Poker Articles

By Zpaceman | Published Jan 04 2008, 04:03 PM
I was in the middle of writing about the perils of falling in love with your hand for this month’s article when all the news about JJprodigy/PCA broke on the discussion forums. My regular article can wait for another month, and instead here’s something relevant to the recent discussions.

Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This law is exemplified by the fact that if we carelessly step off a small rowing boat onto the bank of lake, the boat will move away from the bank and we may end up face down in the lake. Actions have consequences. Careless actions can have uncomfortable results. Reckless actions can have damaging results.

When I was much younger, I used to do something that often caused me to be careless and would in turn get me into some uncomfortable spots. Still, it didn’t seem to cause any harm so I carried on making the same mistake. Then one time it caused me to be so reckless that it had major consequences for my life.

I could have chosen to come clean and pay the price for my actions right there and then, but I didn’t. I ran away and went into a kind of hiding. I hid away for years, but I could never really escape the consequences. I often had to nervously glance over my shoulder and worry about things. I lost some of my friends. Once I even got blackmailed.

Even so, I kept doing the thing that had caused me the problem in the first case and suffered additional consequences as a result. Finally, after many years of running and hiding and several episodes of reckless actions and costly consequences, I fixed the problem.

It wasn’t easy, and I’ll always have to live with the consequences of my actions. I’ll always have to look back in shame on some of the bad things I’ve done. I’ll always have the regret of how things might have been had I chosen a different path. But these things are now water under the bridge. I can’t change the past, but I can do better now and in the future.

It’s pretty easy to see the parallels between my problems and those of JJprodigy. He cheated when he was younger. He got careless and was caught, but instead of coming clean, he went into hiding while continuing to cheat. His cheating got worse and caused him to get deeper and deeper into a tangled web of hidden identities, unreliable friends, and untrustworthy cohorts.

In his recent “Message to the Community,” JJprodigy talks about being ashamed and embarrassed about his actions, but not being able to stop cheating. He talks about playing at any cost, even though he had to endure getting cheated himself and mixing with other crooked characters.

It is pretty clear that he has already suffered considerable negative consequences from his chosen course of action. He probably never imagined that his life would be so convoluted when he started cheating two years ago. Given the premise of his recent message, he probably thought that the event of his 18th birthday would enable him to finally come clean, put his problems behind him, and move ahead doing the thing he professes to love so much.

I can just imagine him looking forward to finally being able to play in a big live poker tournament. It has probably been his dream to be able to demonstrate his skills to the live poker world. He’s seen BeL0WaB0Ve win at the Bellagio, Annette_15 fulfill her dreams in London, and Imper1um make a splash in Dublin, and he wants some of that glory.

Actions, however, have consequences. He says he has stopped cheating and that he will not cheat again. Nevertheless, Pokerstars has banned him from the PCA. He will likely find it hard to enter some other 18+ live tournaments too. It is much more difficult to hide in the live poker circuit than it is online.

The consequences of his actions will last for many years, some of them forever. It may be a few years before he is allowed to play in some live events. He may never be allowed to play online under his own name on some sites. He will always be hated by some people. His name will forever be associated with cheating, and people will always gossip about him.

He will have to live with all of this. It will be hard. He may be tempted to go underground again, back to that world of deception and intrigue. That would be a big mistake. It would just get him into more trouble and harsher and harsher consequences. Can he really imagine spending his whole life as a fugitive?

Will he now realize the magnitude of what he has done and how deep he has sunk? Will he deduce that only hard work and dedication will get him out of this hole and enable him to realize his dreams? It may takes years of staying clean before he can enter a big live tournament with his head held high.

I really hope he is now mature enough to take the right course of action. If so, he might earn some respect from some of the people he has wronged. If not I predict he is likely to get hunted down, caught, and punished with far worse consequences than any temporary hiatus from poker will cause him.

The JJprodigy story is a lesson for us all. Just because we chose to gamble for a living (albeit skilfully) and sometimes win money from our opponents by deceptive plays does not mean that we can justify indulging in and getting away with cheating. Eventually you will not get away with it and suffer the consequences. As we enter a New Year, I encourage everyone to choose the right path.