Plus, the psychological warfare aspects of hardcore poker....
“BARREL” OF LAUGHS! I’m reminded by a good friend and excellent poker player why online playing is so much safer than live action. The pal in question is currently writing a TV documentary about the kind of characters he has come up against during a lifetime of global poker playing. I won’t steal the meat and veg of his script but one character touched a nerve with me during a game my pal had played in Las Vegas. Where else? Apparently during a heavy cash game a large Texan in a baseball cap produced a gun and uttered the immortal words, “Eight out of the ten voices in mah head are saying I shouldn’t shoot you!” Now there’s a Southern comfort if ever there was one.
$4,000,000 AT STAKE The richest tournament prize on offer in Europe starts to get very exciting around the 13th and 14th of December when the semi finals of the Poker Million will be played in the full glare of TV on Sky Sports 2 at 8 pm. The live final kicks off at 7 pm on December 15th with the winner walking away with a monster $1,200,000 and a total prize pool of $4,000,000 up for grabs. Heats will continue running up to those dates every Tuesday night. It’s one of the more entertaining visual contests with the right cocktail of celebrities, online qualifiers and professional poker stars. The best thing about the formula is the use of short-handed games which lend themselves much more effectively to televised action.
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE Winning at poker is as much about psychological battles as it is about the cards. It helps of course to have both on your side. The cards you can’t do anything about. Your psychological approach is something you can work on over time. One of the most famous examples of gaining a psychological edge came from a rather corny, overly blinged champion called Scotty Nguyen in 1998. Scotty would be the first to admit he’s not a Harvard trained psychoanalyst but he understands the head games that go with Texas Holde’em. Here’s what happened at the final heads up for the 1998 WSOP Main Event. Scotty had a huge chip stack advantage over his opponent Kevin McBride and called a pre-flop bet of $100,000. Nine-Nine-Eight came down from the flop. Scotty checked and McBride bet $200,000. Scotty muttered, “How much you got, man?” “$350,000!” came the response from McBride. Scotty paused a while and then called. The action betrayed absolutely nothing to McBride. An Eight showed up with the turn and Scotty called another $100,000 bet. The third Eight arrived with the river and Scotty went all-in, stood up waiving his beer can wildly and let out his legendary phrase, “You call now, and it’s all over, baby!” McBride ignored the jibe and said, “I call. I play the board!” Scotty flipped up his Nine, “Party time, baby!” McBride’s closing statement pointed up Scotty’s psychological pay-off perfectly, “I didn’t think he was telling the truth! If he hadn’t said what he said, I would’ve folded!” But he did and grew the pot big time.
