Catching the Action and Playing Stuck at the L.A. Classic

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

The L.A. Poker Classic has been rolling along at the Commerce Casino for a few weeks now and all reports have Tournament Director Matt Savage running another top notch series, that is as long as you avoid the tweets by notorious nit Allen Kessler. The Commerce is by far my favorite of the many California “card barns” with insane action at all levels from micro to nose bleed. It was also the place where I took my first half-hearted shot at taking the game seriously but didn’t end well when my best memory was meeting former NFL player Bob Golic. That is not a good poker trip.

Besides a great festival of tournament action, the Poker Classic also drives even more players into the cash games and these guys know how to gamble it up. You will find action under the worst circumstance, these last few weeks were sure to be insane full time. Guest blogger Swail has spent the last few weeks and checks in with his thoughts on the action and also playing stuck in the Disneyland of poker.

Enjoy.

Catching the Action and Playing Stuck at the L.A. Classic
by Swail

I’ve gotten back in touch with the road gambler in me by heading out to the Commerce Casino in L.A. for 5 weeks during the L.A. Poker Classic. The Commerce has a special significance for me since it’s where I first cut my teeth playing bigger games. It’s also the first place I ran really, really good in poker and made the decision to turn pro in 2004. I thought I’d first write a little bit about how the action is down here in L.A and discuss some of the things I hear other pros chatting about at the tables these days. Later, I’ll discuss one of the pitfalls of poker that plagues many of us, playing too long when you’re stuck.

Many players here have been claiming that because of the dire economy that poker is on a serious decline. Poker certainly has changed quite a bit since my first trip to the Commerce in 2004, but I’ve been playing in the big stakes room here everyday and I think I’m seeing a fairly similar amount of action as I saw in 2004. There are a good amount of $10-20 NL tables and $40-80 LHE tables, and they’re still playing $20-40 NL or higher everyday. Instead of the $80-160 LHE game that used to be a staple game here, there are now usually several tables going of $60-120 and one $100-200 game. There are also plenty of stud and mixed games in the mid stakes.

So is the action really drying up? Well, on top of all the games I mentioned above, I’ve also seen a minimum of 3 or 4 tables of games in the $200-400 to $500-1000 levels every single day. These are mainly straight holdem or mixed games. I’d say players might be getting a little less willing to gamble really high, (a few years back Phil Ivey and company used to play $4000-8000 all the time) so it may be fair to say that the nosebleed stakes are suffering a bit. But overall the game of poker still seems to be super popular, and there’s plenty of potential for a serious player and/or someone who has a lot of gamble to pull down a big score in the cash games at an event like this.

Poker skill is another interesting issue that some of the mid stakes pros have been chatting about. Many seem to feel that the live games are getting tougher in general. The question is, is the average Joe getting tougher to beat? And are the new, young, recreational players losing just as much as the old ones used to? I suspect that many long time winners have seen a decline in their earnings over the past few years, even though they have just as much action at the same stakes. I’m really not worried about the average Joe somehow leaping the chasm of skill between a pro and an amateur, especially not in a matter of a few short years, but I suppose if he’s taking it more seriously he may be slowly closing the gap. If the amateur loses on average a little bit less, then pros will win a little bit less.

Personally, I don’t feel like my edge in the games has shrunk up at all. But the reason for this could be that over the years I’ve been working to improve my game, staying above the curve. This is something that in my opinion many pros fail to do. Through books and word of mouth the young recreational players are learning a lot more about basic poker math and effective strategies than old-school hobbyists ever did. The key to dealing with this issue is to be realistic about your own abilities and not to expect poker to ever be easy. I guarantee that a poker player will reap what they sew in the long run. If you put in the time and effort, stay humble and honest with yourself about your abilities and goals, then you will come out on top and win exactly as much as you should.

My trip has been good so far, but it could have been a lot better if I could erase one session in particular. I lost $5500 playing way too long (a normal loss for me might be half of that). To cap off this column I’d like to discuss some of the ways that playing stuck and playing too long can affect your game.

1- The Big Letdown

When you stay awake way longer than you are used to in an attempt to grab back a portion of a massive loss one of two things can happen. You might make some or all of your money back and possibly end up feeling OK about the result. You’ll still be totally burned out physically and mentally, but not so much emotionally. If you end up leaving still stuck deep then you’ll often feel destroyed. The letdown you’ll feel in the parking lot isn’t something that a poker player ever needs to deal with. Every serious player should realize that this terrible feeling of failure is a choice.

2- Recovery and Flow

Getting in the hours is important if you want to make a lot of money playing cash games. The more you play, the more you cut down your variance and the better your bottom line. It might seem like really long sessions would be a good way to get in a lot of hours at the tables. My personal experience suggests the opposite. Not only will the hours past a certain point be less profitable due to your own fatigue, but they’ll also require a proportionately longer time to recover before you’re fresh again and ready to play. I remember reading about how when Chip Reese first went Vegas he played $10-20 stud with a partner and they would hit the game in 12 hour shifts. One man in the game while the other man rested. This way they were actually playing in the game 24 hours a day 7 days a week! I bet they made more money than anyone ever did playing $10-20 stud (the rumor is that it was 80 grand in only a couple of months). This is the only way to intelligently get in a ton of hours, playing everyday at the same times, and resting well in between sessions.

3- Fear and The Memory of Huge Losses

There can also be lingering consequences to a big loss. A losing session may not quite be a traumatic experience, but I think it can have an insidious resonance. Any player who’s had a loss that was way bigger than it should have been, whether the cause was tilt, poor table image or bad variance, has a memory of it haunting them. The more these memories are accumulated, the more a poker player will have to deal with the fear that it might happen again. No player benefits from fear, fear is just another form of tilt. If you wanna beat the game you need to clean up your whole routine, starting by freeing the mind of the memories of past failures.

There’s plenty of action in the poker world, so stay sharp and play your best and you may just make a fortune. Staying ahead of the curve and avoiding common pitfalls are key ingredients of success. In my next article I’ll return to the topic of big losses to discuss a few commonly used preventative measures and share some of my personal tips.

Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Swail