Balancing Poker and Life

Team Full Tilt

I am always trying to find the balance between family and poker, and I know a lot of you struggle with the same issue. For the serious player with a significant other, the poker lifestyle can be a real challenge. Here’s a little advice for making poker work with the rest of your life. I’ve included five tidbits of advice for both the player and his or her partner.

Advice for the Poker Player

1. Don’t punish your partner over your bad play or bad luck. Let it go when you walk away from the table. If you can’t release that bad energy quickly, then let your partner know that you need a little while to cool off. Snapping at your partner isn’t good for anyone.
2. Don’t lie about wins or losses. Remember, you’re incredibly lucky if you found someone who supports your dreams. If the money in play makes your partner nervous, sit down and discuss a business plan that works for both of you. Talk honestly about the pros and cons of serious poker. Don’t even consider going pro until you can cover all of your bills for at least six months in advance.
3. If you make plans with your partner, don’t play that day. If you get stuck or if a sucker sits at your table, you aren’t going to want to leave, and feelings are going to get hurt. Believe me.
4. If you’re traveling the circuit, be courteous and answer your phone. It’s hard enough on a partner when you’re out of town. There’s no need to make them wonder who you’re with or what you’re doing.
5. Remember, there’s life outside of poker. If you can remember a hand you played five years ago, then it’s not too much to ask to remember your partner’s birthday.

Advice for the Player’s Partner

1. If your future champion walks through the door looking a little grey, don’t ask, “Did you win?” Just back off and give them some space. I promise they just need to analyze what happened and, maybe, replay a few hands in their mind. The last thing they want to do is disappoint you by talking about a big loss.
2. Poker players don’t change. If you don’t try to understand a player’s fascination with the game, your relationship is going to see some very tough times. Andy Bloch, for example, has an incredibly supportive girlfriend (soon to be wife). She’s smart and ambitious. Once she started dating Andy, she realized that if the relationship was going to work, she’d have to adapt to his travel schedule. You know what she did? She started a website called PokerWire. For a time, she traveled everywhere with Andy, reported on chip counts, and interviewed players. Now, Jennifer is back in school and Andy has moved to be with her, supporting her choice.
3. Don’t be quick to assume the worst. If your poker pro doesn’t come home until 5AM, you can bet that they were stuck in some game or that a favorite fish walked in the door right as they were about to leave. Most poker players are honorable people. They might bluff an opponent, but they don’t bluff in life. We are weird that way. So, unless they give you a reason to think they were up to no good, give them the benefit of a doubt.
4. A player can’t choose the day or time that a sucker will be at the table. Sometimes, they’ll need to play on Thanksgiving or Christmas – or even on your birthday. If we get a phone call that “Ramin’ Jamin’ John” is in town, there’s nothing that’s gonna stop us… except a car wreck because we were speeding to get to the game.
5. If you want to learn how to play the game, your partner may not be the best teacher. They will have less patience with you than anyone else. Get some books on poker, and start with them. It’s hard to teach someone that has never played, and it’s going to get frustrating for both of you. Play online at the lower limits to practice what you’ve learned.

I hope y’all enjoyed this one and, remember, bad beats make for lousy pillow talk.

Play More Pots

Erick Lindgren

In tournaments, I play lots of hands. I’ll put my money in with all kinds of connected cards, especially when in position. I might limp, I might min-raise or raise a little more than the minimum, depending on the circumstances. I’m looking to keep my table off balance so they don’t know where I’m coming from.

My overall goal is to pick up a lot of small pots without a lot of resistance. I might raise in position and hope for a call from one of the blinds. If I raise pre-flop with something like 6-7, I might miss the flop entirely, but the raise puts me in control of the hand. On the flop, I’ll likely bet if checked to, even if I miss. That small bet on the flop will usually win me a small, but helpful pot.

Of course, sometimes it won’t work out. I’ll bet and get check-raised on occasions. But that’s okay, because I actually don’t lose much in the hands that I have to surrender. Overall, I get to gradually add to my chip stack by chopping at small pot after small pot.

The other major advantage to my style is that, occasionally, I will hit a flop hard. If I do happen to flop a straight, it’s difficult for other players to put me on something like 5-7 or 6-8. If one of my opponents also gets a piece of the flop, I’ll get paid off in a big way.

By adding to my stack early, I have a real advantage over players who play a cautious, tight game. The extra chips that I accumulate allow me to survive some tough spots. So, if I happen to get involved in a race with A-K or a pair of Tens, I can withstand a loss. An opponent who’s playing tight will likely be on the rail after losing a single race.

New players often ask me how they can learn to play more pots. I always suggest that they drop down significantly in stakes and practice. If you’re playing $2-$4 no-limit, drop down to $.50-$1 – a level where some losses won’t hurt you.

Once you’re at that table, try to play eight hands out of 10. Play everything but 2-8 or 3-9 – hands that are entirely unconnected. When you get yourself involved with this kind of frequency, you’ll have to concentrate more on your opponents than on your own cards. You’ll have to be on the lookout for opportunities to take down pots with well-timed stabs. You’ll also learn how to proceed in situations where you flop a good, but dangerous hand.

By dropping down and playing a lot of hands, you’re going to learn a lot about poker. You’re also going to have a lot of fun. Lord knows, playing 50% of the hands is a whole lot more entertaining than sitting around waiting for Aces.

If you look at the success that Gavin Smith, Daniel Negreanu and myself have had over the last couple of years, you’ll see that being active can be an excellent way to score big in tournaments. It takes practice to play this style, but it can lead to great results and be a lot of fun.

Heads-Up vs Multi-Way Hands in Omaha Hi/Lo

Andy Bloch

Earlier this year, I cashed in the $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event at the World Series of Poker*. I enjoyed the tournament; it was great to spend some time playing a game other than hold ‘em. One thing that surprised me about the tournament, however, was that the quality of play was quite poor. Some players didn’t even know the very basics, like starting hand values. I was amazed that so many people would put $2,000 into a tournament where they didn’t understand even the most rudimentary elements of the game’s strategy.

For this article, I want to discuss how the quality of your Omaha Hi/Lo hand relates to the number of people in a pot. If you’re playing a multi-way pot, you need a very strong hand going one way or the other. The nuts or a draw to the nuts is preferable. Absent that, in multi-way pots, you want to have strong draws in both directions.

In heads-up play, however, you can continue with far weaker hands if your opponent is going to need to play all four of his cards in order to scoop the pot. An example should clarify what I mean.

Let’s say you have 2-3-4-7 in the big blind and call a late-position raise. The flop comes K-Q-7 and you both check. The turn, a 3, gives you two pair and a low draw. You check again and your opponent bets. You’d absolutely want to call. Your two pair may very well be good and, if it’s not, there’s a chance your low draw will get there. Should the river bring an 8, you’d definitely want to call a bet and showdown the hand.

In this situation, in order to scoop the pot, your opponent would need to have something like a better two pair and A-2 or A-4. All four of his cards would need to be involved in the hand. This is unlikely enough that you should call his bet.

If you had the same hand, but were playing a four-way pot, you probably wouldn’t want to call any bets. Say you make your same two-pair and low draw on the turn but, this time, after you check there’s a bet and two calls. It’s likely that you’re not going to get either part of the pot as someone probably has a stronger high while someone else holds a better low draw.

This is only one important aspect of Omaha Hi/Lo. If you spend some time polishing your game, you can make some good money in cash games and get great value in tournaments since so many players are just starting to learn the game.

What’s more, you might also find that you enjoy taking a break from hold ‘em once in awhile.