Sunday Morning Ramblings

Good morning. It's currently 9:35am on Sunday morning and all of my friends are alseep...meanwhile I'm wide awake after an eight hour graveyard shift and am currently bored out of my mind. So I figured, what's more exciting than posting a poker blog update?! Okay anyway, last night at work I was thinking about a situation which happened a few weeks ago at Capitol (local card-room), which made me think deeper about the opponents I'm playing against.

When I first started off playing poker, one question that always bothered me was: "Where does the money come from?" They say that pros like Phil Ivey and Barry Greenstein make millions upon millions of dollars a year playing this game..."but who are the players losing those millions?" After awhile, I was able to go into the cardroom and pick out who the donators were...funny thing is, nowadays, it's harder for me to find the winners.

The last thing I want to do is sound cocky...but I think I play Limit Hold 'Em pretty well. I have good days, I have bad days, but at the end of the month I'm usually up somewhere between 1.5-3BBs/Hr...not bad for something that I consider my hobby. I've put in my share of work though...from reading Sklansky and Malmuth books to getting/receiving criticism in the forums; poker strategy makes up a big part of my day. You can't just wake up one day, decide you're going to play poker everyday, and then expect to win 2BBs/Hr. I think it's amusing when people come to the forums and ask what a good expected winrate is..."well, it depends...can you play?"

The point I'm trying to get at is: my opponents aren't very good...and the ones that are good have entirely too much gamble/tilt issues in them. In the past few weeks playing at Cap's 9/18 game, I have seen some atrocious play. I used to think 10/20 would be this epic game where everyone was a TAG and the players were just sickly awesome...whoops. The truth is, some players have more money to lose than others...so they play higher. I heard the exact same stories during my last couple of trips to the Bellagio while I was in Vegas. I was told by a handful of different people at different points in my trip that "the 15/30 game is juicy...and the 30/60 game is even juicier...you just need a roll behind you." And you know what, I tried the 15/30 game...and they were right. It was like playing at Cache, except there were a couple more good players and a couple more maniacs. If you're good enough, determined enough, patient enough, and honest enough with yourself...it might not matter what stakes you play for (just don't forget the BR).

So that was a ridiculously long prelude to this story I thought of. It was a few weeks ago and some guy had just sat down on my 9/18 table. He had folded KK on the turn on an AA62 board when it was bet and raised before him. Easy fold right? Not according to my table...oh, did I mention he would have hit the Bad Beat Jackpot?

Random Sick Asian Gambler (RSAG): How can you not call there?
Poor Bastard (PB): It was bet and raised before it got to me!
RSAG2: Yeah, but you gotta think about the jackpot!!!
RSAG: Yeah the Jackpot...it was only $16. If it was this game (9/18), then maybe I fold.
PB: But I thought they both had an Ace...
RSAG: It doesn't matter, it's just 4/8, two aces on the board, you have to play for the jackpot!

WTF right? That's such a sickly easy fold it's not even funny. Anyway, here's the HH for anyone who cares

PB: KK
Villain1: QQ
Villain2: AJ

PF: Capped
Flop: AA6: Capped by both villains (wtf is QQ thinking?
Turn: 2 QQ bets, AJ raises, KK folds
River: A

QQ gets rewarded for his moronic play by getting the big percentage of the Bad Beat Jackpot.


Anyway, my point is...sometimes the players who aren't completely retarded just don't care about playing well. Maybe this is why 4/8 was so profitable for me. Some people just don't give a fuck whether they play like shit or not..."it's just 4/8." While that can spell out absolute nightmares on somedays for good players...it's also what makes killing the game for 3+BBs/Hr over the long haul absolutely possible.