The Poker Player’s Manifesto

I’m amused that literally as I begin to type the word patience into my outline for The Poker Player’s Manifesto, my computer dies. I made it all the way to “P” as my screen went black. Meh it happens, my battery has long since shriveled up like a pizza placed in the oven at four in the morning and not discovered until that afternoon. I check all my connections, they’re good. This sucks. But what can I do about it? Perhaps that toasted battery is impeding current? Pull the battery, switch to another power pack, which I have many of strewn about my house, storage unit, and various friends’ houses and hotels across the world. Power on, lasts three seconds, dies. Crap. Switch back to original power pack, so far so good.

I giggled through most of the process of being computer repairman because the experience was such a great primer for sitting down and writing this article. Often over the years I have been asked what is the most important aspect of being a professional poker player and my answer has always been patience. The skill of patience covers everything in poker, and if you have it then you can be successful. A long time ago I gave up giving a damn about things that I couldn’t do a damn thing about and that paradigm has served me well.

So my computer’s broke, can I do anything about it? Maybe, I have some ideas to try, let’s give them a shot. If not, backup plan is to use roomie’s computer, or simply go buy another one. I wouldn’t be the first poker player to buy a laptop now instead of fixing a broken one. I have a friend who broke a laptop, had his girlfriend go buy a new one, broke that one too, repeat, and finished his day on a third laptop. If I can’t pull any of those off now, then oh well, divert my mind to the next thing. Similarly in poker we as players need to focus on the things we can do something about instead of the things we can’t do anything about.

I wish strategy were always discussed without results. Decisions made can have something done about them, what the dealer delivers can’t. A common thing I hear from new players is that they can’t win with big pairs, because people always chase them down or the deck gives a bad beat. They ignore the fact that they made several mistakes along the way and blame their loss on bad luck. People never talk about the hands they played bad and won, although the most interesting discussion should be coming from them. Having patience in poker means that you make the best decision now, not worry about the things you have no influence over, and patiently wait for your next opportunity to make a good decision.

Patience plays an important role in bankroll management and player growth. A player must be patient to play within his bankroll. A player must not move up in stakes too fast or else they will usually wind up broke. If you want to move up in stakes, then move down in life spending and save up that bankroll more. Spend more time playing poker and building that bankroll. Yeah, I know that game is good right there right now, but the game of poker will always be around, and people will always play it badly. Yes, I understand that games are getting tougher, but by the time you are ready to play that big game with your bankroll, you will have gotten much better than your average opposition in that same time frame.

Most professional poker players’ careers end the first time their doomswitch is flipped. They don’t have the patience to weather a bad run, progressively moving down in stakes as things continue getting worse. They bemoan their bad luck instead of looking at their game harder. The first time I got to playing with variance simulators I ate a giant humble pie. Back in the good old days, I simulated 1,000 years of life as a professional poker player. I made these years happen simultaneously in alternate universes, with each player playing the same number of hands in the same game with the same win rate and standard deviations. Every player was expected to earn $100,000 over those 40,000 hands. Turns out one lucky bastard won $400,000 while another unlucky soul lost over $50,000. While frightening, what really scared me was the courses those thousand players took to filling out the bell curve. More than 20 percent of them went on over 1,600 big blind (BB) downswings. Many found themselves stuck $50,000 at some point in the year. And each and every one of these players were identical in hours worked, expectation, style, and bankroll. That means this pile of winning years I had under me didn’t mean anything. What I needed to focus on was how I was making my decisions, and if my decision making is sound then I should not care about results.

Everybody cares though. I would be lying if I said I don’t care about my big scores. But I don’t care enough that it affects things like my decision making. The best and most patient players don’t let you know that they care about a beat at all. I’ve played a lot with Mark Gregorich, friend and fellow Card Player author. The most animated I’ve ever seen him get after taking a bad beat was an involuntary twitch of the right corner of his mouth. The guy is a model professional, and has been crushing Vegas for two decades by being patient.

It takes patience to fold lots of hands preflop, especially in live poker, but being patient and waiting for good hands and spots is the easiest way to win money at poker. Patiently avoiding bad spots and waiting for good ones is really hard for most people to do. Your best and most used play is folding. It takes patience to play higher stakes. Taking your time to get there will protect your bankroll and insure that you are ready. It takes patience to weather poker’s bad storms, but patiently waiting for your turn to come while peacefully balancing life with something else will see you through to the other side. Every big downswing I have been on has been bigger than any other downswing before it, but every big downswing has been followed by an upswing bigger than any winning streak I have had before. Be patient, play well, and your time will come. ♠

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.