Why I Love Poker

I love the game of Poker. I have been known to play at a casino, online, tournament and ring game. I love draw and stud, high, low and hi-lo. I love the flop, the turn, and the river. Texas, Omaha, Mississippi, Chinese, and Mexican.

Here’s why:

2. Poker is instant applied statistics. If you make intelligent decisions, accurately estimating probabilities, you will be a winner.

3. Poker is not “against the house”, a guaranteed loser. Your success is not mathematically proven, as a roulette wheel, craps table, or, god forbid, a state lottery.

4. As such games go – poker is often one of the cheapest. Horse races and sports books take a bigger take than a poker game, and, in my estimation, offer more fun!

5. Poker is a game of constant circumspection. Quality players learn to self-criticize without undermining their confidence, while poor players neglect to remove mistaken ideas and attitudes from their game, or by doing so, undermine their faith in their own abilities.

6. Like so many sports, poker is as much about having the mental stamina to make the correct play as it is to know what that correct play is. After playing a game of softball, I realized that one of the most important skills is constant attentiveness. My poker game is better when I apply that level of attentiveness.

7. Many underestimate the physical demands of poker. Keeping mental acuity over a tournament lasting up to 12 hours demands a sound body to house the sound mind. Those who play competitive chess are probably nodding their heads in agreement here.

8. A “bad beat” is when someone with an inferior hand beats you with “dirty rotten” luck. I love when I am beaten this way. My opponent has played poorly, and has received a payoff, rewarding his poor play, encouraging future poor play. I think of it as an investment in the future.

9. I love poker players who are “psychics”, who usually play too many weak hands, as if somehow they can make their cards better during a hand. They believe they can somehow “read” people, and spend much time talking and bantering, constantly sharpening their uncertain radar, trying to find out whether you are bluffing. They are a lot of fun at the table, and some are deceptively good. But most of them don’t understand – it’s about making the best move, whether my cards are good or bad. Make good move, win. Simple.

10. I love poker players who are “gamblers”, who believe in their lucky charms, their winning streaks, their superstitions, their desire for excitement, and supposed ability to somehow affect or know which card will land on the table or in their hand next. I don’t always beat them, but I do so more than half the time, with my average win bigger than my average loss. They are not as smart as I am, and I love the crunching sound they make beneath my shoes.

J. I love it when I play “my game”, pushing advantages and abandoning weak situations, and then notice that others fold when I raise, or exercise caution when I decide to descend from my throne and play, showing a possible advantage. I then know that I am being observed, and have the opportunity to manipulate another player.

Q. Your poker skill, if you have played a while, is indicative of your life: it shows your committment, your humility, your patience, your perseverance, your self-awareness, your discipline. Your skill is measured only by your winnings, there are no judges, umpires, or referees.

K. Poker demands a meta-decision making process, where the decision of whether or not to sit down and start playing at all demands as careful a scrutiny as the in-game decision to raise or fold. Also critical is finding or deciding on an appropriate table for your experience and skill.

A. Poker is a universal art. There is no poker talent, although some basic math and memory skills are helpful. There are many paths to a good poker game – lots of time playing, lots of time studying and calculating, lots of time people watching. You see men and women, white and blue collars of all races at the table. All are in control of their destinies. May the best player win.

Meet The Cat

My initial post – a scattered curriculum vitae of sorts, to serve as a backdrop for future writings:

1. I selected the name “Cat of Grey”, or simply, “The Cat”, largely because I like cats. I identify with cats in a way, admiring their individuality, independence, and grace. I choose the color grey for two reasons: 1) because my views on a given subject tend to be strong, but agree with neither the prevailing “black” or “white” opinions; 2) from the spanish proverb “At night all cats are grey”. And, yes, I have two cats. The elder, white with black spots. The younger, is best described as “blue tortiseshell colorpoint shorthair, with white”. Yep – it one funky lookin’ beast.

2. I was born in Downtown Los Angeles, the only white kid in the nursery. I was raised in Torrance as an only child, by my single mother, in a one-bedroom apartment. When I was young, we were probably quite poor, especially compared to the city as a whole. I attended public schools in one of the few areas I know where the public and private schools are of similar quality.

3. I was a bright child, but an underacheiver. I did not understand that the purpose of school was not merely to learn, but to perform: I always learned, but once a concept was learned, I didn’t care to demonstrate it repetitively. My mother knew this when I was a toddler, I knew this when I was in the sixth grade, it wasn’t a disadvantage to me until college.

