Poker: The Risk of Loss Part 1

What is the fundamental nature of Poker?  Much like the real world there is the situation, and then there is the skill and the luck that you have in this moment to get thru it.  Also, much like the real world there is the risk of loss.  In the world of poker no matter what kind of game you sit down to, whether it’s a ring game or a tournament game, someone is going to loose money and someone is going to make money. 

First what is your personal situation with respect to the money on the table?  Is it yours?   Does it include your entire personal net worth?  Or is it a few dollars that won’t be missed?  Likely it is somewhere in between.  Think about this, if you sit down to a table well capitalized the normal thinking is that you will be stronger and more confident that the fellow who is undercapitalized, skills being equal (which they never are!).   What if you had to mortgage your home to come to the table well capitalized?  That is a totally off the table issue… but it will affect your table play dramatically.  There are many off the table issues that will affect that table tonight and not just yours.  Get a handle on yours and you will be in better shape. 

It happens at poker tables all over the world all the time.  Some poor schmuck comes to the table with the rent money or with that next week’s grocery money.  He is greedy; all he wants is a little luck and some unearned profit from this game.  It is easy to feel sorry for this guy, but if you are he just stop.  If you can’t stop, you have an addiction so get help NOW. 

We have all seen the games in the movies where the hero bets it all.  He bets the farm, Daisy the cow, his girlfriend’s favors and his mother’s wedding ring.  Then in that climatic moment after much struggle and torment he finally wins.  Everyone is happy.  Oftentimes even his opponents are seemingly happy for him.  Well, I have some blunt and hard news for you.  If you are sitting down at the poker table and you are betting it all, seriously betting it all, then you are going to loose.  You cannot make good decisions in that context.  It can’t be done. Professionals try it and loose and you will too. Ignore those one in a thousand or a million times where it supposedly it works.  It will not work for you.  And you have obviously not paid your dues to be a pro.

Find your balls and grab your chips and leave the table.  Just go.  When you have worked yourself into a better situation, start to pay your dues. Read and study some of the great books out there about poker.  Find or start some extremely low stakes games.  Get a lot of practice there.  Study the “tales,” and the odds, and yourself.  Do you like the poker world enough to live there?  Do you like it well enough to work on it daily? Or, are you going to be a recreational player a permanent amateur?  That is ok to, there is a lot of visceral enjoyment from the process of playing, but remember when money is on the table EVERYONE is a professional for those moments. Not that they are professional in skills, but that you can loose and you will have to live with the results of that however bad they might be.