The Love

As I mentioned in a previous article, last year was sub-ideal in earnings while finding a good balance between new games and old stand-bys. I’ve had to search at times for the drive to get to work when I’ve had a couple of bad months in a row. Sometimes the pull to stay and spend time with my wife and kids is difficult to deal with and sometimes my desire to make sure I’m contributing my fair share to the finances of our family makes me want to go to work more. It’s a constant give and take that I’m sure all professional poker players deal with to some extent throughout their careers, especially after they have children.

When I think back to all of the love I had for the game when I first started playing, the desire I had to go play poker two days a week after I had been dealing for four, driving all the way to the far reaches of Dallas from TCU to play in a $5-$10 limit game or $1-$2 no-limit hold’em game because I had to play, it seems a lifetime away. I’ve always said that my biggest regret in poker was that I didn’t leverage my insane love for the game in 2002-2006 towards playing more hours on PartyPoker in the heyday. Instead of playing 100 hours a week in those six-max $10-$20 games or $200 sit n’ gos, I thought they would always be there and got lazy. I would almost certainly be a better player now as well as being more disciplined in my approach to the game.

I played with someone recently who reminds me of myself at that time. He’s probably 20 years older than me and has been playing poker longer than I have, but he still has that enthusiasm for the game that seems to be missing for me at times over the last few years. I still get a good rush when I’m deep in a tournament and all-in or when I win a 50-bet pot like I did the other day, but there seem to be more times when I’m at the casino just grinding out my hours and not really enjoying myself.

This gentleman walks into the casino with a smile on his face, laughs it up with everyone, wins, loses, doesn’t care much as long as we’ve got a full game of H.O.R.S.E. going and I admire the heck out of him for it.

I’ve recently been in Las Vegas playing in a mixed game at the Aria and I enjoyed it to a similar degree as my friend above and I think I figured out why. I was playing some games I had never played before, games like five-card triple draw hi/lo eight-or-better or double board Omaha high only or pineapple stud eight or better, and I was really enjoying the challenge of learning how to approach a new game. I had an interesting decision in the hi/lo triple draw game when I had A 5 3 7 8 and raised. It was three-bet and called in two spots behind me (this game is pure action) and I had to make a decision about the hand. Was I going to go for the 8-7-3 with a flush draw or A-5-3. I decided to go for A-5-3 because I could make the nuts one way with a chance at winning high with that hand, whereas it would be impossible to make a very dominant high hand with 8-7-3 and any low I made would be less than stellar. I’m fairly certain I made the right decision and didn’t let it affect me that the two cards I received on my first draw were the A and 4, which would have made me an ace-high flush and eight-low. I still improved to a wheel draw, which I never made and ended up folding the river while a full house and seven-low chopped the pot.

And there it is, I figured out what it is that brings me joy about the game of poker. New challenges. The game is so varied and interesting that, for the most part, it can never be solved. Sure, certain variations like heads-up limit hold ‘em or 10 big blind all-in or fold decisions, can be solved, but the game of poker as it’s played in casinos today can’t be solved. Even no-limit hold ‘em, which is becoming more and more uniformly played, can present you with challenges on a daily basis. Herein lies the challenge for me and for anyone jaded by the game. Find those interesting situations. Learn from them. Sure, it might just be trying to figure out what is the best three-betting frequency from the button vs. a cutoff opener when you’re 150 big blinds deep, but that’s still a challenge that you can take on and try to fix in your game. In poker, if you’re not fixing something, your foundation is in the process of falling apart and the more you’re on auto-pilot, the less you will improve. So go out and find the challenge in your game and work on it. You’ll find yourself with more love for the game and more money to go with it. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG