The Other Side of Poker

So okay, I just came back from a poker trip over the weekend. My poker friends are all over NZ right now crashing the casinos, I separated with them for a couple of days as I have classes to attend. I'll be catching up with them again by the weekend though.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, I cashed in a couple of tournaments, even though I'm quite the tournament donk. What makes me a really good cash game player is also what makes me a tournament pushover. Nonetheless, I still played my way to a couple of good finishes and even won a last longer bet (12:1) against them in one of the tourneys. In the cash games, I did even better and have really tailored a consistently winning style. That's probably good news for Wilson as the 10k challenge looks even more realistic as Christmas draws nearer.

Over the last year, I've really pushed myself in terms of being a poker player. In doing so, I've been exposed to the seedier side of poker. When you watch the World Series of Poker and other shows of that mold, it shows poker as prestigious and wholesome. The reality is that it's far from that. The buddies I've hung out with are professional gamblers, not just in poker. I've hung out with professionals who bet on sports, blackjack card counters and pros in all forms of casino games. One of them actually went with a blackjack team to Russia, a country with little blackjack rules, disguised their play and won a lot of money counting cards (they're thinking of trying that out in Manila, by the way). I also heard stories of gambling problems and once-friends who borrowed money and was never heard from again (one of them was a filipino who I met a couple of months ago. When I asked the guys where he's been, they said he borrowed money from everyone and then split town when they tried to collect. Sobering to hear). One of my buddies, the blackjack pro, actually loaned someone 18 grand and then never heard from him again.

It's really quite the world I stumbled into. These are gamblers who see money with lesser value than ordinary people. One of the players we played with, a fish who says his cousin is Joe Hachem, bets big on sports (I took 2000 off him in poker, by the way). While playing poker, he showed us a 13000 bet he made that Australia would score the first try (touchdown) in the Australia/England Rugby match. When an Australian player did score the first try, he jumped up the table screaming. I'd scream too if I won 27 grand. He says one of the gambling tricks he does is called "buying money". This means you bet on the favorite with a big bankroll. He finds a sure-fire match, like Roger Federer against a 100th seed or something like that and then he puts something like 200 000 on it. he'll only win around 20 grand for it, but it's such a surefire win that it's a once in a thousand upset for Federer the machine to lose. I agree with the logic, but I wouldn't want to be there with him if Federer rolls his ankle in the second set or something.

I'm not really judging what they do. I don't think I'm in a position to judge anyway. A better person than me said judge not lest ye be judged. I think I'm just saying that it's really easy to get sucked into this world. These guys throw around money like there's no tomorrow. Then again, if you win as much as they win, you'd probably spend a lot too. In New Zealand, a place with no rules and everything is absolutely legal, it's quite the pit to fall into. For once, I'm glad to have been raised relatively conservative compared to the rest of the world. The guys are amazed at how little gamble I have, especially for a poker player. I'll even make deals at last longer bets to make sure I end up with something instead of nothing. I guess I just approach it more of a business than a gambling hobby. I don't really lie on my bed at night thinking how to play AK from early position as some of my friends do. I don't have that kind of passion for poker that will end up with me living in Vegas waiting for the Series every year. I think I see this as something I happened to be good at and something I found that I can make a lot of money on. I like that next year, even if I have a job, I'll probably still make more money playing poker on the side. Best of all, if I wanted to go back to the Philippines on a whim, all I have to do is go to the poker room and I can get the money I need. It's that easy when you play with a winning style.

I'm at the school library now typing this. I'm waiting for my Business Statistics class that's about to start soon. It's really hard to be studious when you've just come from a trip where everything is exciting and fast-paced. It would be so easy to just take a job from a poker friend of mine and drop all this. I guess what I'm saying is that as much a poker player as I am, it's not what I want to do all the time. I'm excited with the direction Marketing and Advertising can take me and that's something no river-checkraise can beat.

Alright, enough ranting. Time to go to class.