allaboutpoker

There is a lot of conflicting advice and opinions on when you should get up and leave a poker game.  Much of it is based on emotion and not on good poker practices.  I’m going to discuss today some of the things you should consider when deciding whether to keep playing, or quit.

The most important consideration when deciding whether to continue playing will always be whether you have a positive expected value (+EV) by continuing to play.  Several things affect your EV, primarily the other players in the game and how well you are playing at the moment.  Your current results are irrelevant (unless you have lost so much so as to affect the way you are playing in a negative way).

Many people think it’s best to quit when you’re ahead.  They use instances of times when they were winning, but continued playing, and then wound up leaving a loser later as proof of their claims.  Their emotional sentiments are not based on solid poker theory, however. The decision to continue playing should be based on your evaluation of your EV in continuing to play.

If you’re winning, but the game is good and you are playing well, you should keep playing.  The appearance of “momentum” could actually help you, because your opponents become used to your winning and give up more easily against you.

However, even if you are losing, but the game is good and you’re playing well, you should continue playing. Poker involves lots of luck, and sometimes you won’t get lucky right away.  The trick of course is to capitalize on the times you do get lucky, and minimize losses those times luck runs against you.  You need to give it time though, you can’t get too discouraged too quickly just because you have a short run of bad luck.  Don’t leave a good game too early, especially if you’re playing well. Occasionally this will mean buying more chips!

If the quality of the game changes, it might be time to leave.  Game selection is of paramount importance, and will be discussed more in future blogs.  If you’re winning, but several loose players leave and are replaced by good players, this would be a fine time to leave a winner. If you’re losing and the game goes downhill, it would be an even better time to leave!

Also, even if the game is good, you should leave if your play is deteriorating, or is about to deteriorate, because of fatigue or alcohol intake.  It doesn’t help you much to be in a good game if you’re not playing well.  What would really hurt you is to blow off your winnings because your play goes downhill for whatever reason. What would hurt you even more than this would be to continue playing when your play has deteriorated in an attempt to make up losses.

Sometimes you’re going to leave a loser.  Get used to the idea, because you simply cannot win every time.  When you’re losing, you are more likely to become emotional about the game and start playing less than your best poker.  You must learn to leave a loser and not chase losses.

There is no solid theory supporting win or loss limitations on a given session.  The truth is that if you’re playing well, and the game is good, you should keep playing.  And if the game is bad, or you’re playing badly, you should quit.  Setting artificial limits on how much you can lose before quitting, or at what point you should get up and leave if you’re winning, has no solid basis in theory.

I’d like to qualify the last paragraph just a little in respect to loss limitations.  Many people have what is referred to as an “emotional bankroll.”  What this means is that there is some limit as to how much they can lose during a session before their play inevitably deteriorates due to frustration and anger.   I personally have a loss limitation in limit poker of two buy-ins for limit poker (at 25 big bets per buy-in).  Despite my knowledge and skill, I’m usually pretty pissed off if I lose two buy-ins.  So if I lose that much, or I’m getting pretty close to it, I tend to quit.  On occasion in the past I have played much longer than this and regretted it.  Nowadays I’ve learned from my mistakes, and accept the fact that I do have an emotional bankroll limit.

One mistake that many players make is moving to a larger game in an effort to make up losses.  BAD MOVE!  You’re already going to be upset about losing, and moving to a bigger game, with more money at stake, and almost certainly better players in the game would be a very bad idea.

The very best reason to quit is always that you’re not having fun!  If these players are just boring, or a particular player is annoying you, quit the game!  There will always be another game at a later time!   Poker is supposed to be fun!

This blog just touches on the many issues involved with deciding when to quit.  Please ask me questions if you’d like to know more.

PokerGuru

Hey!!!!

Well, it’s the day before thanksgiving, and I’m having a few brews, sittin’ around playing music and hangin’ with my dog Moon.  He’s a good dog.  He loves fishin’ and swimming, especially swimming!  Can’t keep him out of the water!  He’s filled with doggy goodness!

So in honor of the holiday weekend, I figured I’d go ahead and discuss two of my favorite poker topics, Boozin’ and Schmoozin’.

Boozin’

Alcohol at the poker table is a double edged sword.  Double edged meaning good for them, bad for you!  When I search for a game to play in, I am always watching to see what everyone is drinking, and if anyone is getting drunk or not.  Why? Because people tend to make worse decisions in poker while drinking than they do while sober!  It’s not rocket science here folks, ain’t like I’m some kinda Super-Genius figuring this out all on my own!  Basically I want my opponents to be drinking because I know I’ll make better decisions than they will if they’re not fully concentrating on the game.

