Reality Check

“Play is the work of children.” My children work very hard, at times! If this statement is also true for adults playing poker, then I can see why so many teens and 20-somethings are enamored with the idea of playing poker for a living. They think that work could be just a fun game. I do not want to play poker for a living. But, poker needs to remain fun. Which leads me to the reality check…

Its good to be brutally honest with yourself as a poker player. I am way past whining about bad beats and variance. Its just part of the game. But after a while, its hard to ignore trends, even if you are immune to and account for the variance. So, here is how my current game stacks up –

Live Cash Games – Love it, and I've had much success. I’ve won a lot in live cash games. Both in Vegas and locally. I’ve never ventured beyond $5/10 NLHE, but I’ve had success at all levels up to this level. I’ve worked hard on my reads and my feel of the game, and its what I like the most. For me, the most satisfying aspect of playing poker is sitting at a table, shutting out the real world for the entire session, tuning in to the vibe of the table, using all the math that I have learned without consciously thinking about the calculations, and then making good reads. When I am in the zone and making good decisions based on my read, this is ultimately why I play the game.

Live tournaments – Decent results, some nice cashes, but I haven’t really played that many tournaments. The luck factor is higher than in cash games, which is why I like deeped-stacked cash games the best. I would play more tournaments if I had the time, but for now I will have to settle for the annual Vegas pilgrimage and the occasional Ameristar tournament. Live tournaments are fun because they are an event, even if the variance is high, which is why I still like to play them.

On-line tournaments – Very high variance. I don’t have the time or take the time to play many on-line tournaments except the Thursday night Chiptalk tournament. I’m relatively satisfied with my ITM% over several years in the Chiptalk series, but I still have yet to win the damn thing. I don’t play the Chiptalk tournament as much due to work and life commitments.

On-line SNGs – This is clearly my strongest on-line game. I have consistently won SNGs up to the $50 level. Sharkscope.com data keeps track better than I do (“Darvcus” on PokerStars). I like the strategy that I have developed over the years for SNGs, and there are still a good number of players that make easily avoidable mistakes in SNGs up to the $30 level. I’ve had much more success at SNGs than on-line cash games.

On-Line Cash Games – After the UIGEA, I am a losing on-line cash game player. Not huge losses, I just don’t have an edge in these games any more. Back during the good PartyPoker days, I was a big winner in the cash games. I guess everyone was (except for the contributors, of course). Its how I built my on-line bankroll from $200 into the thousands. But after the UIGEA, I think the cash games became extremely hard. I sense that a lot of the grinders have learned to live at the low stakes tables, and just play a lot of tables to minimize variance. Last week, I sat at two tables where one player on each table was taking an incredibly long time with each decision. I did a search on each, and they were both playing 15+ tables! Crazy.

Very recently, I’ve come to realize something else about on-line cash games: I need more time to make my decisions. I don’t need any more time that is allotted to make decisions in SNGs, but I routinely need more time than allowed in cash games. So, my decisions are often hurried. Not all the time, and not by a significant amount, but still often hurried. Routinely feeling slightly hurried can make a huge difference between making good laydowns and horrible, money-losing calls. Make this mistake a few times each session, and you have a recipe for –EV results.

I’m not saying this as an excuse for my poor on-line cash game performance, but its just a reality of my game. Admitting your weakness is a strength, right? Feeling hurried, coupled with limited reading abilities at the on-line cash tables, plus playing at night when I am generally tired, has resulted in losses. I don’t have an edge in on-line cash games any more. I’m sure this will change when the law changes at some point in the future, when donators can again easily make deposits, but until these floodgates re-open, I’m going to stick to on-line SNGs for a positive return.