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New players and their ego's
2010-04-03 19:46:32
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Steve Larson |
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New players and their egos New players are a breed apart in online poker. These guys don't yet know much about the subtleties of the game, and they're naive enough to consider themselves the next re-incarnation of Doyle Brunson. They learn the rules of the game, and within a few hours, they're winning pot after pot, doubling up their initial bankrolls. Then they get hit by a couple of bad beats, and blinded by tilt, they lose their very last cent. Before they know it, there they stand, nickel and dime-less, wondering how a super-player could be gotten the better of at such an alert pace. Obviously, something's got to be wrong, but it would never cross out rookie's mind that he is in fact at fault for the failure and that the problem is with his poker skills, or rather with the lack thereof. He'll try again, and he'll be denied yet again. Surely, something's got to be wrong with the poker room's software. Every time he picks up pocket rockets, they get cracked. Every time he makes a set, someone hits a runner-runner flush. These events pile up and they push our rookie to the next stage of his ego-driven rut: he hits the poker forums and begins to complain about his bad luck, blissfully unaware of the fact that: 1) the community doesn't give a flying rat's ass about his predicament. Folks on there have heard such stories a countless number of times, and they get truly pissed when some rookie shows up to whine. 2) Whining will only work towards deepening his problems. One of the worst possible things a rookie can do is to whine about how unlucky he is at the poker table. That is basically an invitation for the other players to come and abuse him some more. In poker, the dog eat dog, wolf-pack psychology is at its best. As soon as they smell weakness, players turn on the ailing to finish him off and to get a piece of him before others do. So what does our rookie do? He either tries a few more times then quits (which is unfortunately the case with many a new online poker player), or he begins to realize that the core of his problem is that he sucks. That's right, I should've written that in capitals. Our guy realizes he may not be quite the natural talent he thought he was and he begins to read. As he reads on, he becomes more and more humbled: he learns that the poker rake which he took so lightly when he made the move to the real money tables is actually a pretty serious hurdle. Then he learns about rakeback and poker prop deals, and finds out that the poker account he's created cannot be turned into one which gives him rakeback, despite the fact that the poker room where he plays offers rakeback too. For that though, he should've created a rake back account to begin with. He does't even get to the actual strategy part, he's already ashamed of himself. Then he learns about "little things" like bankroll management, table selection and position. Once players learn such basic concepts, they manage to rise to the second level of poker thought. The second level of poker thought is a tricky trap though. Regaining some of his initial swagger, out rookie feels like he's indeed a knowledgeable player now. He begins to ponder past his own cards and he begins to make his first reads. He begins to lay down hands based on these reads, and he starts feeling proud of himself. He hits the poker forum again, this time though, his goal is to flaunt his newly acquired knowledge. He belittles folks in the forums and he scolds opponents at the tables for making "donk" calls. Amid all this excitement though, he gets stuck on this thought level. This is the level on which the vast majority of online players are, and this is where most of them shall remain. It takes another moment of revelation for a player to realize there are still higher thought levels he has to transcend in order to become better and to truly be able to call himself a poker player. The third level of poker thought is what it really takes to become a "player", in the proper sense of the word. Those on this thought level begin considering the reads their opponents make on them, and their possible consequences. This is where players become capable of bluffing. As I said though, while it may look simple on paper, few people ever manage to rise to the third thought level. A good poker player never stops learning. As the game keeps evolving and changing, new challenges arise every step of the way. He who is unable to dynamically adapt to the ever changing world of online poker, will be left in the dust. Written by Steve Larson, an online poker player from Canada, visit his rakeback site for some more useful information. |
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