Johnny & Larry

Not much news on the poker front. Played a bit of NL100 on Pokerstars (getting closer & closer to Supernova) and was up a little. Played a couple of satellites for Sunday tournaments with no success. I've gotten used to playing 7 cash game tables while having a couple of tournament tables running in the corner. It definitely helps break up the boredom that creeps in while playing cash games, it also helps me play a bit longer. If I'm still in a tournament I keep the cash games open, so I have been grinding out more hands overall.

I really want to improve my tournament play, so this seems like a good way to do it. Play a lot of satellites during the week, while playing cash games, then concentrate on just tournaments in the weekend. I'll start keeping a list of my tournament results to show you my progress.

Today's Topic: How long is too long.

I think that a lot of player when first starting out play as many hours as they can, to try and improve their game. While this isn't a bad thing, poker players need to be aware when it is a good and bad time to be playing. Playing quality time rather than quantity time will always pay better dividends.

• When not to play poker:
  
  • When you are tired: One of the common mistakes is to play when tired. Either by starting to play after a long stressful day, or by playing a single session for too long. I find that when multitabling online the maximum amount of time that I can play without a break is 3-4 hours. After 4 hours my game and my results definitely deteriorate, even though I may not realize it at the time. When playing live in a casino I have no problems playing 8-10 hours at a time as long as I take a quick break every couple of hours. It has been proven in studies that gamblers who gamble when tired have a lower risk aversion and will be more willing to take foolish risks when tired. The same applies to poker. Work out how long you can play before your game deteriorates, and ensure you take a break at this point.
    
  • When you are stressed: If you have other things going on, like an ongoing argument with your partner, or lots on your mind, realize that it is a bad time to play. If you want to play to get your mind off things, then play at a lower level than you normally do.
    
  • When you are drunk: The amount of player that boast online about being drunk after midnight on a Saturday night, while donking off their stack, is amazing. I know that you are not always thinking straight when drunk, but under no circumstances should you ever play poker for money when drunk.
    
  • When you are not in the mood: Sometime I find that I am bored and while I'm not in the mood to play poker, I play anyway. Often in this situation I will play a bit looser and take more risks than normal to try and kill the boredom. This is not a good time to play.
    
  • When table conditions are bad: Sometime I'll log on and looking down the list of available tables I don't find many with flop seen % over 25%. When table conditions are tight either find another site to play on, or play a different game.
    

Today's Link:

This month's cardplayer magazine has an interesting article written by Daniel Negreanu. In it he looks at why some people climb all the way up the poker ladder and others don't. He uses two different players, Larry and Johnny" as an example. I am more of a Larry player, and want to be more of a Johnny sometime. Link to the cardplayer article here. Also there is an interesting discussion of the article at 2 + 2, link here.

The history of poker

Moved back to NOIQ Poker to play over the weekend. The games are extra soft and they have a great bonus and VIP structure. The players are really passive which makes poker so much more relaxing. Feel free to use "dazza" as your signup code to get a $600 bonus and entry to their VIP system. I'm still playing at Pokerstars, but only between 1am – 4am EST. The games really loosen up during these hours at Pokerstars.

Watched a good movie over the weekend called "The Lookout". I would recommend it if you enjoy a movie with a bit more of a story, rather than full on action.

Today's Topic: The history of poker.

I thought it would be interesting to take a brief look at the history of the game we all love so much.

There seem to be differences of opinion on the origin of Poker. Moreover, it appears there is no clear or direct early ancestor of the game. It is more likely that Poker derived its present day form from elements of many different games. The consensus is that because of its basic principal, its birth is a very old one.

Jonathan H. Green makes one of the earliest written references to Poker in 1834. In his writing, Green mentions rules to what he called the "cheating game," which was then being played on Mississippi riverboats. He soon realized that his was the first such reference to the game, and since it was not mentioned in the current American Hoyle, he chose to call the game Poker .

The game he described was played with 20 cards, using only the aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens. Two to four people could play, and each was dealt five cards. By the time Green wrote about it, poker had become the number one cheating game on the Mississippi boats, receiving even more action than Three-Card Monte. Most people taken by Three-Card Monte thought the 20-card poker seemed more a legitimate game, and they came back time and time again. It would certainly appear, then, that Poker was developed by the cardsharps.

The origin of the word Poker is also well debated. Most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque. However, there are other references to pochspiel, which is a German game. In pochspiel, there is an element of bluffing, where players would indicate whether they wanted to pass or open by rapping on the table and saying, "Ich Poche!" Some say it may even have derived come the Hindu word, pukka .

The game of Poker later evolved to include 32 cards, and eventually the modern day deck of 52, not counting the two Jokers.

The game of Poker has evolved through the years, through many backroom games to the present day casinos around the world. Its history is rich with famous places and characters. For example, during the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a Poker table could be found in just about every town from coast to coast.

Today, Poker is carefully regulated by gambling laws, and saloons have given way to casinos and cardrooms, but Poker is played more than any other card game in the world. It has grown into a sporting event, with competitions and tournaments all around the world. Tournaments take place almost every week of the year somewhere in the world.

If you compare the prizes of major sporting events around the world, you will find that the monetary outcome of any given event in Poker would (pardon the pun) stack up. Poker today is one of the fastest growing, but hardly recognized sporting events. The pinnacle of the poker world, The World Series of Poker, attracts players from all over the world every year to compete for money and titles as the world's top Poker players.

Poker will always be around and will continue to grow and flourish like so many other past times. There will always be a game to play, money to be won, and crowns to be worn.

Today's Link:

Cardplayer magazine is the world leading poker magazine. On their website they have a lot of great articles, videos, and interviews. Link here.