36pm. Time is generally collected every half hour, and new games are generally given a pass on the first time collection to insure that the game gets going. The floorman insisted that time be collected at 5:39pm, and the game broke instead. The amateur players left with a bad taste in their mouth, I left upset with the house, and the house made no money that night on the game.

Conversely, it is the responsibility of the professionals to get the game going short handed. Since the hardest part of the game is to get the cards in the air, professionals should be willing to play short handed against each other with the interest of the game in mind. Eventually somebody will sit who makes the game good, or the game will break and nobody will be out any rake since the house took care of the game. Usually the game goes and everybody is happy.

Once the cards are in the air it is up to the hosts of the game to keep the game going. Make things jovial. Take care of the regulars. Make people happy. It doesn’t matter who wins or loses as long as everybody goes home happy, because if everybody goes home happy then the game will go again soon. If you are professional and in the game, then it if your job to make the game happy. If you don’t, then your paycheck will suffer and perhaps your game may break. Anybody who has been in this game since 2003 has seen it go from something that is fun and can be profitable to a gold mine and back to something that can be profitable. There isn’t as much money in poker now as there used to be. Black Friday omitted the public’s ability to learn the game from a $5 bill at home after work. Eleven years of poker on television has dulled the nation’s senses to something new, and now it’s just poker. People either play it or they don’t, and those who play now have played for a while.

If this game is to continue growing then the game has to continue to welcome new players. Things are tougher now without online poker and the popularity factor, but things are much better now than they were in 2002, which is how I know we have a chance. As long as the game stays fun then people will play poker. As long as people play poker they will play it badly. As long as people play poker badly there will be professional poker players. Right now there are too many pros and not enough amateurs, and we need to do what we can to make this game fun again.

Don’t berate people. Don’t get mad at bad beats. Don’t get mad at bad plays or bad players. Simply don’t complain about anything at the poker table. Smile. Smile lots. Smile while you win and smile while you lose. Treat people with respect and they will enjoy playing poker with you. Treat this game like a professional if you want to be professional a year from now. ♠

Bryan Devonshire has been a professional poker player for nearly a decade and has more than $2 million in tournament earnings. Follow him on Twitter @devopoker.