How Do You Know When You've Had Enough?

This not only is not my usual type of column, it is one I generally abhor! That's right, I am about to do things in this column that I have told you not to do. I sort of hate myself for doing it, but not enough to "let it go" for now. It is a poker essay, of course, but I am gonna whine in it. And do you know why? Because it will make me feel better! Also, it is long after the fact and I never said boo at the table, and I think I have earned a page to moan a bit. And anyway, it's all in good fun and tongue-in-cheek. Let me explain …

We call poker a game, but it is really a lot of work. Those of us who take the game seriously work on our games all the time, and I always think of mine as a work in progress. I sure worked hard recently "playing" poker, and it wasn't pretty. I spent five days in Tunica, Mississippi, during the latter stages of the World Poker Open, and the poker games there just amazed me. I thought I had seen it all, but they showed me some tricks I hadn't seen, and may not want to see again. Yes, that's right, I did not have a winning trip, and the only way I can explain it is that the games were too good to beat. How can that be? If I had won, would the games have been too good not to beat? Well, no, of course not. But for this particular short-term visit, the games were too good to beat. The upside was that I realized the earning potential in these games, and as long as I was pleased with my play, I felt my expectation was good and I continued to grind.

How can a game be too good to beat? How can that statement even make sense? First, let me explain that I don't believe for one second that a game can be too good to beat, but since I was playing in these hugely wild games for only a short period of time, a few days, I never had a chance for those pesky cards to break even for me. I didn't want anything special; all I wanted was the cards to break even. Mind you, I was playing in a midlimit game much of the time, and they were throwing red ($5) chips around as if they were dollar chips. In a $20-$40 hold'em game, I was faced with players straddling the big blind (thereby making the effective cap on that round $120, as they play four raises and the straddle allows an extra raise) and then reraising when it came back to them if it wasn't already capped. That's right! These pots had nearly $1,000 in them before the flop, and we were playing $20-$40! So, how could these games be too good to beat? Here is where my whining starts. I was card dead. I was going through one of those slumps that most poker players suffer in their careers when they can't pick up a hand and just bleed off chips. I saw more hands like 8-3, 9-2, and so on for a week than ever in my life. I played about 25 hours and never had aces, had kings three times and lost all three, and never – and I mean, never – had another pair bigger than eights. Do you have any idea of how many hands I looked at? What garbage!

There were three and oftentimes four of these unbelievable games going around-the-clock. One night, the game I was in was really rocking – and I was card dead. I mucked hand after hand. My cards were so bad that I couldn't get into too much trouble. Then, the kings came by to visit, and with a flop of Q-9-4, I thought, "Aha. I am gonna win a biggie here!" After a deuce came on the turn, there was more furious betting, and the river brought a 7. I proudly bet again, only to be raised … by a guy who played pocket sevens to the river. Did I mention this was a $20-$40 game? Remember, I did say I might do some sniveling, and I am sorry, but these games were the type you dream of!

I then played the A 10 for what ended up costing me three bets, and the flop came 9 7 3. Of course, I was in love with it. The turn brought another 3 and the betting was furious, as always. The river brought a 5, and when I bet, I got raised. "Take it, fives full" was all I could say.

While I have done some whining here in a tongue-in-cheek way, the point I am trying to make, in addition to getting this off my chest so I can sleep tonight, is that in the short run, these games were just too darn good to beat. That being said, do I wanna go back and play in those same games again? You bet I do – again, and again, and again. The swings in those types of games can be huge, but the money is there to be made, and by playing solid poker with some creativity thrown in, you can really make a killing. In the short run, however, those games sometimes can be just too darn good to beat. I sure hope they are there the next time I am in town. If they are, maybe things will turn out better for me. I still believe I made the right choice to continue playing in these games. Even when you are in a downward spiral in these types of games, if you are objective enough to sit back, re-evaluate your game, and decide honestly whether or not to continue, these games can be the stone-cold nuts. Sorry I whined, but I just had to vent. Thanks for reading. Sometimes even the teacher gets off track a bit. Class dismissed.

E-mail me your poker questions and comments. I look forward to hearing from you.