“Popular
depictions of poker players highlight the sexier skills good players exhibit:
bravery, intuition, ease under pressure, but movies, books, and television do a
lousy job of depicting a talent that may be more important than any of these:
endurance. Poker is a game that has a lot of dead time. Most [live] players are involved
in only about 30 percent of the hands dealt, and a sizable majority of these
have quick, pro forma outcomes. You bet, some opponent folds, you take a small
pot. Next hand. the signature confrontations--the ones that I talk about in the book, the ones that serve as turning
points in movies—happen once every few hours if that often. A good player has
to find a way to stay interested through the long periods of nothingness—the interminable
stretches of unplayable starting hands, the deathly slow dealers, and
tablemates who agonize at length over the most mundane decisions.”
–Jay Greenspan
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