Online Poker is Too Much Fun! - Part II

In my last column, I touched on some of the positives and negatives associated with playing online. Overall, I believe the positives far outweigh the negatives. If you are still not convinced, here are some more fun selling points.

You can yell at the computer all you want when you take a bad beat. "Bad computer! If you river me one more time like that, I'm throwing you in the pool!" (Unfortunately, I actually have a friend who did that.) You can scream, yell, and throw a temper tantrum if you want. Let it all out, it's all kosher in the comfort of your living room. You want to throw cards, too? Fine. Grab as many decks as you'd like and throw them all around the house. Heck, throw them at your monitor. Or, throw them in the pool if that's what does it for you! (For the record, I don't recommend throwing your computer in the pool like my friend, who shall remain nameless, did.)

Or, you can do a little victory dance after you win a pot and offend no one! Some friends and I actually took that celebration a little too far one night. We decided to get together at a local bar and maybe shoot some pool or whatever. Well, one of my friends brought his laptop with him, which was equipped with a Sprint Air card, which gave it wireless Internet capabilities. After a few games of pool, my friends got tired of losing, so we decided to fire it up online. Since we had just the one laptop, we decided to go 50-50 and make all the playing decisions together.

That brought about some disagreements, of course, but it helped us more than it hurt. In one case, I was playing an Omaha eight-or-better hand, and on the river, we missed our nut-low draw and ended up with a measly pair of kings. My opponent bet, and with an ace on board as well as a potential flush, I went to click fold when I heard, "Oh, man, call him."

"What?"

"Call him, he's got nothing."

"There's one problem, pal, we can't even beat nothing! One measly ace has us buried." (If you are unfamiliar with Omaha eight-or-better, if an ace is on board, someone still in the hand is a big favorite to be holding one.)

"I'm telling ya, bro, we gotta call him." He was so adamant about calling him that I finally decided to click away what I knew was a wasted bet. "All right, if you say so." When our opponent's cards were flipped up, we saw no ace, no flush – nothing! He had in fact missed his low draw and ended up with 5 high.

Having a few beers in us already, we were compelled to dance around the bar high-fiving our friends as well as many of the other bar patrons. It was great fun, and we ended up having a blast that night. After the hand was over, I asked him how he could possibly make that call, and he said, "Oh, you always have to adjust for a potential RBF."

"RBF?" I asked.

"Yeah, the Random Berzerko Factor. It could have easily been an RBF or an MCF."

"Huh? Slow down a minute here. An MCF?"

"Dude, don't you know anything. An MCF, the Miss Click Factor. Happens all the time, and with a pot that big, we have to hope and pray for something!"

All the while I was expecting some genius answer as to why we called with virtually no chance of winning, and all I got was the Random Berzerko Factor coupled with the Miss Click Factor. It was clear to me that night that I had a lot to learn about this online poker thing.

That's just one of the many ways my friends and I have fun with online poker. Sometimes, we'll get four of us together and play in the no-limit "sit 'n' go" events that are offered. A four-player sit 'n' go is broken down into two heads-up matches. We'll align our computers so that we are facing each other. Now, picture this: Here I was with the nuts on the river, hoping for a call. I clicked in $750 and sat back and waited. Of course, my opponent, John Juanda, was staring me down the whole time … online! Now, either I just couldn't keep a straight face or he picked up a tell while I was looking for the 7, then the 5, and finally the 0 key, because he smartly folded a big hand; oh well. The winner of that match (me, yippee!) would then face off against the winner of the other match.

It was on to the finals, where I would face Allen Cunningham. It was back and forth for a while until the crucial hand came up in which I was left with a tough decision. Finally, I decided to make the call, and won the prestigious $21 sit 'n' go.

John, who was on the rail at this point, was curious how I made that call. "What were you thinking?" John asked. "There was like no hand in the deck you could beat in that spot. That was a really bad call."

"A bad call? John, you just happened to neglect two of the more important factors when playing online poker. I already knew that Allen was tired and getting bored, so it clearly could have been an RBF, and watching the way he handled that mouse, I also knew there was about a 10 percent chance it was an MCF. Dude, don't you know anything about online poker? Geez!"

Needless to say, I have a lot of fun with online poker and also happen to make some decent money at it. Oh, there's one more thing I almost forgot. If you are looking to pick up a slightly used computer top that may need a little work, be sure to check out Mike Matusow's swimming pool. I hear there is at least one computer collecting rust at the bottom of it.

Daniel can be reached at www.fullcontactpoker.com.