In my last blog I started talking about how players at the tables can’t seem to keep their emotions in check when it comes to playing players making bad plays and winning. Now I was standing on a soap box a bit saying how stupid it is to berate the players who are basically funding your career. A few days later I got into a discussion with a buddy of mine where we started talking about an interesting video series on Deuces Cracked titled. The series talks about the mindset you should have at the tables and lead to an interesting discussion.

The video started by giving examples of what would be the “wrong” mindset at the table. Statements like, “So after sitting there for a few hours I FINALLY got dealt kings” and “I was just waiting for an Ace to flop to crush my pair since that’s how I’ve been running” were two of the leading examples used. It makes sense why these are the wrong way to look at it. It’s like blaming the dealer for a bad beat or saying the every poker site is “rigged.” Yeah sometimes luck wins the day but when you lose every time or find yourself trapped in this kind of mentality, the problem goes beyond just average runbad. This all made sense to me until I brought up to my friend that I had just made a similar point in a blog post about berating people at the table. That’s when the points made in the video took a turn.

Apparently the Deuces Cracked video took a slightly different motivation towards not berating people at the table. My stance is basically the, “don’t tap the glass” mentality which the video regarded as “good choice, wrong mindset.” The video claims the reason you shouldn’t berate people at the tables is because at some point, you learned during your life that it’s rude to mock and harass other people. The video goes on to say, “It’s like telling someone not to hit their head with a hammer because they might break the hammer.” While I agree it’s rude and inappropriate to yell at and berate someone, to be honest I simply don’t want my hammer broken.

I opt not to complain about bad beats, bad plays, bad luck, etc for a number of reasons. For one, the hand is over it’s time to focus on the next hand being dealt. Just regroup, reload if you have to, and move on. Second, there is no need to give away information about the kinds of hands I’d play in my opponent’s spot. Now a below average player in a NLHE game isn’t going to be able to differentiate between what my MP range is vs my LP range, but anyone will remember me going ballistic on someone for misplaying their hand (see Phil Hellmuth for more examples of this).

That may very well be the “wrong” reasons to have manners at the table but as a poker player your opponent’s well-being and feelings are secondary to your own bottom line. It’s one thing to try and make sure your opponents have as much fun at the table because then they will keep coming back and start doing “fun” things at the table like chasing draws, gambling a bit more, and drink. That being said I’m in this game to make money and I’m more concerned with my hammer than I am my opponent’s head.

Every once in a while fish just seem to swim up in your face and say, "Here I am, come take my money." In today's game the number of truly bad players isn't nearly what it used to be but there are definitely signs to look for. Most of the time the fish can't help it, it's just how they have acted at the table since they started playing cards and no matter how many books or forum posts they read they just can't seem to shake the tells. I've noticed this more and more happening recently in one particular form so I feel like I should share some of this with you. I'm not going to be giving away the farm here but I just want to see if you guys are noticing the same thing at the tables.

Complaining how bad another player is after losing a pot. This has varying degrees. The more severe example of a fish is when you see the player complaining about a hand BvB or when someone calls their shove with a pair of 5s or lower. This type of player will then go on a 30 minute tirade after being knocked out of the tournament and go out of his way to make you feel bad about the plays you made. I just have one question to ask when people like this freak out, are you fucking stupid?

Here's the reason these people are just fish. It's one thing to get upset, hell I still get pissed about running bad or bad beats I take and sometimes I get very frustrated with the other players at the table for causing my misfortune. The difference is I never EVER take it out on the other player. If you do take things out on other players around you are wrong for a number of reasons. First off, the person put up their buy in and there isn't really a "right" or "wrong" way to play the game. Yeah sure Shoving 72o UTG first hand of a deep stack MTT is pretty bad from a logical or professional standpoint but not everyone, and certainly not most fish, are pros at this. This feeds nicely into my next point, if these people are going to be making these obvious mistakes why are you correcting them? Out of everything that's the dumbest part of this. You gain equity from identifying other player's mistakes at the table and by figuring out the best way to take advantage of them. So say you notice the fish likes to call off his stack with 44 for a 100BB pot looking for a flip. Why are you telling them how bad a play that is? TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. DON'T CORRECT HIM AND RUIN THE GAME FOR YOURSELF, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY FOR THE REST OF US.

Finally what I can't stand is just the simple lack of maturity that bad players show. Let me try to clear this up. Let's say you found a fish who calls off big chip stacks with small pairs and you have a big stack and AKo. Let's now say you start getting into a raising war with this guy and eventually get the money in and he turns over 44 having now called a 5-bet shove. The board bricks off and he wins with his pair of 4s. You know who's fault this is that you're now sitting on the rail or firing up a new MTT, yours asshole. I get it, the man can let go of a pair, but if that's the case why aren't you mixing it up with him with 77 rather than AKo. Now I'm not saying don't take flips, but when you can identify what your opponent is doing and you simply don't take advantage of it, it's your own damn fault. No one else can be blamed but you.

