Don't be afraid to look foolish.

A couple of times when I was just starting out I'd get very confused when I thought I had won a hand only to see the dealer shove the pot to an opponent. I'd say, "Wait! No! I won that pot!." only to have the dealer explain something like the river had counterfeited my two pair and gave my opponent the better hand. So then I felt foolish on top of the sting of losing.

I don't like looking foolish. Nobody does. But the fear of looking foolish can be detrimental to your game. For example if you believe an opponent does not have a great hand, then it is often the correct move to bluff him off the pot even if you don't have a particularly good had yourself. However many players won't bluff in a situation where a bluff is called for because they worry that they might get caught. The potential humiliation prevents them from doing the profitable thing.

A more obvious example for how fear of looking like a doofus can cost you happened to me the other day. I had raised in middle position with A Q and had one caller - the button - who happened to be holding A 10. The flop came A K 4 , a good flop for me. I bet and he called. The turn brought a 10, giving my opponent the better hand with two pair. I bet and he just called (sneaky devil!). The river brought another king, making the board:

 A K 4 10 K

This made my hand better than his as the pair of kings counterfeited his pair of tens, and my queen out kicked his ten. I bet and he called. Now a situation like this one often confuses people, myself included. It is not obvious that AQ beats A 10 because, well golly there is a 10 on the board so that has to be good, right? The brain wants to believe that three pair beats a lowly two pair, but the rules of poker don't recognize three pair. It's the best five card hand that wins, and AAKKQ beats AAKK10. 

We showed our cards and immediately I felt sorry for the guy - what a bad break! "Wow, what an unlucky river." I said out of sympathy for the bad beat he had just suffered. But the dealer wasn't paying proper attention, and thought that I was bemoaning my own bad luck. Jumping to this conclusion, the dealer assumed I had the losing hand and pushed the pot towards my opponent. My opponent reached out and started to gather them in....say what? For a second I wondered, I am I wrong? I must be wrong. Nobody said anything...I quickly shook off the feeling. Not giving a hoot if I looked foolish, I cried out "Wait! No! I won that pot!"...and the dealer meekly explained he thought the other guy had the AQ. And the other guy said he didn't notice he had been counterfeited. Yeah, sure. Whatever. I stacked my chips and made a note to myself to write this post.

The point is to never be afraid of  looking dumb. Speak out when you think something is wrong. You can't count on anyone else to speak out for you.

Poker City Canada

Calgary is the city I call my home, as do about 1.2 million other people. Nestled in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, as the tourist bureau would have you believe - in truth we lie a little east of the foothills and unless you happen to be facing west the vista is of flat prairie farm and ranchlands. Perfect for a   booming city to just sprawl out in. And Calgary definitely sprawls. It takes up more space than Toronto or Chicago and more than half as much land as London, England - a city with eight times the population. We do like our space here.

There are six casinos in Calgary (seven if you count the one on the Indian reservation that borders the west side of town) and each of them has a poker room. Most poker rooms are open twenty four hours a day. I can only guess how many people are employed by the poker rooms, but the total must be a couple hundred. Dealers mostly, many working as few as twenty hours a week, maybe less, and a few working full time. Aside from those with "real" jobs there are a surprising number of  people in Calgary who have made playing  the game of poker their primary source of income. Dozens of people, certainly. Maybe even a hundred.

Who are these people who make a living playing a game while the rest of us have are salary slaves in the gleaming downtown skyscrapers? The majority are older, retirees who supplement their income by grinding it out at the tables. They have low overhead. The house is paid for and kids are done university. They have lots of time and are more than happy playing cards six days a week. They come early, and usually leave by suppertime - just when the real fish and the real sharks start showing up. They play the low limit games, because that's where the softest competition is. Of course there are plenty of retirees who lose money playing poker. They are in it for the social aspects and just are having fun. Sometimes it is hard to tell one from another. There are some younger ones too - and again it is sometimes hard to tell the long term winners (real professionals) and the wannabe's who slowly drain their bank accounts. After all most of us have to lose money - the math demands it.