The setting for this poker tale is Harrahs Casino in New Orleans.     I had played 14 hours of very tough tournament poker in the Regional World Series Event and the tournament director announced that we were down to 80 players and that we would all be moved into what I’ll call the Freezer.     Now, I understand that many poker rooms are kept rather cold, but this room was good for storing meat.       It was with mixed emotions that I saw that Josheph Hachem was seated two chairs to my left.     As competitive players we always seek to test our game against a World Champion, but I also wanted to make that final table, so here was  potentially a very big hurdle.    As it turned out, Joe was very instrumental in my being knocked from the tournament, but not because he held a superior hand or outplayed me.

With 77 players left, I was dealt one red ace and one black ace….    bingo!     You need to know at this part of the story that I NEVER play aces slowly unless I’m first to act (under the gun) or in the small blind and no one has entered the pot and then I play them very carefully after letting the big blind see a flop on the cheap.      As it turned out, I was in middle position and I opened with a raise of around 3x the big blind, hoping one of the players behind me held a big pair or a big suited Ace.    I got my wish when Joe made it 5x more.    It folded around to a young player who looked very nervous and who seemed to be struggling with his decision.   After about a minute of silence, Joe said, “Look you can’t just fold, so you might as well go all-in and try and get us to fold.”     This was music to my ears, because I felt that he would in fact push all in and that I would re-raise and force Joe out of the hand, leaving a heads up situation with the younger, less experienced player.      Well, after another minute of concentration and fidgeting he did go all in and I without hesitation re-raised to all in with a  larger stack, sending a very clear signal to Joseph that I was holding either AA, KK, or AK suited.      He insta-called and I knew right then what he was about to turn over…. Pkt Aces!      and yes, sure enough, their was the perfect match to my hand and I had a sinking feeling that the youngster would get lucky and improve his holdings, leaving Joe and I drawing very thin.         The young man went green with the hands exposed and it looked as if we would be chopping up his chips, but the Poker Gods weren’t done with us quite yet.   Good news!  Flop….  nothing….  More good news!  Turn….. no change…. Very bad news!   River…   a red Jack to give our young hero his perfect set of 3 jacks.     A few hands later Joe and I headed for the door at the same time to chat about another great bad-beat story for the archives.

Texas Holdem Poker Tournaments just not fair!!

Texas Holdem.  Its just not fair!

If you can just wrap your brain around this one fact, the game becomes much easier and far less frustrating.  .  Because it is, after all, just a game.    Some of you are now indignant that I do not take up the “Its a Sport”!  mantra.    But, guys and gals, it’s just not.   Let’s compare poker to sports.

To begin with, in sports,  the best team and/or athlete comes out on top or near the top “most of the time”.   Not so in poker.   Wait!, you say.  ” What about all of the familiar faces on final tables I see on television?  This proves that its a game of skill and a sport!”    Not true, and here’s the difference.     Poker is a game of skill and many skillful players do very well over time. And, in the big poker tourneys where there seem to be some familiar faces on the final table, consider this.   Those players enter ALL the big tournaments and therefore, you’re going to be seeing some of them on the final tables.  The other 95% of the field?  the occasional poker star wannabe.   However, in “real” sports, the very skilled players and athletes do not face a horde of amateurs and “athletes” that have no business on the same field or in the same arena.  Lets look at some possibilities.    An overmatched Mike Tyson faces Evander Holyfield and is against the ropes and just about to be dropped by the real deal when out of nowhere a college kid, who fought one year in golden gloves, steps in and delivers a sucker punch to the mighty Holyfield, who had all of his attention and focus on the dangerous opponent in front of him.    I know, I know, its not the best example, but you get my point.   While the professionals, who know the right move in the right situation and the right time, make a brilliant play, some two-bit wanna-be world champion decides to make a call with Ace-rag and takes down the champ.    Lucky punch?    nah…   amateur that got lucky?  yea.    Now, there’s the rub.   Luck.    And, its why every man, woman and teenager that has won a dominated hand continues to play badly and occassionally wins.

Now, if you would like to see it become a sport, here’s my idea.   To play in a major, professional tournament, the player would have to pass a series of written exams based on the strategies of the worlds greatest players and then become a card-carrying, qualified player.   Wait, there are too many different strategies and approaches to the game for this to work, right?.   Ok, then….   The pro would just have to demonstrate that he/she understands that there is a strategy involved and some handy grasp of the number of outs on the flop and whether to call down bets from mutliple players while holding a straight and staring at a paired board.    Lets chat about another impact the amateur player has on the outcome of the contest.

Imagine two similarly sized power lifters are on lift number three on the clean and jerk when suddenly a 90 lb weakling jumps up on the platform and lifts 100 lbs off of the bar of one of the competitors for him, essentially handing the gold to the other dude.   Happens all the time in poker when the newest sunglassed wonder makes a big play on a wary pro and ships all of his chips to someone who knows what to do with them.

So, lets make our own lists.   Bowling?  sport.   Billiards?  sport.   Chess?  sport.   WAIT!  Chess??    yes, says I.    why? say you.   Because you can not be lucky and win in chess.  You HAVE to know the game and have a strategy.   You can’t move the rook into check and pray that all the opposing players pieces fall over.

Ok.  I’ve put in my big blind, now what say you?