Why You Can’t Beat Low-limit Games — Part VI

Many years ago, Theodore Levitt wrote a classic Harvard Business Review article, “Marketing Myopia.” It said that many businesses fail because their executives are near-sighted. Instead of trying to understand and give their customers what they want, they focus only on what their companies do well.

He recommended that executives should ask, “What business are we in?” If they answer that question correctly, they won’t make mistakes that have destroyed many companies and industries. For example, railroad companies should have seen that they were in the transportation business, not the railroad business.

If they had realized that they couldn’t prevent the airlines from taking away their customers, they would have purchased airlines or built airplanes. Because they didn’t do that, so many of them went broke that the government had to bail out the entire industry.

What Business Are You In?

If you’re trying to make money playing poker, the answer is obvious: You’re in the entertainment business. If your customers – the losing players – don’t get enough pleasure to compensate them for their losses, they won’t play with you, and your business will certainly fail.

This point is particularly important if you’re trying to make money by playing in low-limit games. Because their costs are much lower (as a percentage of the amount wagered), good high-stakes players can beat games with only one or two weak players. But small games have such high costs that nobody can win without many “donators.”

If the donators don’t enjoy themselves, they won’t play with you. And, without them, you have absolutely no chance to cover the huge costs.

Linda Johnson and her partners in Card Player Cruises, Jan Fisher and Mark Tenner, certainly understand that they are in the entertainment business. Cruises are expensive, regardless of how well customers do at the tables. Their business couldn’t succeed if its customers didn’t enjoy themselves. So, they do everything possible to keep them happy. Many of them come back again and again.

Linda, a Poker Hall of Famer, has the same attitude when she plays. She has often said that, whenever she plays, she has three objectives: She wants to:

1. Win
2. Enjoy herself
3. Have everyone enjoy themselves.

Card Player Management Knows Its Business

Card Player’s job is to build its advertisers’ businesses, and it often runs articles about poker rooms. These articles usually say that the friendly staff makes players feel welcome. You may wonder, “Who cares about friendly staff? I play to make money.”

The recreational players care, and poker rooms, especially ones spreading small games, can’t survive without them. The recreational players are your best customers, perhaps your only ones. Please forgive my repeating this point, but it’s critically important. You can’t get a big enough edge over the other serious players to cover the high costs. If there aren’t enough recreational players, you can’t beat the game.

You and the other serious players have a bigger impact on the recreational players than the staff. If you don’t make them feel welcome and comfortable, it doesn’t matter much what the staff does. Unfortunately, many serious players are near-sighted. They focus only on playing well and rarely think about pleasing their customers.

First, Don’t Chase Them Away

Far too many serious players are unpleasant. They clearly communicate that they care only about making money and dislike anything that slows down the game or doesn’t fit into their narrow conception of how players should act. Their entire manner makes recreational players uncomfortable.

The worst ones harshly criticize people for playing too slowly, not understanding the rules, talking too much, and especially for making mistakes that cause bad beats. “If you keep playing like that, you’ll soon be broke.”

I recently observed inexcusable nastiness over a trivial point. After everyone folded to them, a regular asked a tourist who had just sat down, “Do you chop the blinds?”

“I want to look at my cards.”

He raised his voice and said, “You can’t look at your cards. You either always chop, or you never chop. Every sensible player knows that.”

The tourist immediately picked up his chips and walked out. Instead of feeling embarrassed about driving him away, the regular seemed proud of himself. He showed that tourist how real poker players act.

Second, Try Hard To Make Them Comfortable

It’s not enough to avoid unpleasantness. You should go much further. Poker is a social game, but many players don’t do what they would do automatically at a golf or tennis club. In those places, introductions and small talk are natural, but many serious players can’t be bothered.

You’ve certainly played where most people don’t know each other’s names and nobody talks about anything except poker. The atmosphere clearly communicates, “This isn’t a game. It’s serious business.” Perhaps you prefer that atmosphere, but most recreational players are much more comfortable when everything is more relaxed and social.

The first step is one you naturally take almost everywhere else. Most recreational players are more comfortable when they know the names of the other players. Since they are usually reluctant to ask, break the ice. Offer to shake hands and say, “Hi, my name is Al, and they are Joe and Mary. What’s your name?”

Then use that name frequently to make them feel comfortable and welcome. Most people don’t like to be anonymous. Dale Carnegie once wrote that our favorite words are our own names.

When a local grinder joined our game, I introduced him to several tourists. Instead of saying, “Nice to meet you,” or something like that, he said, “I don’t need to be introduced.”

He’s a nice guy and probably didn’t realize how rude or cold he seemed. He was just too busy to “waste his time” with something as unnecessary as introductions. He certainly didn’t realize that he had violated the most basic rule of customer relations: Make your customers want to do business with you.

Don’t just introduce yourself. Build on that foundation by talking to them. Don’t slow the game down or annoy other players by babbling, but talk briefly and quietly about sports, jobs, the weather, and other subjects you’d discuss if you were somewhere else. When they win a large pot or make a good play, compliment them. Make them enjoy and remember playing with you.

A Relaxed Atmosphere Increases Your Profits

Don’t focus only on the recreational players. Do whatever you can to create a generally relaxed atmosphere. If you’re very competitive, you may think that you play poker just to make money, but you’d be kidding yourself.

Hundreds of research reports prove that most people don’t regard pay as the most important job-satisfaction factor. If they want more than money from a job, they – and you – certainly want more than money when you play a game.

If you create a relaxed, friendly atmosphere, the game will go more smoothly, others won’t compete as intensely, your edge will increase, and many people – including you – will play longer. The longer you play with relaxed players, the more money you will win. ♠

“Dr. Al” ([email protected]) coaches only on psychology issues. For information about seminars and webinars, go to propokerseminars.com. He is David Sklansky’s co-author of DUCY? and the sole author of four poker psychology books.