Poker News

Donald Woods Jr.

There are times in my life where it seems I could walk on water. Reality usually sets in sometime around when I step into a tub full of water. In addition, since I am a hardheaded individual and summer time has arrived, I tried it again at the neighborhood pool. Splash, help lifeguard! Actually, I can swim but that isnot the point. The point is, life can be very good sometimes reflective in attitude and demeanor which translates to the winning spirit. Now, the winning spirit is what you see many times at the poker table. It does not necessarily have to be the best player, just the most confident player taking down all the money.

While I was dealing the cards, I watched with amazement how many times I could pick out the winning player just by watching the body language. If the confident player did not have the best hand to start, rest assured by the last card he/she would be in the winner circle. This trend is not limited to any denominational game either. Since I have dealt them all, the only major difference is higher limit player’s resolve that things will even out in the end. Therefore, when the confident player’s two racks of chips become four, then six, it is time to rethink the logic.

This is simply not a game designed for even “bounces”. So many times, I watched player after player just running over the game. To watch this phenomenon play out, you would think this player was the Michael Jordan of poker. Not even close, this player may not even be the Michael Thompson of poker. While the continuous winning begins to wane on the psyche of the now losing players, it is hard not to be human and lose discipline, composure, and then all hope of winning the session. So now the idiosyncrasies start, “let’s get a set-up of new cards,” echoed out of frustration from some players. Seat changes begin; extra shuffle requested from others. In addition if alcohol is involved, the arguments will soon be forth coming.

Why is this happening, because someone is winning chips? Simply put, it just does not seem fair, and that is what we are all after, fairness in battle. Get over it life is not fair! Can a fat person seesaw with a skinny person? Again, if you have a table of evenly matched individuals, some evenly matched individual is going to get “sand blasted”. Not because they cannot play, but just like in real life some one must finish last!

Just recently, I was watching a 15-30-hold’em game. A guy in seat number 5 by all accounts had been playing all night long. When I arrived on scene, he was winning a rack of chips, so they say. Every time it was his turn to act, he would inquire, “What’s the bet”? The whole table in unison would retort angrily, since he had been asking the same question on many hands. When, Wham! he went on a massive “rush”. The man won every hand dealt with any number of crummy holdings. He did not even have time to stack them up, when another “chip shower” was forthcoming. The problem was, thatevery time the action got to him he would exclaim louder than the time before, “What’s the bet”? The whole table was in a collective uproar! Suddenly, one of the players could not take it anymore and just snapped! “What are you retarded? You’ve been playing all night and every hand, what’s the bet, what’s the bet, what’s the bet”? A collective approval came from some other players. Finally, the guy says, “All I said was, what’s the bet. What’s the bet dealer”? I will bet this, that confident guy left with a lot of chips.

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