Poker Articles

This past week has been kind of nuts.  I have been sick all week trying to catch up on the lack of sleep that I got over the weekend, which I spent in Tunica.  I have played too much poker and talked too much poker.  I was feeling pretty burnt out last night when I hit a nice run in a tourney, which got me motivated again.  Sadly, the run was interrupted by a fire drill when I was sitting in 5th place with 20 people left, and I never was able to get rolling again after I got back into my building. 

I figured I'd share a couple good stories and then get into a question I was discussing with my buddy: what is it that makes the best players the best?   This one may get a little long, so bear with me and hopefully you will find the stories entertaining.

The first story made me feel pretty good about poker, even as I was losing.  I am well aware that I am a nobody in the game of poker; I haven't played very long, I haven't won any major events, and I have even recently been called a small fish.  Sadly, the person who said it was correct, but I can handle that.  I am just trying to get by while learning as much as I can at this point. 

Anyway, I was recognized at a table, which was pretty damn cool.  It's kind of a cheesy thing to get excited about, I know, but humor me a little.  I was playing a single table satellite in Tunica, and when I first sat, I saw two Europeans who I recognized from TV.  Not a good start.  I put my headphones on and wasn't doing much when Shawn Rice came up and introduced himself to me.  I talk to Shawn on occasion online but hadn't had a chance to meet him.  The whole table kind of looked at me odd, all wondering who I might be that Shawn is introducing himself to me.  Obviously I felt like quite the badass. 

The guy to my left asked who I was, and the name "Denny Lemieux" came up.  The
person two over stopped what he was doing and asked if I was the person from the pocketfives site.  At that moment, my ego was through the ceiling.  I asked how he knew the site, and he smiled.  It turns out that he knows it because he is currently ranked 5th in the player rankings--sweet table I picked. 

My chips began to dwindle a bit, and I ended up having to go all in with 29.  I somehow tripled up on that hand, as I hit running twos to stay alive.  What can I say, I play well.  I busted out a few hands later when a guy rivered a wheel on me.  OK, he was actually ahead the whole hand, and thankfully, when I said, "nice river," he was able to laugh with me.

The second great story from the weekend came when I ended up playing some 2-5 NL with p0ker h0 and his buddy h0ldempr0.  h0ldempr0 was the person with whom I chopped the OWNS tournament (discussed in my previous blog entry), so I owed him a drink or two for his generous deal.  I met them both my first night there, and we hung out for a while before I went off to play. 

About an hour later, they both came in and decided they would enjoy terrorizing the rest of the table, so they took a seat.  They did indeed terrorize--h0 made it seem like he was playing with people who had never even sat at a table before, as he just destroyed the game.  We had an absolute blast just talking, drinking, and enjoying watching the cocktail waitress walk back and forth. 

I eventually busted out, but h0 taught me so much about live play just in that short session, and for that, I thank him.  I don't play live very often, and he pointed out to me some pretty big mistakes I was making.  By the end of the night, one kid at the table had some sort of panic attack, and even as the paramedics were working on the kid at the table, h0 kept stealing the dudes blinds.  I guess you don't get ranked in the top 5 by taking it easy on people.  All jokes aside, though, both h0 and pr0 couldn't have been nicer to me--two class act dudes. 

OK, now as I always do, I'm going to bring this blog to some sort of point for my readers to remember.  My friend asked me, "what makes the best players the best?"  I got to thinking, and I know I don't know the answer, but it's an interesting question, and I'm gonna take a stab at it. 

Whenever I have some sort of strategic or deep question about poker, I try to relate it to hockey.  I played hockey all my life, up until this past season, and hockey is what I really know, while poker is something I am learning.  I was a goalie, and I never dominated but I had an ability to win big games I wasn't expected to win.  I believe I was able to do this because I was mentally stronger than the other goalies who generally had me beat in terms of physical ability.  Goalie is an odd position, and it is often more mental then physical.  As I got older, most goalies were very close, but the top ones had the mind to make them the best.

AH HA!  This has to be the answer.  All good poker players are very close in skill level, but it is the mental toughness, so to speak, that separates the best from the rest of the field.  They play their best poker day in and day out, and mentally they are above their competition.  For example, h0 had the 2-5 table beaten before he was even dealt a hand, because he had the table fearing him before he ever sat.  Mentally (and skill wise since it was a 2-5 game), he had already beaten every player at that table.

Before I go I would like to say thanks to everyone who made the weekend great.  Everyone from UB couldn't have been nicer, and even though I wasn't up and didn't sleep, it was an enjoyable trip.  The people I met know who they are, so thanks again for a great time.


Dave Rogowski (A.K.A. Denny Lemieux) is a sophomore, majoring in Education, at Saint Louis University.  Poker is his primary source of income, and he can be found playing at Pokerstars as JesusQntana, at Paradise playing as JesusQntana, at PartyPoker as TheLopper, and at UltimateBet playing as TheLopper or Denny Lemieux.  You can reach him by emailing rogowski@slu.edu