November 24, 2005
Some Pokerroom players have raising requirements that are far less stringent than others, and other than whim or some inexplicable gut feel that's correct only about as often as the laws of chance say it ought to be, real maniacs often have no raising requirements at all. I've seen players who will raise with any suited ace in any position, as well as raise with hands like K-J, K-10, Q-J, J-10, and any pair of sixes or higher.
But when some poker players find themselves buried because a maniac caught cards and took a big chunk of change off the table, a burning desire to get even and get out forms in their guts. That's not so bad in and of itself. What's bad is combining this desire with ill-advised actions and untoward risk-taking in order to dig out of a maniac-induced hole. That usually exacerbates the bleeding; it seldom stems it.
- Pairs and big Pokerroom cards go up in value, and so does your position at the table. If you're holding 9-9, and the maniac raises before you act, you must reraise, in order to minimize the number of opponents you'll play against. If you're lucky, you and the maniac will play the hand heads-up. When you're heads-up against an opponent who raises on anything - or nothing - you are favored when holding a pair.
- Once your casino credit is established, personal checks up to your limit can be cashed at the casino cage, or you can take a marker right at the Pokerroom table. A marker is nothing more than a casino check that you endorse. It allows you to borrow money against your credit line. You can pay it off before you leave, or it will be charged against your account like a regular check.
- Their bankroll must provide for daily necessities as well as for gambling, and a professional has to keep adding to that bankroll merely to stay even. After all, professional gamblers are just like the rest of us; they have to pay rent and buy groceries too. And if they go broke, there's no paycheck coming in next week. They must borrow money from other gamblers, quit playing professionally, or (gulp) get a job.
Flamingo
You can make these records even more detailed if you desire, by keeping separate records for different card games, or keeping your straight bets on horses separate from doubles, exactas, and exotics. The more information you record, the more value they are likely to be in analyzing your results.
If it seems like almost everything you encounter in a Pokerroom casino, from the absence of clocks anywhere -- if you knew it was 3:00 a.m. and you'd been gambling since noon, you might feel guilty and get up from the table, and they wouldn't want that, would they? -- to the free drinks, sights, sounds, and smells (some casinos even pump authentic scents into their ersatz gardens) is designed to loosen your grip on your wallet, you're right. They want your money; that's their business. But that's OK; you want theirs too, and fair is fair. So the battle is engaged.
If you've just caught the Qd on fourth street to go along with a Jd door card, your Pokerroom opponent will have to worry about the possibilities of you making a straight as well as a flush. Starting out with a pair of fours and a live ace for a side card is a lot better than beginning with a pair of eights and a small or medium sized side card. That's because two-pair, particularly if that two pair is aces-up is a very strong hand against one or two opponents, while eights up is marginal.
