When it comes to poker, listening to the voices in your head might just be a good idea
Doyle Brunson recently said that ‘the education of a poker player is never complete’. And, as always, he’s right. Poker is the unsolvable game; it rewards study then slaps you in the face by showing you a whole bunch of other stuff you didn’t even know existed. Maybe that’s why after 16 years of being a grown-up it’s one of only two things I’m not yet bored of. (The other, of course, is Football Manager.)
So, come the end of the May bank holiday weekend, while normal people were going to the beach to stare at the rain, I was attending the UK’s first poker boot camp. As one of the instructors, I was part of a bunch of pros teaching a roomful of aspiring pros to be better players.
Unfortunately, almost none of my suggestions for the course were taken up. I mean, what’s wrong with wanting push-ups when the students can’t answer something? Especially when I’ve got to suffer by getting up at 7am for the 9am start. I mean, seriously, the only time I normally see 7am is when I’ve played really late and I’m stumbling to bed. Teaching how to use implied odds at the table while barely able to focus is quite a feat, let me tell you.
Luckily, the course went really well and sharing ideas about poker and hearing how other pros think about the game was a real pleasure. The course seemed to be well received by the students, too. As one of my fellow instructors, Padraig Parkinson said, ‘Years ago we were all spending hundreds of hours trying to figure this stuff out – you’re getting it all in a day… Now drop and give me 20!’ (Okay, he may not have said the last bit.)
Feeling the squeeze
At the end of the first day there was a tournament for the students with an entry to a major live tourney as the first prize. The great thing was watching everyone put their new tricks into practice; never before have so many squeeze plays been executed by so few in such a short space of time. (And if you’re not sure what a squeeze play is you should think about signing yourself up for the next boot camp.)
While the students were diligently grinding away in the tournament, I took the opportunity to relax with… well, some poker obviously. My evening’s entertainment started with several heads-up death matches with fellow PokerPlayer writer – and poker degenerate – Shelley Rubenstein. Somehow Shelley boxed a 2-2 draw with me after sucking out on me time and time again. (And those are the exact irrefutable facts of how it happened, and you know that because it’s in black and white.)
We were then joined by a few other sick poker puppies and started a five-handed sit- and-go. I dealt the first hand and looked down to find K-K. I raised up with Shelley calling in the small blind. The flop came down K-Q-4 – Yahtzee! I’d flopped top set.
Let’s take a pause and put this in context. I’d been up since seven and talked or listened to poker strategy all day. It was now past one in the morning and I was in some kind of spaced-out twilight world where there is only poker. The weird thing is I was completely locked in to the game. I could read every bet, interpret every facial flicker – people, I was inside The Matrix.
Shelley bet into me on the flop and I called. The turn was a Ten and she bet again, but a little small. Okay, this board was getting scary so I raised up, half expecting to win it right there. Shelley thought, and then called, and a massive neon sign swung up from my subconscious brain and slammed into my spaced-out consciousness. The sign read: ‘Queen-Jack’. The river brought a Nine and Shelley moved all-in, leaving me with a decision.
Guided by voices
Now I’m not in the habit of folding top set – certainly not in a shortish-stacked five- person sit-and-go – but I just knew she had the straight. For the next few minutes I went round in circles… How can I fold this hand? How am I going to get up at 7am for day two of this thing? I know she has Q-J… I wonder if there’s a chippy open on the way home?
Eventually I did what I knew was right and folded. Later Shelley promised me I was right about the hand and she’s a poker player so that must be the truth.
The fascinating thing is, if you think about poker a lot, and if you play with an opponent a lot, your inner voice will tell you exactly what’s going on – we all just need to listen more.
By the end of the second day of the training course I was exhausted from the early starts, the late-night playing and the end-of-camp 20km cross-country run. So when I was invited to a home game that night obviously I did the sensible thing – and immediately accepted.
This is not a gambling problem… this is the gaining of an education, and it may take a while to complete.
”A massive sign swung up from my subconscious brain. The sign read: ‘Queen-Jack’”
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