29
A Failure of Imagination
I played for a while last night in a cash game, and two seats to my left was a man in his early thirties who wore a muscle shirt and an OSU baseball cap. While we played he talked about an early WSOP event, where he was seated at the same table as Gavin Smith.
He recounted some of the hands that Smith had won. Smith raised up front with some garbage hand – 8-6 was the culprit, I think – and ended up winning a huge pot with trips.
I noted that playing with Smith looks like an unholy nightmare.
The man shot back, “I don’t care who you are, you can’t be raising out of position with that crap.”
I didn’t want to lecture this guy, but a response came immediately to my mind. It went something like this:
“Let’s look at some of the players who raise frequently when out of position. They include, Smith, Lindgren, Hansen, Negreanu, Hellmuth, The Grinder, David Williams, and Mortensen – to name a few. You might say that these players have dominated tournament poker over the past few years. So I’d guess that there might very well might be something to raising with crap out of position.”
Of course, this isn’t the style for everyone. You need amazing skill to make this approach work. I don’t’ think that most players – including many pros – are capable of pulling it off.
What I found interesting was that this OSU fan couldn’t open his mind to the possibility that Smith was doing some things he couldn’t understand. This guy had a vision of “correct” poker – you don’t play bad hands up front – and he wasn’t open to the idea that something else could work.
This guy couldn’t learn from Smith. His mind was shut, his imagination closed. You can’t grow as a player if you’re not open to considering new ideas – especially when they come from great players.