Drinking also has another effect on the game, it makes people relax their guard and be more friendly most of the time.  A friendly game is usually a good game.  When people are friendly, they are less aggressive, thus giving you more opportunities for free cards!  Plus you’re going to be facing fewer bets and raises, thus making your decisions generally easier.  After all, it’s better to be the aggressor, and alcohol usually makes people play less aggressively.   This is not an absolute truth though, often times a young male will become more aggressive as he drinks more.  Either way, when alcohol changes the way you’re playing, I have an easier time making decisions against you!

One note about a really drunk game: it may not be as good as you think.  If everybody at the table is drunk, the game might be very slow.  Also, if there are several players at the table who are very drunk and getting very aggressive, it could be a very difficult table to play against, especially if you’re not experienced and don’t know the types of adjustments to make in such a situation.  Finally, an extremely aggressive, drunk game will probably be a roller coaster ride of very large pots, so be prepared to win and lose a lot of money in these games.  A drunken aggressive $3-$6 game will often play more like a $6-$12 game, as far as the stakes and swings go.  Some people seek out these extreme games, but I strongly recommend you don’t until you’re an advanced player, and have the bankroll and stomach for it.

So remember, drinking is good, when it’s your opponents doing it (within reason).

How about yourself?  Well, if you’re intimidated or nervous, a drink or two might be a good way to loosen up.  However, if you have more than this, your decision making skills might deteriorate greatly before you even realize it.  Therefore I recommend you either don’t drink, or drink very little at the poker table.

Schmoozin’

Friendliness is of paramount importance in poker.  A friendly game is usually a good game. People bet less, raise less, and give up more easily.  A table full of sourpusses is likely to be a lousy game, and you should probably quit the game and change tables as soon as possible!  Also, people tend to specifically play less aggressively against people they like.  Thus, it is in your best interest to be liked when you’re at the table.  If everyone hates you, they’ll tighten up and play better against you.

Don’t be too nice though.  Remember, there are no friends at the poker table!  You must bet and raise when appropriate to do so!  Don’t be too nice, and definitely don’t get upset if someone else plays aggressively against you!

Something I consider more important than any of these points at the poker table is this:

Poker is a game, and poker is supposed to be fun.

If you’re not having fun, you should probably quit the game.  Only someone who is trying to play for a living (believing it to be a good game, despite the tension), or doesn’t have the sense to quit, will stay in a game when they’re not having fun.  If you’re not having fun, leave, winner or loser.

In future blogs I’ll discuss “leaving a loser,” aggression, playing against drunks, and other such topics as I’ve touched on here.

PokerGuru

One thing all good players do is keep track of how big the pot gets during every hand they play.  They count the bets or the money, and know exactly how much is in the pot, every hand, without exception.  It’s impossible to make informed decisions if you don’t know what your pot odds are.

Learning how to count the pot takes practice.  You need to pay attention to how many players put in how much money on each round of betting, and keep track of this in your head.  It’s not easy at first, but it gets easier as you practice.

In a limit game, you should count bets, not money.   If five people see the flop without a raise, there are five bets in the pot.  If there’s a raise, and two people call, but the blinds fold, there are seven bets in the pot.  You can ignore folded small blinds because they almost never make any real difference anyway, plus it somewhat compensates for the drop or rake.

In limit you must compensate for the bet sizes between the first/second, and third/fourth rounds.  For the first two rounds, you’re counting small bets, but for the last two rounds you’re counting big bets.  Big bets count for two small ones!  If you fail to make this adjustment on the third and fourth round, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes!  At a ten handed poker table, there will frequently be large pots with many bets, so don’t be surprised when you add up like 15 small bets on the first two rounds.  Just remember, when it comes to the last two rounds, 15 small bets is only 7.5 big bets!  You never need to count bets in any increments smaller than a half a bet, and usually a half a bet won’t make any difference, so don’t be worried if you’re slightly off.  Just don’t be WAY off!!

If you happen to lose track, don’t panic or worry, it happens, especially at first.  Just always remember these two points:

1. if the pot is big, be inclined to call

2. if the pot is small, be inclined to fold

In no-limit games you must count the amounts of money that go in each round.  This is somewhat more difficult than it is in limit hold’em, but in no-limit it’s far more critical that you count accurately.  This is one of the reasons why I recommend that everyone learn how to play in limit games before trying to switch to no limit.

There’s no magic formula for counting the pot; you’ll need to pay attention and practice.   You should practice at first in hands that you’re not playing, because you can think about counting and not about what your decision is going to be.  However, hands you’ve folded don’t matter, it’s the hands you’re IN that matter, so you must learn how to do this while playing your hand and making your decisions as well. Don’t be afraid to stand and watch a game and just practice counting the pot.

The information you get from counting the pot is crucial to what decisions you should make!  Although difficult to master at first, in time it will become second nature and you won’t even think about it.

PokerGuru

The jist of what poker is really all about isn’t complicated at all.

