A man and woman get married in Las Vegas and retire to a local casino hotel for their wedding night. Early the next morning, after a wild night of champagne, caviar, and consummating their vows, the new bride is soundly sleeping in. The groom, however, is awake and hung-over, so he gets up and wanders down to the casino. He’s spent all his money on room service and condoms, so he figures he’ll just walk around and watch some gambling. On the way to the tables, however, he finds a five dollar bill lying on floor. Thinking this is a good omen, he heads to the roulette wheel and hands the five dollars over, saying, “Put it all on red.” The wheel spins and stops on red, netting the guy ten dollars. He says, “do it again—on black this time.” Again, he comes up a winner. He repeats this process a dozen times, switching between black and red, building up his winnings to over $20,000. He ponders quitting, but instead goes for one more shot at doubling his money. “Put it all on red,” he says. This time the wheel stops on black. Dejected at losing all his money, he heads back upstairs to the room. When he walks in, his bride is awake. She asks where he’s been. “Down in the casino,” he replies. “So, how did you do?” she asks. “Not so good,” he says, “I lost five dollars.”
I was having a conversation with my buddy Bret the other day about YIPES. We were discussing the exponential nature of the experiment, and how I’m going to have to start playing at bigger and bigger stakes as the game goes on. I commented on the fact that it will be hard to psychologically accept the larger swings of the game (assuming I can keep doubling up, of course) and that it will be tough to buy into a $50 SnG or play in a $10/20 cash game when I’m used to much smaller stakes and buy-ins. It will be tempting to just reach a certain level and quit, I said, taking the money as pure profit and abandoning the experiment altogether.
Bret, in his infinite programmer’s logic, pointed out that in order to play at those higher stakes, I need to psychologically think of the growing bankroll as not my own money. Poker Stars gave me $5, he said, so I have to just consider it--and all profit that arise from it--as “found money.” If (not when) I start to lose big, I need to remember that I started with five “free” dollars and I have to just let the cards fall where they may (no pun intended).
Sounds like good advice, but can I actually follow it? One of the guru’s ten commandments of winning poker is Thou Shall Play With Heart. This commandment has a number of implications, but one of the main points it emphasizes is that you can’t play with “scared” money, meaning you have to play at stakes you’re comfortable with or else you won’t be willing to stay aggressive. You have to “bet the river,” if you want to win. If you get out of your bankroll comfort zone, you can’t play solid aggressive poker. The sharks at the table will smell the fear in your play as easily as real sharks smell blood in the ocean. In a sense, playing at higher and higher stakes is going to take a disassociation with bankroll reality. The money isn’t real, I need to remember, it’s just Poker Stars’ money. Or put another way, it’s that old tournament poker adage writ anew: “In order to live, you have to be willing to die…”
….oh well, this is all just theoretical BS at this point. I’ve managed to double up for the first two months of the experiment, and it looks pretty certain that I will be over the goal of $40 for this month, too. That said, it is getting tougher now that I’ve started to venture into some relatively higher stakes. Yes, I know, the absolute level of the stakes I’m playing at is still pretty small (5/10-cent hold’em, $1 SnGs, 10/20-cent stud games) but relative to my smallish bankroll, there isn’t going to be any point in the experiment from here on out that I can be psychologically comfortable in the games. As my bankroll increases, so do the stakes I have to play at. Will I continue to be willing to die in order to live? Or will I start to feel the pain of the larger and larger swings? Dunno. Guess I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s not my money… and that I will always have my Full Tilt Poker bankroll bride waiting for me back in the other room.
All-in for now…
-Bug
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