Hell no, we won’t go!!!
{ 0 comments }
From the monthly archives:
October 2008
Much is made in poker literature about defending your blinds but less is said about defending your button. It is very important that you try and play as many pots as possible when on the button, as you can use the sledgehammer of position to really put your opponents to the test. In the current poker climate, where many players are starting to play a very aggressive and loose style, you will frequently have a raise in front of you before the action gets around to you on the button. It is important to send a message to the players at your table that you will not allow them to continually raise when you are in position.
By playing lots of pots on the button, you will quickly start to make it clear that you will not give up position lightly - players quickly notice that they always sem to be playing pots out of position with a specific player and try and adjust their behaviour accordingly. The button is an incredibly important position in any form of poker that has rotating blinds - the largest percentage of your profit will come from it (particularly if playing short handed where position is extremely important due to the much larger number of decisions players have to make).
If you want to see the effects of this for yourself, simply download any of the available poker tracking software and look at your positional statistics - you will quickly see that the button is by far the most profitable position, followed by the cut off, then the hijack and so on around to the blinds where your profit will turn to a loss.
Playing in position as often as possible is perhaps the most important concept that has to be grasped in order to become a successful poker player. Because of this, it is imperative that you do as much as possible to a) play as many pots as possible when on the button; and b) do your utmost to make the table wary of opening when you are on the button - giving you the best chance at not only being the first player to raise, but also to do it in position on the players holding the reason your at the table - those sitting in the all important blinds.
Remember that your time on the button will always be the most profitable of your time at the table. Protecting it and playing on it are critical to poker success and you forget this at your peril.
To read more poker articles by Marcus Bateman head over to the Betfair Poker Blogs
{ 2 comments }
As a long time reader of Bill’s blog, when I saw there was an opportunity to write here, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. My expertise really falls further on the business and affiliate side of online poker versus the player side. Nonetheless, you can occasionally find me relaxing in the evenings after a long days work playing in SNG’s or smaller MTT’s.
Over 90% of the time I fail to cash in the tournaments. Okay fine, I admit it I am a donkey. I play far too aggressive, I don’t even know how to calculate pot odds, nor do I play each position properly. If you are ever sat at tournament table with me, you should probably be looking to double through me before anyone else.
But the beauty of it is, I know there are far better player out there than me, and that I’ll probably have to get lucky to win. This doesn’t bother me though. I love to gamble, and I find playing in MTT’s a couple nights a week to be relaxing. The money I win or lose is completely discretionary and makes no difference in my day to day life.
So this leads me to the point of this article. Why is there so much focus by the PPA and others on selling that poker is a skill game to the U.S. government. The fact is that less than 20% of regular online poker players are true “winning players”(It’s probably even less, I don’t know the exact statistic). The other 80% however are either break even or losing players.
Of course there is no question that poker is a skill game, I’m not arguing that. As poker players we are well aware of this. But when the numbers show that such a small percentage of players are actually profitable, I think it makes for a weak argument to our government. Sure, many people reading this blog are in that 20% and have mastered the skill of being a winning online poker player. A lot of the readers here even play poker for a living. I have much respect and envy for you guys.
But the reality is that a HUGE majority of online players are people with regular full time jobs who are playing with discretionary income, and doing so for recreation and entertainment. Put your hands up if you’re like me and would rather sit with your laptop playing a SNG than watch another episode of “Dancing With The Stars” with your wife.
There is nothing wrong with playing for fun and recreation either. That’s why poker is one of America’s greatest past times. Hell, I could spend the same $50 at the local watering hole getting plastered, destroying my body, and risking others lives driving home. Instead I choose to spend MY money in the comfort of my own home playing the greatest game in the world, poker. There are thousands of worse things I could be spending my money on.
The government can argue about the potential for addiction all they want, fair enough. But if they are really looking out for the people, then get rid of cigarettes, booze, porn, strip clubs, and every other vice out there.
The better argument should be focused on the fact that as American citizens we pay through the nose on taxes. If the United States government can spend trillions of our tax dollars on bailouts that include $500K AIG parties; well then for the love of God let me escape reality television in the evenings, and allow me to play a $10 SNG online. Furthermore the U.S. does not own the internet. When I login into an online gaming site, I am playing cards and transacting money on a server that is based in a legal jurisdiction.
Let’s call a spade a spade here. If gambling is so evil in the government’s eyes, then why is it that I could go into my local gas station every morning and buy $100 worth of scratch off tickets? Obviously the answer is taxes, we all know that. The whole point of this article however is that as tax paying, law abiding citizens, we should be able to exercise our first amendment rights and spend our money any way we please. My guess is that less than 5% of individuals who play online poker are what you would consider a professional winning poker player. For that 5% the skill game argument is great. For the rest of us however, we should be arguing that this so call prohibition known as the UIGEA is unconstitutional.
Please feel free to share your comments on this, as I’m sure there are a wide variety of opinions on the skill game argument. Thanks Bill for giving me the platform to write here.
Jeremy Enke is the founder of the worlds largest poker affiliate forum and a leading consultant in the poker affiliate market. More of his thoughts and ramblings can be found in his personal blog at www.JeremyEnke.com
{ 4 comments }
Hi, my name is Bill Rini and this is my poker blog. I've been blogging about poker and the poker industry since around 2003-ish. Like most people I started out playing poker as entertainment in home games whenever we wanted to sit around and smoke cigars, drink beer, and eat pizza, and needed a good excuse. I started playing online shortly after the first online card rooms opened and it wasn't long before I was playing 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week or more. One day I received a phone call about a program manager position at Tiltware which was the company that consulted to Full Tilt Poker on software development and marketing. After Tiltware I spent about 2.5 years working at Party Poker where I was the poker room manager.