Poker is all about making decisions that give you the highest possible expected value in every situation.  The expected value is dependent on how much money you must risk to play a hand, how much money you stand to gain if you win the hand, and what your chances of winning the hand actually are.

Here’s an example that I give to everyone who I’m teaching poker, involving two different scenarios:

The game is five card draw.  You hold 2s 9s 7s 4s 5d.  Your lone opponent bets $1, going all-in for his last dollar.  You  know for a fact thatyou are currently beat, there is no way that your nine high is the best hand.

In the first scenario, there is $8 in the pot, your opponent has bet $1, and it costs you $1 to call.

In the second scenario, there is $2 in the pot, your opponent has bet $1, and it costs you $1 to call.

The ONLY thing you can do here is call or fold.  The ONLY thing that will allow you to win this hand is throwing away the 5d, then drawing one of the nine remaining spades, thus making a flush.  For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to say that the odds against your drawing a spade and completing your flush are 4 to 1.   4:1 means that four times you will fail for every one time you succeed.

Let’s analyze both scenarios…

In the first scenario, you’re getting 9 to 1 pot odds.  $8 + $1  = $9 that you stand to win, and it costs you $1 to call, thus 9:1.

In the second scenario, you’re getting 3:1 pot odds.  $2 + $1 = $3 that you stand to win, and it costs you $1 to call, thus 3:1.

These two choices are quite obvious.

In the first scenario, you call, because your pot odds (9:1) are greater than your drawing odds (4:1).  This play would show a positive expected value, because over time, the rewards when you win would be greater than your losses when you don’t.

In the second scenario, you fold, because you pot odds (3:1) are worse than your drawing odds (4:1).  This play would show a negative expected value, because over time, the rewards when you win would would be less than your losses when you don’t.

If there were $4 in the pot and it cost you $1 to call, it would not matter which choice you made, because it’s a break even proposition.

That’s it, that’s the jist of poker.   True, this is a very simplistic example, and the real life situations you will face will often times be far more complex.  However, this is the basis of all poker decisions, deciding if the rewards outweigh the costs, and when they do, going for it!

Even on a longshot, when you will not make it, and thus lose whatever money you risk most of the time, if the odds are high enough you must still try anyway!  In Hold’em, there is a common situation where you’re going for a draw that’s about 11:1 against, but the pot will be big enough to try for it anyway.  I’ll discuss that situation in a later post.

For today, just make sure this concept is crystal clear, because you must understand this before you can begin to become a good or possibly great poker player in the future.

PokerGuru

I’ve talked to thousands of people about the subject of poker.  From the beginning tourist in Las Vegas to seasoned professionals, authors, and everyone in between, I just love to talk about poker.  Sometimes people ask me about playing seriously, and what I think of their skills.  Well, I haven’t always had a chance to watch them or play against them, so I don’t always know what to say.  However, there’s a question I like to ask that sheds all the light in the world on someone’s poker skill.

I give them a short scenario, then ask them to tell me what they would do, and why.  If they get the answer right, I assume they’re not a beginner, and actually know a little something about poker.  This doesn’t mean that they’re ready to turn pro, but it means they can probably hold their own, at least in the smaller games.  So here’s the question…

No-limit Texas Hold’em.  You have the KsQs and raise before the flop, one player calls your raise and you see the flop heads-up. There is $60 in the pot.

The flop comes down As 8d 2s.  Your opponent goes all-in for $100, then shows you his hand, which is AdKd.  You have him covered.  Do you call or fold, and why?

Once I’m sure they understand the problem, I wait about 10-15 seconds.   If they don’t have an answer by then, then the question is pretty much already answered.

Beginners, and those who have little experience figuring out these type of scenarios, just simply don’t know the answer.  But because there are only two choices, call or fold, I ask them to say why they made the choice they did, because that’s where the truth really comes out.

Now sometimes I might ask this to a very seasoned, experienced and knowledgeable player.  These players do a quick check of how much money is in the pot, what the hands are, and then quickly make up their minds, because there’s only one really good answer here.

The answer is you should fold.  You are currently beaten, and can only really hope to make a flush for a winning hand.  The odds of making a flush with two cards to come are 1.86 to 1 against, but you’re only getting 1.6 to 1 pot odds.  Simple, fold.

Now I know there are also backdoor possibilities, which you should consider.   You have a backdoor straight draw, needing two perfect cards to make a straight.  However, your opponent has a backdoor flush draw, needing two perfect diamonds to make a flush.  These two possibilities roughly cancel each other out, and thus don’t really change the overall best play.  Also, you might catch two running queens for trips, but the chance of that is very small, not enough to change the play.

So the answer again, is fold.  No doubts, fold.

Why this problem is so telling is that if you’re a good player, you can figure this stuff out quickly, and under pressure.  Your opponents won’t give you time to sit there with a calculator and paper, figuring every last possible scenario to the fourth decimal place. You have to think fast and act quickly, WITHOUT making mistakes, and you have to be consistently right.   There’s no room to get simple expected value decisions like this one wrong.

