Odd Thoughts of a Sober Drunkard

It seems these days, if you play poker, that the game has aggressively moved more towards gamble than stategy.

I'm not just refering to freerolls, but buy-ins and cash games as well. It seems that everyhand played there is someone trying to bust the hand completely.

I'll try and make sense of my opinion without rambling (which as I am sober I tend to do).

In tournament play protecting your chips is as important as accumulating. As I continue to learn the game I still find myself trying to adjust from the pot grinder to the all in all the time gambler. What happened to those days when people won pots? Now everyhand has an all in!

I don't want to attack anyone's style calling them donkey or belittling their approach as they either invested the buy in fee or registered the freeroll and have every right to play it the way they see fit.

It seems however that skill level or I'll call it experienced play has found itself challenged on every street of a card game. No matter what the buy in level or table stakes (live and on-line) poker's popularity and increased dollar amounts has flooded the tables with the quick buck gambler.

It seems the days of the grinder are tested as no matter how big a favorite you are someone is going to call you down. They have no idea that one out on 5th street in a hold-em game means they are at best like 5% to win a hand. It's not on their agenda to pay attention to the odds. They just see that there is a card that can give them a winner and they are more than happy to pull the lever on a slot machine and take that risk.

Is it bad for the game? I don't know. I like the fact that people are willing to risk so much against long odds for a big payday as long term it keeps the profit in the hands of the patient skilled experienced players. That is the one saving grace of poker. You play it right you will win. It just at times can be taxing to win ten $10 pots playing $1-$2 NL hold-em and losing $100 once to a gut shot river card the guy should have folded on the flop.

What is all this about? I don't remember. Just felt like posting a thought. It so much easier to make sense when I've halved a bottle of Jameson.

See ya at the tables.

The whole reason for this of course is online poker. The way the games are structured compared to your regular live game, every online tourney (save the deepstack tourneys at PS) can be considered a turbo. Then you have your actual TURBO games that are, IMO, pretty much crapshoots. There is of course still skill involved, but gambling has become a bigger part due to the looseness of most players.

It may or may not be good for the game overall, but one thing is for sure: variance is HUGE, and it's perfect for bankroll swings

Amen Bruda............unfortunately for me after a huge month of July the swing is stinging the backside in August, but as always it will change.

I have to agree with chipslap about online poker being more of a gamble. I play in low limit cash games and have seen a whole nights gains and sometimes more disappearing when someone hits a miracle card on the river. This is more often than not a hand that any 'sensible' player will throw away pre-flop but then again, define a 'sensible' player. In the low limit games a lot of players seem to have 2 bets. The first is 'All in' pre flop and the second is 'All in' post flop.
But then again we don't have to play .............. or do we ?

I disagree. I know that there are alot of newer a wreckless players out there, but if you play solid poker and pay attention then you will turn a profit in the long run. Another thing is that in the lower limit games(especially micro games) there are many players who dont care about a few cents or dollars and they dont play to there potential. Another thing is that for the new and inexperienced players who have small bankrolls will play these games when they are just learning the strategic aspects of the game. When you are beat on a gutshot at the river you must take in consideration "did he know better than to call with a gutshot?". If you play within your bankroll and stay solid then you can overcome this dilemma.GL

The way you have to look at it is that these new players out there are there for one thing only...fatten my bankroll. Yes they will make donk calls alot but if you play smart and wait till that one killer hand you will be walking away with fatter pockets.

same here. had a big July but August was not good to me. every time i got a big hand someone would hit that one card. i just tell em NH and let em think they did somethin right. my style has went from being a rock to being a bolder. i also went from trying to figure out what all the odds were to just going with my gut. it just seems to do better for me.

I agree completely, I don't even like to play tournaments online because of it's all cards and no poker. Live is a completely different story however (until you run into an online only player live).

I've gotta go with BBB on this one. I take my lumps from the donks just like everyone else, but in the long run I do come out ahead. It's just a matter of being patient with them. Anyone can win a single hand, game, session, but in the long run, donks do lose and we do profit.

This is something we all pretty much agree on...that wasn't the point I was getting at......I was just pointing out how quick buck gamblers have taken the majority of the populous in poker live and on-line....

In my origional post I made reference to exactly what you said here.

"Is it bad for the game? I don't know. I like the fact that people are willing to risk so much against long odds for a big payday as long term it keeps the profit in the hands of the patient skilled experienced players. That is the one saving grace of poker. You play it right you will win. It just at times can be taxing to win ten $10 pots playing $1-$2 NL hold-em and losing $100 once to a gut shot river card the guy should have folded on the flop."

Ofcourse we all take beats and that's going to happen (weird how a some of the responses I get on my posts here always seem to focus on some negative aspect and like beats as if that was what I was talking about). I guess I'll just stick to comedic sensless posts and leave all the poker stuff to the experts.