Pokerwiner.com → Within poker principles
IN TO THE CARDROOMS
My first venture into a public cardroom came after maybe ten hours of this fumbling home poker. I had thought high draw would be a good form of poker to start with since to me it was the classic game that came to mind when I thought of poker. So I had gone about memorizing what I could of Mike Caro’s high draw chapter in Super/System.
I managed to commit to memory a good needed to start getting a little playing experience to bring to life what I was reading. So one Sunday I headed North from San Diego to Los Angeles, where I found the suburb of Gardena and the Normandie Casino. There I found my way to a $2- $4 jacks –or-better draw game. I managed to lose only $19 in three hours. I also managed to draw some scorn for standing pat with nothing and betting our after the draw to win the pot, only to be asked to show my mandatory jacks or better “openers.” I apologized as the action was rewound and the players returned their money. I was taken aback, however, by the level of irritation shown by the other players in response to my simple beginner’s mistake.
These players, I was beginning to see, took their game rather seriously. Before leaving the Normandie, I got into a conversation with a friendly local who informed me that Texas holdem was really the hot new game in town. A few weeks later I discovered the poker in San Diego county. Initially, I found one of the Indian reservation casinos. I went there one night with a friend who also thought he might like to learn the game. After observing some holdem and seven card stud eight-or-better games, we bought into a little holdem poker tournament for $5. Neither of us lasted very long, but in talking afterward we decided that holdem had to be the game to learn. I must say that even as poker “infants” that night our reasoning was a big like that of seasoned professional players.
We concluded that in addition to being popular, holdem appeared to be a complex game. Its complexity, we figured, would serve us well in the long run. As graduate students (he in electrical engineering) we were, I must admit, a bit arrogant about our intellectual abilities relative to what we assumed were those of the average poker player. We knew we would be able to develop a thorough understanding of this difficult game, and so have a big edge over those who we figured surely wouldn’t study in the same depth. (* I now believe we were partially right ). Our background in fields requiring logical thinking and familiarity with studying new and complex topics did give us a certain edge. Moreover, my willingness to devote considerable time to the project gave me a serious advantage over anyone less committed. Our conclusion however, that holdem was the only game to learn was a bit narrow. seven card stud, for example, is similarly complex, and would have made a good choice for the same reasons. But since it was not spread in our area, we based our conclusions on what we saw.
KEEPING TUITION AFFORDABLE
My friend did not continue much further with poker, but I remained fascinated and began to study holdem. I’ve never been a “gambler” in the popular sense of the word. It was not the element of gambling that attracted me to poker. Instead, I found gratification in learning, then successfully applying strategy. Had I been able to take the gamble out of the game, I would have, but during this early learning period, I knew I had to expect to lose some money until I knew the game well enough to beat it. The question was how to lose the minimum until I had acquired the requisite knowledge and skill. Today, a useful tool in this regard is the poker weak playing software available for the personal computer. It allows you to play countless hands against simulated players and acquire at least an initial feel for the game before risking money.
(At the time of this writing it still has clear limitations, but is certainly valuable for that purpose ). In 1987, however, I was working without such software. I recall using some primitive poker software a bit later, but it was of very limited use. I settled on a two-pronged approach to keep tuition reasonable. First, I played in a number of very small buy-in tournaments. Some of the cardrooms had buy-ins ranging from free to about $10. through these, I reasoned, I could pick up some experience while putting very little money at risk. I played in perhaps 15 of these. I actually turned a profit because one tournament was a weekly free entry event, and the winner received $100 in the form of a rack of chips.
After attending a seminar in Las Vegas at which David Sklanskly gave a couple of key tournament tips, I applied them to this little weekly event, and won it several times out of maybe eight or nine tries. Undoubtedly I got lucky, but the competition was mostly very weak. These little tournaments did serve their purpose for me, but a player using cheap tournaments to acquire early experience should keep in mind the important differences between tournament and live game play.
"The Best Player I' ve Ever Seen " / The Hit and Run Follies / An Illusory Winner /
On Randomness, Rushes, Hot Seats, and Bad Luck Dealers / Bad Beat? Think Again
Why Learn to Beat Tougher Games? / Practicing Game Preservation
Short-Handed Play: Don’t Miss out / How I Learned Poker: Part I
How I Learned Poker : Part II