I guarantee you'll see this at least 5 times during a multi hour session. Whether you grind cash, MTTs, or SNGs you'll see people who make the mistake of bitching at the table. I used to hate this at the table, now I just provoke people to keep getting angry. I'd rather know who they are that way I know I can take advantage of their mistakes rather than tell them why what they are doing is wrong.

My trip to Vegas has now come and gone and in the aftermath I've had a little time to reflect on what happened. Throughout the course of the trip I found out some things I'm good at, some things I need work on, and noticed tendencies that I have that have a direct impact on my play at the tables. Did the trip turn out how I wanted, not at all. I didn't even catch a wiff of a cash in any MTTs let alone a FT or a score big enough to fund some WSOP shots. Even though I'm not rich and famous yet, there is still a lot to reflect on and learn from my trip to the mecca of the poker universe.

I'll start with the good. I learned a new sense of patients at the tables. I can't really explain how or why but out there something just seemed to click. Bad beats weren't bothering me as much, a couple of key instances came to mind where people were getting in my face about hands. It wasn't anything out of the norm for a poker game, just a few 1/2NL grinders who think they are the next Hellmuth and so they decide it's ok to act like a baby about every hand and tell people how "bad" we all play compared to them. I just had a calm about me that I haven't had in a long time at the tables. Maybe it was just the trip and the whole, "I'm in Vegas I must take this seriously" mentality but I just felt different at the tables. Also playing in mixed games out there was a nice change of pace from the normal NLHE grind it out session I have to play.

Now I heard somewhere when I was a kid that you don't learn much from success. It's only when you get something wrong that you really understand what is going on. There was plenty of that to go around during my trip. The tournaments went terribly and they all had a similar pattern. Early levels I had success and built up some chips, then after level 3 or so in each event people started reraising me a lot more, my steals were working less and less, and when I finally did have hands like TT or AK and the flop came out dry for me or with an overcard the action would be check/raised by the time it got back to me and I'd have to let my hands go. With one exception where I ran AQ into QT and lost a 32K pot on the river it just seemed like I couldn't get on the right side of things in the events I played. Cash games went well, MTTs went south in a hurry and I couldn't help but ponder what exactly went wrong in each case. I'm glad to see my cash game play finally elevating a bit but at the expense on MTTs wasn't exactly the formula I had in mind.

It has long been a problem of mine that I have been too tight at the tables and have given up a lot of chances to chip up in thinner spots. Now to this point in the MTT world that has worked but I wanted to try and get better at the game so I've been trying to add some more aggression into the mix. For some reason I can't seem to find the right balance or the right spots to get the money in. I'm at my best when I play a "reactive" style verses an "aggressive" style. Now I don't mean I play passively, what I mean is that my strength is to adjust on the fly to what my opponents are doing rather than what the mathematically correct play is. I like to let things come to me at the table rather than force the action, just from a personality perspective. If a player seems weak, raise. That's more or less how I like to play. What I've been attempting to do is find general spots where it makes more sense to bet and be the aggressor but I'm having some trouble figuring out when and where exactly that is and my game has suffered a bit for it. I think for now I'm going back to grinding things out a bit more and toning down the aggression until I have a better understanding of what I need to improve upon.

Not everything in Vegas was either good or bad. Some of the things that I learned out there are just pure fact. For example, while I had a lot of fun playing in the Mixed games out there, with my BR where it stands currently that's probably not the best way to build up. Playing in even a 10/20 HORSE game, where my return is something like $40/hour (at least that's the goal, 2BBs and hour) it just doesn't compare to potential earnings even at a lowly 1/2NLHE table. The biggest game I played in while in Vegas was a 1/2 PLO game at the Venetian where 3 separate people had $1K+ in front of them, and since it was PLO just sitting there for 4 hours I saw 8-12 $300+ pots (even scooped a few up myself). For me to make any serious money I'd need to sit up around a 50/100 limit or 75/150 limit game and I just don't have the BR for that type of buy in. Though it is definitely something to think about when I'm looking to take some shots.

All in all, I'm happy I made the trip and am now certainly a better player for it in the long run. Right now I'm probably going to take the next few days off, relax and recharge a bit before getting after it again. Mohegan Sun is running a summer series starting on July 16th and I plan on showing up for that so I've got to get myself ready to play. The journey never ends, only pauses for a stretch here and there.