Casino Report of a Different Kind (more rhetorical content)

[davelin]

Hey all, this was something I was sharing with Grunch the other day and I thought I’d share it with you guys. This past weekend I went to the Trump Casino in Indiana for a bachelor’s party. Although I didn’t play a single hand of poker there, I think I had a “no duh” moment about poker while gambling there. While there for like 3 hours, I played a mixture of craps, blackjack and baccarat. And you know what, 98% of the bets I made there had a negative expectation and that was totally alright with me because I was there to gamble and have a good time. The place was filled with people, all of them making -EV plays all the time and none of them complained about that fact.

And more importantly, the casino didn’t complain that all of these patrons were making plays where the house held the edge. Craps shooter put a $5 bet on hard-eight, that was totally cool with the house, even after he hit it. Blackjack player didn’t double her eleven while dealer showed six, the house didn’t complain about that either. Baccarat player wants to pay 5% commission on his Banker bets, totally cool with that as well.

What’s my point? A couple of things. People like to gamble even when they know they’re not favored to win. Happens at the blackjack, pai gow, Carribbean Stud tables, happens at the poker tables too. I’m guessing everyone here has gambled at a game they knew they weren’t the favorite but they did it anyway. I think many poker players believe the same thing, it’s a game of gambling, not skill. Let them continue to think this way.

But I also realized that when you play good poker, you are in some ways the “house”. You’re playing with the edge while these other players aren’t. After many hands, this compounds and results in money in your pocket. So play good poker and don’t worry about the minor losses. Someone caught runner-runner flush against your Aces, good. Someone didn’t raise pre-flop with AJs, that’s good too. Play good poker, become the “house” and reap the benefits. This mindset helps me whenever I’m in a slight downswing.

[crumpentunt]

Great post, I like it. It definitely helps with the bad beats, when you just pretend that you are the house and eventually it's all coming to you.

Another quote that is similar to this is one from Jennifer Harman, where I believed she said something like "Playing poker as a professional is similar to running a business, and with that comes overhead" Overhead, referring to bad beats.

[GrunchCan]

nh.

Next time you're taking bad beat after bad beat and your'e stuck for a rack of red, just remember - if you're a good poker player, you're the house. Short term variance is due to luck. Long term BB/100 is due to skill. I dropped 37 BB that night at the Trump (playing poker), and I'm down about 50 BB at the Party 2/4 in the 1000 hands since then, but I'm not worried. I know I'm the house.

[KaiShin]

Great visualization exercise, I like it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[toss]

Yep we trouts are the house. The house never complains to the fish about getting bad beated in blackjack or in any other casino game. The fish feel they can beat the system, get lucky, since this is a faceless corporation they're playing against.

[dvashun]

This is really an excellent post in this room where many players struggle when in a downswing. It is easy to "know" you are making solid plays and are losing to luck, but it still takes thoughts like this to keep it cool and continue with solid play. Thanks and this is my bump.

[Duerig]

perfect

[Saint_D]

[ QUOTE ]
nh.

Next time you're taking bad beat after bad beat and your'e stuck for a rack of red, just remember - if you're a good poker player, you're the house. Short term variance is due to luck. Long term BB/100 is due to skill. I dropped 37 BB that night at the Trump (playing poker), and I'm down about 50 BB at the Party 2/4 in the 1000 hands since then, but I'm not worried. I know I'm the house.

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys are stealing my speech. :P

(slighlty modified sermon from another thread)

[ QUOTE ]

Rejoice! Be happy when the fish suck out on you! Your goal in poker is to win money. Not pots. This is important!

You naturally feel stung when you lose as the overdog to a longshot draw. This is exactly the kind of payoff that keeps the loose players going for buy-in after buy-in! They pay 20 BB a big bet at a time, never noticing, till he "hit it big" and stole your 5 BB.

You have to learn to turn your learning process inside out a little to love poker. Learn to tell yourself "Well, done." when you play correctly and lose a pot. Also learn to say "you idiot!" when you play like crap and win.


Poker, slot machines and other gambling work exactly like this. They trick our brains into thinking we are winning more than we are. They make us ignore out losses (or even electric shocks) as long as we can "score it big" once in a while.

Thus endeth the sermon. Go forth with the pot odds in your mind and the love of suckouts in your heart.

-D

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess I could have just said "Play well and you are like the house." Leave it to me to say something so simple the long ass way.

[dozer]

Good post,
what about the card counters at blackjack that beat the house. Should we go bustin heads if we ever catch someone colluding at our table? [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[AlmightyJay]

I think you essentially just quoted the Fundamental Theorem of Poker in a really long way [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]