So, You Want To Start Playing Poker? – Part 1

[shipitfish]

I have been asked a number of times by friends and acquaintances about poker. It is USAmericans' favorite game, and was so even before the boom. Post-boom, it's ok now for even the intellectual elite, who would otherwise frown on “gambling”, to like and enjoy poker.

I am somewhat used to the “Oh, so you're a doctor, I wanted to ask you...” syndrome of being a good poker player. As someone who also knows about computers, I have often been the person whom friends and acquaintances come to and ask their computer questions. Since I have barely ever used Microsoft products, I'm usually no help there — to their surprise. However, in poker, I'm well versed and knowledgeable in the ways that they need me to be, since I started from the very bottom games that interest new players.

When I started teaching my friend Dan how to play, roryk told me:

It seems fun and innocent and cool to be teaching someone, until one of the people you get into playing cards completely destroys their life with it. 90% of the people are suckers in the games, and more likely than not if you get someone playing, they are going to be a sucker. [...] So just save yourself some hassle and tell them not to get involved and that it is a brutal, frustrating game.

I gave that advice serious consideration, but in the end, rejected it (Sorry roryk). I have never had anyone come to me to ask about poker whom I judged to be susceptible to losing themselves in addiction. I have a good sense for this, but even if I do screw up and get someone involved who can't handle it, I am certainly not going to blame myself. Should everyone who ever served an alcoholic their first drink blame themselves? Of course not, it isn't their fault; it's a mix of bad genetics, bad environment, and a lack of self-control on the part of the alcoholic.

I model poker as an example of the typical USAmerican male hobby. Upper-middle class men spend a lot of money on their hobbies. Think of golf, for example. I know men who must dump a grand or two each and every year into their golf habits. They'll never make a dime of that back, of course. It's our culture; the “pursuit of happiness” appears right there in a one of our founding documents. Golf makes some men happy, so they dump all their so-called “disposable income” into it.

roryk is right, of course, many experts estimate that 90% of regular poker players are long-term losers. I've never seen hard data, nor a even rigorously computed estimation of that number, but it's still probably correct. But being one of the 90% is far from having a problem. If the player doesn't have a gambling problem, there isn't any inherent additional harm in giving poker a go and dropping a few grand a year in poker instead of golf. Indeed, poker losses can surely be mitigated by careful study to no more than any other hobby someone might undertake. And, the new player might even end up a winner for the year. I think it's a fun hobby and a great way to study the psychology of others, regardless of financial outcome.

The first thing I always tell people who have interest in poker, is that they will be losers forever unless they plan a rigorous, diligent, involved and constant learning process that will take up a large portion of their free time. As a new player, you must realize that to become a strong player, it takes study and lots and lots of active practice (not the passive practice of playing without an eye to game improvement). It takes discipline, concentration and nerves of steel. But, it's also rewarding, just as it is always rewarding to engage in competitive hard work with direct financial reward.

Having heard the caveats, you may still want to give poker a go. You have some “disposable income” and want to take your shot. Then, I suggest you set a budget for the hobby and be disciplined about it. It can be disheartening to realized you don't have the time to put in to learn how to beat the games, but any hobby one might engage in can turn out that way, despite substantial financial investments. It's important that you make an up-front budgeting decision on how much you're willing to spend on the hobby and stick to it. I am sure that every day, a USAmerican man realizes he's never going to be that good of a golfer but that he'll keep playing anyway because he enjoys it, but he surely does so on a budget.

Anyway, the upshot is that I have no qualms about helping people learn poker, with the caveats set forth. So, then the next question always comes: How do I get started and what type of game should I play? What should I read? Where should I go to start playing?.

I've answered these questions many times over during the past few years. I've decided, after tmckearney asked a few questions and I started putting down the usual answers, that I'll instead do a series in this journal, geared to help complete poker newbies get started. Each Sunday night, until I run out of things to say, I'll make a post helping new players navigate their way through the world of poker.

Comments

[roryk.livejournal.com]

I think if you are going to engage in an activity that you should be honest with yourself about what it is exactly that you are doing. When you are playing poker with people, you should be aware of who you are playing with and what you are doing. For a while I was going to this game where I was positive I was going to the game specifically to take money from people involved in illegal activities and from gambling addicts. The other players in the game were poker professionals. The money from the illegal activities was bookmaking, so really I was taking money indirectly from some gambling addicts as well. So what does that make me? A good guy. I am spending my time sitting around with a bunch of criminals taking money off of people with afflictions who cannot afford to be losing the money. I think, if you want to be perfectly honest with yourself, that you can classify yourself as sort of a scumbag at that point.

Now, did I feel bad about it? No. The money was going to be lost by the gambling addicts to someone, and if it wasn't me, it was going to be the other poker professionals or the criminals. And of all the people there, I felt I was the most moral and the nicest person there. In fact I had a shining reputation for being the nicest person in the few games I went to, which got me invitations to more games. If that money were to leave that circle of people, it would do the most good leaving the game to me. If it went to the gambling addicts, they would just lose it to the rest of those guys. But in terms of how, if you were to zoom the camera out of that one room, zoom out, out and then categorize society into different groups, I would likely be grouped? I'd be grouped with the scumbags. The criminals. Seedy people. Drug addicts. People preying off of weaknesses of others. Because that is exactly how I was spending my time and exactly how I was making my living.

I did not feel bad about that because I view poker like being a Samurai swordsman in Japan. Inherently, their job was to kill people. And they did not care if the person hiring them had a good reason to kill the person or not, they just did what they were told. They cared only about following their internal code of ethics and to hone their craft at killing people. I have my own internal code of ethics regarding playing poker. One of my rules is to shield new people from the game because I see what the game does to people. I also feel as if each poker hand is a mini lesson of life. When you have a playable hand you have anticipation, you are given information, you have to make complex decisions, you have to learn about yourself, learn your emotions and become at peace with yourself, learn your demons and get rid of them. You have to learn to deal with major disappointment, with long periods of loss, with fear. You have to learn to keep your ego in line, to be humble. You have to learn to concentrate and pay attention. I think you can really work on yourself when you are playing poker if you look at it the right way and so, even though I think the game itself is not one I would want my friends and family to get involved with, I personally derive a great amount of pleasure and enjoyment from playing the game. I grow as a person and understand a lot about myself. Krishnamurti said that you should find the thing you are supposed to do in life and do that, and it is very obvious to me that poker, for now, is that thing for me because I have grown immensely while playing this stupid game. It is just that, unfortunately, the game itself is an extremely selfish extremely self-serving game. I recognize it for what it is and I accept it and don't make it out to be anything other than it is.

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good philosophy. I admire your code of ethics, even if I don't agree with it for myself.

[samm-on.livejournal.com]

These are interesting theories about playing poker and I don't think I share them. I am not an experienced poker player neither but I don't think it's impossible to win higher stakes on poker if you're up for it. After all, it's not always about brains, it's also about luck and chance. I stayed around casino slots (http://www.bonusrating.com/slots/) enough to learn that.

[mmaariammaaria.livejournal.com]

I would like to try poker, till now I was playing only Texas Holden and online casino (http://www.gowildcasino.com/promotions.html). I bet that I can find this game online but I want to play it with my friends.