Mind, Body, and Spirit

On May 30, 2008 thousands of players will begin to embark on their journey to participate in what was once considered to be the most prestigious venue of tournaments ever to grace the circuit. I’ll explain that last statement later. When I started playing poker the entire World Series was a total of 21 days long, the number of entrants for each event was in the hundreds, there weren’t any mixed game tournaments, and with the exception of the main event the maximum buy-in for any tournament was $5000. My, oh my how times have changed!

What is good etiquette?

Sure, there have been articles written before but they are few and far between in my opinion. What is good poker etiquette? Do the same rules apply online as they do in live poker? I like to follow the age-old rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. It doesn’t matter if you have inside information on a particular player from a reliable source who might have said “the guy you’re playing likes to stack you then quit”. You have to keep in mind that not everyone treats each player the same. The following circumstances apply to both live and online poker.

After many years of poker on the Internet, I am still shocked and amazed at the number of online players that seem to be disillusioned into thinking that just because they are winning players that they should never, ever lose. What happened to the notion that “there is always someone better than you”? It doesn’t seem to exist among the online poker-playing world. I receive phone calls, E-mails, and Instant Messages regarding many smaller issues with Full Tilt (and other sites) from people hoping that I can help them. In many instances I can offer help. Recently, I received a PM from a friend of a friend who has an issue with a player who he believes to be cheating. Why does he believe this? Well, it’s simply because he can’t beat him. Apparently, his friends are losing to the player in question too, and they are also winning players; the best on the site. Therefore, the player in question MUST be cheating right?

When is Enough, Enough?

In a recent article that I wrote on NWP I spoke briefly about how many players possess the necessary talent to be winning players, but lack other important characteristics such as game selection, adequate bank roll management, following a schedule, focus, and discipline. No one does all of these things correctly 100% of the time, but still a player is usually able to deviate from perhaps one of these things and still be a winner. One thing I didn’t speak about was quitting. When do you quit a game? When is enough, enough?

As some of you may know I recently visited my friends, affectionately known to you as “TDC”, in Las Vegas on March 2nd. I stayed until the evening of the 5th and there was never a dull moment (not for me anyway). Upon arriving Epistate picked me up at the airport and then we briefly went shopping (talk away fuck faces). After he dropped me off I rested briefly and then went to the Salon to get my hair cut and highlighted. I then got dressed and geared up for the rest of the night, which consisted of dinner and of course Karaoke and drinking with the majority of the crowd. I asked Epistate to bring me his computer since I didn’t bring one and had some actual work to do regarding my web site. He said “Sure”. Sure enough he arrived that night to pick me up to go out with all of the others, and he forgot the computer. No big deal, I could wait one more day.