| 07 Aug | Poker and moneyPosted by PokerBarney on 6:33PM, 7th Aug 2006Permalink |  Send to a friend |  RSS feed |
Poker has nothing to do with money. A very true statement.
As soon as you start considering your chips as actual money, you begin to worry about losing them. Once you're scared, you cannot play good poker, and so your results suffer.
This is why it's so important to play within your means, so that you can easily accept the odd loss and occasional downswing in results without it affecting your overall play.
I have a few friends and family that struggle to accept that poker can be managed and milked as a source of income. Part of that difficulty comes from the (misconceived) notion that whenever I'm playing, I always stand to lose all my money.
Of course, this isn't true. I (very) rarely risk more than 5% of my bankroll at any one time, and although I have had to endure a couple of downswings, I've never been in jeopardy of going broke, and I'm never too worried about losing my stake to avoid playing properly.
A few more months like July, and I can shove some well prepared spreadsheets showing my convincing destruction of the $1.20/45 SNGs, towards them. I don't think it'll change their minds though.. some people still associate poker = gambling = debt as a foregone conclusion, but I'll save that for my next post.
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Comments (2)
2. Yorkshire Pudding ()
Fri 22nd Sep 2006 15:26
in poker you have to blank out the fact that there is money involved and try to make plays that maximise your expectation, the cash is irrelevant. i think there is a section in the theory of poker by david sklansky.
Fri 22nd Sep 2006 15:26
in poker you have to blank out the fact that there is money involved and try to make plays that maximise your expectation, the cash is irrelevant. i think there is a section in the theory of poker by david sklansky.
Mon 7th Aug 2006 20:37
very true, my dad can't seem to see the fact that poker isnt the same as gambling. i tried explaining that because i'm not playing against the house. the odds are NOT against me. in fact, based on my current stats, they are well for me. however i dont think my dad would understand statistics if they hit him in the face :)