[MicroBob]

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What's their problem?

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not having a single clue about how to play poker doesn't have to be a 'problem'.
some people just don't know how to play and don't care.

incredibly enough, MOST people have no interest in sitting around and reading a bunch of poker books....but some of these people DO actually like to play.

(similar to a former roommate of mine who I thoguht could be a REALLY good chess player if he put his mind to it...I recommended a couple of books to him...he said 'Hey...I like to play...but I don't want to waste my free-time reading about it.')


first time i played casino poker was in 1997 when I was driving through Biloxi.
Didn't even know what 'hold-em' meant. So I played stud (probably 1-5 I'm guessing).
Had no idea what i was doing. After a couple of hours it occured to me that a lot of the other players were folding a LOT more than me.
I think I played almost every hand.
And stayed in there on most hands on the off-chance that I might 'catch' something.

I was having fun, winning some, losing some, and it never even occured to me that my strategy was so terrible that I had virtually no chance of winning long-term while some of my opponents did.


Next time I played poker was Feb, 2003 on Pokerstars.
I still couldn't remember if a flush beat a full-house or vice-versa.
I bet that I played around 80% of my hands.

i also didn't understand what the 'NL' or 'limit' or 'PL' desgination next to the games in the lobby meant.
Then I noticed the slide-bad and started to figure it out little by little.


Just a few of my total-noob experiences.


Some people like to take bad-odds on the craps table, or play ANY bet roulette (they're all pretty bad) or make -EV plays on the BJ table (like standing on their 15 vs. a T...much less the guys who 'have a hunch' and double-down on their hard-13).
Other guys like to play poker my 'hunch' without really actually 'thinking' too much about it.


If you want to know what the deal is with poker-players who just don't know how to play very well and don't care then I suggest looking around the casino at ALL the other customers having a good, or not-so-good, time at all the other -EV games in the place.