Quality of Play

I sat through the guru's beginning poker class last night. He had 17 students and it was a fairly lively class, with lots of good discussion and insight. The thing that really impressed me, though, was the level of interest and, well, fanaticism that many of the students had for the game. We're talking about beginning poker players, most of whom have only played the game for a few months, but many of them already had favorite players ("I like Negreanu!" "Oh, yeah? I think Doyle is great!") A few of them subscribe to Cardplayer magazine, and one is actually heading off next month to Annie Duke's bootcamp for a weekend. Amazing.

I was surprised, but in hindsight maybe I shouldn't have been. The reality is that online play has been getting noticably better in recent months. The poker boom collapse that everyone was predicting last year (due to the Unlawful Internet Gaming Act passage) has failed to realize itself. People--lots of people--are still genuinely interested in poker and are actively working on their game. Poker books abound on the shelves of bookstores, online forums are going gangbusters, and classes like the guru's are sprouting up left and right. Hell, the guru stated last night that more people watch televised poker on TV than watch baseball!

All of this is good news... and bad news. The good news is that for obsessed individuals like myself, there continues to be a wealth of information available to tap into, as well as a sea of new players to compete against. This surge of players may even help legalize the game, bringing it out of the shadows and into the mainstream. The poker player's alliance continues to grow in number, and PPA president (ex) senator D'Amato appears actually to be getting people in D.C. to listen to the merits of legalizing the game.

Okay, that's the good news. The bad news is that with all the renewed interest in poker, the opp is getting smarter.... and therefore harder to beat. I've seen some savvy poker plays and moves at even the $2 tables lately. Stop-and-go's, limp-reraises from UTG with aces, isolating all-ins, calculating probabilities and manipulating pot odds, etc. Hell, I've seen chat box discussions of outs and odds that are sophisticated enough to belong in a book (which is probably where they players chatting have gotten them in the first place). The bottom line is that people are learning from all the sources available to them... and getting quite good.

So what's this all mean? The answer is simple, really. It's time to buckle down and get better. Sink or swim. Adapt or die. Play better poker... or go broke. It's time to watch out, because the new kid is in town, and he (or she) is learning fast. You just gotta stay one or two steps ahead of them.

Which brings me to yesterday's poor results:
0 for 3 in SnGs.
Lost some limit poker, too.
24-hour Bankroll Change: -3.3%
All-in for now...
-Bug