How the poker virus spreads in cold and flu season...
POKER CURES THE COMMON COLD? Well, not exactly, but a very excited newcomer to dailystarpoker.com (Ben Staniforth from Leicester) informs me that had it not been for him going down with a very severe cold he would never have got round to playing online poker. Finding himself with several days of coughing and sneezing around his apartment to contend with Ben decided out of pure boredom to take up Texas Hold’em. Sensibly, he started on the “play money” tables. By day three his cold was beginning to fade and our hero was already racking up winnings on the $2-$4 real money games. “It didn’t exactly “cure” my cold but I completely forgot about the symptoms. By the time I was $360 ahead after just three and a half days I was starting to hope the infection would last the week.” Clearly the big poker sites should consider this form of “viral” marketing to pull in more virgin punters.
GUNS ‘N ROACHES The very best poker players funnily enough don’t tend to gamble in the traditional sense. To a keenly developed poker brain, poker and gambling are two different pastimes. One has an element of risk and an element of skill. The other is just down to luck. I’ve seen poker players who mix the two. There’s a guy I know who’d bet on camel races if he was in Morrocco, dog races in South Korea (where they eat the losing mutts) and cockroach races in the kitchen of his favourite greasy spoon restaurant. He’s the kind of fellow who likes hang-gliding in strong winds. As a man and a pal he’s a winner, as a poker player, he’s a tadpole. The point is: Decide what you are. Poker players very rarely stray from playing poker except when they need a short brain break. If you think most other forms of gambling are “exactly that”, you probably have the right mind set to be a good poker player.
WHEN THE BETS START TO FLY One of the most exciting aspects of online poker is when you find yourself in a full table game where there are obviously some fairly good hands distributed and a Wild West mood to the game. Bets come flying in from all sides like bullets in a shoot-out. There’s a danger, especially for men under these circumstances, of getting caught up in the whole macho event. Don’t! These kinds of games are to be avoided and always end up being costly. Play the preacher if you’re not holding the biggest guns in town and get out early. Look for more cautious folk, swim in a calmer pond. Might not be so exciting, but it’ll be more rewarding most of the time. Whenever you hear someone at work waxing excitedly about “last night’s fur flying on the felt”, ask them if they won or not. Usually their expression changes.
