Poker Articles

AawwNutz's article and some recent disasters inspired me to write a bit about equipment redundancy. Coincidentally, anytime my machine / connection goes haywire, it's never been when I've been running bad or have a low stack; it's always when I have a chip lead or am at a final table (yeah, I know; God hates me). The world might be out to get you [points to his tinfoil hat], but with a game plan, you have some say in the matter.

What we first want to do is a cost vs. benefit comparison where cost = amount of equipment to be purchased and benefit = estimated dollars earned/saved when equipment is used. I think a conservative estimate of money I've missed out on due to this failure would be about $6000 total over the past year. I think a lot of this was simply unfortunate, so I'd estimate me missing ~$2500 for next year. Assess your typical buy-in and money you could potentially lose to equipment failure. It doesn't make sense for cash players to invest in this area, nor people buying into $5.50 multi-table tournaments which have small fields. But even a mid-level tourney player like myself can benefit here. We can start to stratify areas of failure into the following 3 categories : Computer, Power, and Internet.

COMPUTERS can overheat, shut down, get infected, have stuff spilled on them, etc. It might be a good idea to have another computer to fall back on. Make sure your poker programs are installed and updated on there once every couple weeks so you can make a clean switch if your computer suddenly just stops working. Honestly though, I think this scenario is pretty unlikely; the only way I see your computer dying mid-tourney is if you're picking up diseased files from downloading pr0n, you sick, little monkey. If you don't have the cash for an extra computer, make sure you have access to one: a friend's or roommate's will do. $400 can get you a nice little desktop set up these days too, ya cheapskate.

POWER doesn't typically go out for extended periods, but lo and behold, I blacked out last week (ahem...not from drinking) for an hour, just in time to get back and see that I'd blinded out when I was in 5th place with 40 people left. Now, this may not be a fool-proof plan (cable networks need commercial power, therefore a massive blackout means no poker), but if your fuse blows or if local power to your house/apartment/building is cut, getting a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) would solve the problem. For $100 you can get a rechargeable power supply that will last you approximately 40 minutes. Yes, this doesn't seem like a ton of time, but this could mean making the final table or not. If you're using a laptop, make sure it's always on AC power and 100% charged. If the power goes, you only need to have your router and cable modem hooked into the UPS for the time being. Of course, if you're on a desktop this will impact the battery life as it needs to be plugged into the UPS as well. And if the UPS batteries start to die, shift gears and try to build a big stack for the impending blackout....who knows, maybe the power will come back and you can jump back in.

INTERNET is probably the most common form of failure. Before you start a big buy-in, make sure your Internet Service Provider isn't scheduled for maintenance that night. If your connection goes down unexpectedly, you should have a plan. AawwNutz has a backup dial-up connection he can get into from work, which is a good example. Check out other ISPs in your area, find their costs, and see if the redundant line would be of benefit to you. College students can get to an apartment that has a different ISP than yours, or hit up a computer lab where you can install your programs (don't forget about admin rights which might prevent you from doing so...). Set up some kind of prior agreement, like if you cash for a significant amount, you'll kick that person 10% of your profits or pay for their drinks this weekend. Not a bad deal either way, considering you may have made nothing without their help.

Hopefully this form of insurance helps to point you in the right direction and less P5'ers get caught with their pants down in the future. Not sure about you, but I'd rather have someone bad-beat or outplay me than eat my blinds when I'm disconnected.