4-of-a-Kind
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 3,068
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Fight Club
Part I in an inspirational series about poker.
Poker is a ruthless, bare-knuckle brawl. Brutal. Iron hard, ice cold. A street fight where anything goes. A UFC scrap with choke holds and kicks to the nuts. Poker can beat the crap out of you, even when you're playing well.
When I sit down at the table, I know I'm facing opponents who want to grab me by the throat and bash my head against the wall. They want to knock me on my ass and take all my chips - twice. Poker is a vicious and Darwinian battlefield. Only the strong survive.
I love this game.
I've got this 65/40/6 maniac on my right with half a stack. I 3-bet him with AK and AJs preflop. He folds. Jab. Jab. I 3-bet him with JJ and he calls. He fires on the Q-high flop. I rr him all-in. The straight right. He calls, and we see two blanks before he shows down AJ. Knockdown. He reloads. I 3-bet him with AQ and he rr's all-in. I fold. Duck his big punches. Dodge and weave. Use the footwork. I wait, sparring a bit, keeping my distance. He raises from the button. I pick up 99 and 3-bet. He calls. Good. He's setting me up for the roundhouse. We get it all in on the flop, and he gets 80 BB with TT. Knockdown for him. I'm up again, still with a 140 BB stack. I think about the hand and decide I played it all right - or at least not terrible bad. The very next hand he raises, and I 3-bet with TT. He calls. I know he's setting me up for the roundhouse again, but I get a third T on the flop. Poor bastard. He checks the K-high flop, I bet and he rr's all-in. He's got TPTK with AK. I get my chips back - doubled. He leaves the table. Knockout.
"Are you ready to RUMMMBLE?" Oh, yeah. Let's get it on.
I've been in fights. I took karate long enough to do some full contact sparring with kickass fighters. One was a former professional kickboxer. I know I can get punched in the face and still function. You have to keep thinking in a fight. Or you've lost it. You have to stay aggressive in a fight. Or you're losing it. And the scorecards aren't tallied until the final round is over. If the opponent is still standing.
Here are three lessons fighters learn early - or quit fighting.
1. Fighters never whine.
I went one round of full contact with the pro. I got my ass kicked, but whoa! It was an awesome thing, watching him fight. Quicksilver footwork, never off-balance. Powerful, accurate punches with rattlesnake quickness. Afterward, he broke it down, giving me tips, telling me my weaknesses. Sure I got beat. But I didn't whine about it. I learned from it.
Great poker fighters don't whine about bad beats or vicious downswings. They own up to their losses, admitting when someone has fought harder, better. They own up to their mistakes. They don't make excuses. They work on their game.
2. Fighters can take a punch.
Anyone can get hit hard. A fighter can get hit hard and still function. No panic. Keep the feet moving. Cover up and clear the cobwebs. Stab and move. Don't let a lost battle turn into a route. Fighters know the war ain't over.
Great poker fighters don't tilt. They absorb the punches and fire back. They stay calm. If they need to, they sit out an orbit and refocus. They stay aggressive, and shove all-in again if they have way the best of it. Their decisions are still great decisions even right after a bad beat. They wear a cup, like Spoon suggests in this rant. Your cup is called bankroll management.
3. Fighters train hard.
They work their combinations on the heavy bag. They spend hours in the gym. They spar opponents who are better than they are.
FTR and Poker Tracker are training sessions for the great poker fighter. Posting and analyzing HH's. Reading the posts from better players. Reading poker books and articles. Analyzing stats and hands from sessions. When I'm done with a session (typically about 1k hands/90 minutes), I sit quietly in a chair, thinking about the fight. Where was I too aggressive? Where was I not aggressive enough? Did I get my chips in way ahead in the big hands? Did I duck big punches? Then I head back to the computer and look at PT: stats, a couple trouble hands. Then I'm off to FTR to read some more. I find that reading FTR right after a session is good to help identify weak spots in my game. I usually post a bit, because writing helps me think more clearly.
You are becoming a great poker street fighter - starting today. It doesn't matter how many poker fights you've lost in the past. You can learn aggression. You can learn the patience needed to fold when half your stack's committed but you know you're beat. It's one punch, not the fight. Where you've been and what fights you've lost in the past is yesterday. Be a warrior, not a whiner. You're training hard. You can win. You can kick some ass.
No go sit down at the poker table, and punch someone in the mouth. And punch him again. And when he's all crossed up, wrong-footed, and punch-drunk tilty, rip his stack away from him - twice. Be stronger.
"Are you ready to RUMMMBLE?"
Let's go win some money at poker.
Robb
The author is a poker enthusiast, not a poker expert. And is probably full of crap.
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