4. In high school, I was an enigma, much like the character Ducky from the movie “Pretty in Pink”, without the post-modern wardrobe. Everybody knew me, a few liked me, a few hated my guts, and most just couldn’t figure me out. In an age of Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bruce Springsteen, I was a fan of jazz. I never wore jeans, and still don’t, unless doing a home improvement project. I was an unlikely candidate for my school’s academic team – although when competition was done, I was county champion over 120 others in my division. I was voted “least likely to have changed since high school” at my ten year reunion. At my twenty-year reunion, a class clown told people that I was going to enter the hall shouting “Screw you all – I’m a goddam millionaire!”

5. In college, I found a home. My first two years were a struggle, although I was socially comfortable: I had surrounded myself with like-minded people for the first time. I never dropped a class, and I was never close to academic probation. My last two years were very successful, and I performed respectably close to the Dean’s list. I graduated in four years, with a degree in Mathematics, Philosophy Minor.

6. Even though I was to become a teacher, I didn’t like my college education department. There was a stuffiness, a facade of sorts that smelled wrong to me. Looking back, I should have known that teaching was not going to be my final career.

7. I have been married for thirteen years, to my college sweetheart. It is, without a doubt, the best decision I have made in my life. None of my commitments have brought me more joy than this one. We share a common belief: that “Until death do us part” was not a suggestion. We also believe that our commitment improves both of our lives. The relationship is my color in an otherwise shades-of-grey life. As my wife is an interior designer, she metaphorically and literally provides color in my life.

8. I have spent slightly under five years as a high school and jr. high school teacher, slightly over five years as a pension administrator, and now work as a economics consultant. I consider myself a philosophical scientist, so if you can’t prove it, or at least support it, don’t bother. I can happily climb my soapbox when addressing the food supplement industry, attention regarding crop circles or UFO’s, fortune telling, and superstitions.

9. Politically, I am a fierce moderate. Currently, I vote Libertarian, although I would probably switch parties if the LP actually gained appreciable power. I deeply debated titling this weblog “The Fierce Moderate”, save that I anticipate that this blog will probably branch into many non-political areas. I am generally a thinker rather than a do-er: this entry, my first, took eight months to write. I try to be kind, pensive, gentle, good to animals and children. Conversely, I can, on a hypothetical level, be quite cynical, occasionally cruel. I believe that life without a sense of humor is twice the loss compared to blindness or deafness.

10. I am distinctly Californian, and have never lived out of the state. If in the right mood, I can talk like a surfer. I don’t fully understand why anyone would live where it snows, has hurricanes or tornadoes, or has perennial rain. Yes, we have earthquakes, in fact, one last Sunday morning. But the weather here is nicer than anywhere else I know.

11. On the surface, I am a math geek. Slightly introverted, rarely anyone’s life of the party. But I take pride in my artistic side as well: I am an accomplished pianist, and sing tenor in a respectable a-cappella barbershop quartet. I was a picture framer for two years, with an aptitude for unusual mat cutting and frame design. Someday, I may do some woodworking.

12. I consider myself an eccentric in training: In an orchestra, I would play the bassoon, or perhaps the viola. On a football team, I would be a kicker. On a track team, I would run the steeplechase. I work in an eccentric office, with eccentric people. I didn’t build the road less traveled, but someday I might write the Fodor’s guide…

13. Miscellaneous favourites: The color burgundy. Sour, gummy cola bottles. Creamy peanut butter, never crunchy. Guinness beer, Hard Cider is welcome. Pastrami on a french roll, with horseradish. I resent my predilection to root for the Dodgers and Lakers. Soccer is the beautiful game. The planet Saturn. The Moon. Tea, not coffee, darjeeling if you please. Non-smoker. I can handle almost the spiciest of foods, but don’t seek them out. I’m a Window’s guy, but my next computer will almost certainly run Ubuntu. Wool sweaters in dark muted colors. My astrological sign is Libra, although the sign I was born under should be more like “Warning: Puns”. Music performed a capella. Oingo Boingo, They Might Be Giants, Thomas Dolby. Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Holly, Scott Joplin, Chopin, Mendelssohn, J.S. Bach, and PDQ Bach, now that I think about it. Eggs scrambled and dry. In-N-Out Burger. Blackberries. Chipotle. The Mandelbrot Set. White clouds, dark starry skies.