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Proud to be a pussy.


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I've wanted to write something about poker (No Limit Texas Hold'em, specifically) for a while. It's not the easiest thing in the world when you accept the fact that you aren't the most knowledgeable, and certainly far from one of the most skilled players around. When I listen to my gut and stick to my strategies, I can hold my own. Put together a tournament of 6,000 people and I can finish on the top 3.5% most of the time. In the 18-45 player Sit & Go's, my average finish is 3rd, with a couple of wins.

I could improve my game considerably if I put more effort into the finer points of poker, and specifically No Limit Hold'em. There can be a tremendous amount of math involved if you're up to it, and there are multiple levels of thought that can go as deep as three levels (what do I have, what does he have -- what does he think I have, what does he think that I think he has, etc.) I'm not interested, it's too much work for one, and the more you involve yourself the harder the losses hit you. It's one of the few places where I want to have fun as equally as I want to win.

And this is why I don't play for money.

Losing money hurts a hell of a lot more than losing your pride, because replacing pride is free, replacing money isn't quite so easy. And there is no point in trying to argue that there is no difference in the action. People who play with play money treat it for what it is, worthless. They take many more risks than they would otherwise (though I do not.) It's harder to get people to fold and bluffing is almost impossible with a small stack. But it still takes skill to win. The people who don't care will play themselves out of tournaments pretty quickly, and there are plenty of people with skill who practice in the play money games.

But there are other reasons I don't play for money. I know I'd start winning the small buy-in S&G's right off the bat, but I'd be frustrated in not making very much money back. The prize money is based entirely on the buy-in, and the number of people that play in them. I pick 18-player S&G's because I'm playing the numbers to my advantage. With only 18 people, the odds of more than a couple skilled players being present are fairly low. With only two tables, they go pretty quick, and that's significant when a 45-player S&G can last anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours. If you can't play enough of these per day, you won't be making much money even if you win a majority of them (you won't.)

18-play S&G's take about 1.5 hours to play, and first-place for a $5+0.50 buy-in will only get you $36. My average finish in a recent 7-game stretch was 3rd (all 2-table 18-player) which would have netted me only $126 if they were all $5+0.50 games. Taking roughly 10.5 hours, I'd be making about twelve dollars an hour. I don't find that particularly alluring. 10.5 hours per day, every day, is a lot of time spent playing poker. More than I'd really want to spend.

Sure, if you played in a $20+2 game with 18 players, that $126 turns into $504, but what if my average finish of 3rd doesn't hold up? Only 1st through 4th pay in a 18 player S&G, which leaves about 78% of the field twisting in the wind.

Thirty minutes ago, I was called a pussy for playing in the freeroll games. Though I could undoubtedly make money doing otherwise, it's not what drives me to play, so for now it's out of the question. Most likely, the few people in the place that agreed with the accusation are part of that 78% that walk away empty handed from these tournaments.

I'm proud to be a pussy, because I'm winning. I'm having fun, and I'm not a prick. Not many people can say that.

But I can.
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The text of this article is Copyright © 2006,2007 Paul William Tenny. All rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Attribution by: full name and original URL. Comments are copyrighted by their authors and are not subject to the Creative Commons license of the article itself.