Expected value is of paramount importance in poker.  It’s not necessary that you can do complex arithmetic in your head to come up with an exact number, but it is necessary that you learn how to guage your chances of winning verses the cost to play, and the amount you stand to win if successful.  The techniques for doing this will be discussed here in future blogs, a little bit at a time.

The bottom line I’m getting at here is that poker is complicated, and it’s not easy to win.  You need to study and practice.  There are an infinite number of possible situations you might face, but the vast majority of them can be planned for if you do your homework.

Most decisions are easy for good players, and often the most difficult decisions don’t really matter that much (because the situation is so borderline that even a mistake won’t be a very BIG mistake).   The occasional small mistake is no big deal, but the question posed in this blog would be a major error if you got it wrong.

PokerGuru

Today’s blog will discuss table talk.  Let me get started right away by saying once again, as I will continue to reiterate over and over, to please IGNORE anything and everything you see on television when it comes to playing real poker in a real casino!  I cannot stress enough how important it is to realize that television poker has little to do with the real life poker games you’re going to see in an actual casino!

What actually constitutes acceptable table talk varies somewhat depending on the limit, location, and type of game.  However, there are some reasonable guidelines I’m going to mention here that will help your game to remain pleasant and run smoothly.  Starting with this one…

During a hand it’s usually best to just keep your big mouth shut.  

If someone is asking you questions such as…

“what, you got a flush already?”

“set of deuces?”

“Big slick, eh?”

“if I go all-in, are you gonna call?”

What good can it really do to answer them?

Better than bantering during a hand is just to quietly sit there and keep your thoughts to yourself.  You don’t have to be rude, and don’t want to suddenly become ABSOLUTELY silent… but it’s not rude or bad ettiquette to put conversations on hold temporarily while you play a hand!   It’s OK to pay attention!!

Another thing you should avoid is pointlessly trying to gain information from your opponents by talking to them during a hand.  Sure, TV makes it look like this is a good idea, but in reality, it wastes time and rarely helps you at all.  If you do gain information this way, your opponent is likely to be trying to intentionally mislead you, or possibly even giving you the dreaded “double-reverse flea-flicker tell,” in which case their answer is worth little more than pure gibberish anyway!

In addition, anything discussed by any party during a hand is quite likely to be very difficult to interpret, and thus not worth wasting time for.  Remember, your opponents are unlikely to actually try to help you during a hand they’re playing against you!

Now when it’s your turn to sit out of a hand, don’t discuss anything that could affect the outcome of the hand!!  Say you’re playing hold’em and a third spade hits the board on the river… this is NOT the time to say “wow, looks like the flush draw just got there.”  However obvious it might be, it’s not a guarantee that everyone sees what you see, and you don’t want to say something that could affect the outcome of the hand!

Never discuss a hand while the hand is in progress.  This is very bad ettiquette and could result in a big blow-up at the table.  Imagine you’re out of the hand, but mention something that changes the outcome of the hand completely.  Someone’s gonna be mad!

I recommend that you keep any discussions of strategy to yourself anyway.  While many people will happily sit there and tell you anything and everything about how THEY play, you don’t have to educate your opponents as to how YOU play!  There are lots of things to discuss without telling your opponents precisely what they need to know to play correctly against you!  Save discussions of strategy for time away from the table.

Don’t over discuss with the dealer.  Yes, it’s ok to talk to the dealer, but keep in mind they have much to do, and can be distracted, especially if they’re a newbie.  Suppose a dealer in a tournament is suddenly faced with four players going all-in at the same time… this is NOT the time to start a discussion of the weather with them!  Let them work, let them do their job, you can always shoot the breeze during the break or when their time at the table is over.

Also, you want to have some respect when your opponents are in a big hand, even if you’re not involved.  Loudly conversing with your neighbor during a huge pot is rude and distracts players who may have a considerable amount of money at stake.  Be courteous and talk quietly, or wait till the hand is over.

Finally, certain topics are good, and certain topics are BAD.  Politics, religion, and the gory details of what your dog hacked up in the backyard last night are poor choices for table talk.    Use a little common sense, and avoid controversial topics.

Essentially, the jist of table talk is just don’t over-do it.  Pay attention during hands you’re involved with, and don’t over discuss anything with anybody.  Choose your topics wisely.  And remember, you’re there to play poker, you can shoot the breeze later!

PokerGuru

Casino poker costs money to play.  One way or another, players pay the house to run the game and provide dealers, security, drinks etc.  This blog will give you the basics on how to assess the costs of playing in your area.

Time charges -  Some games charge the players by the half hour to play in the game.  This charge may be taken in one of several different ways.  Sometimes everyone simply has to pay up their allotted charge, usually when a new dealer pushes into the table.  The amount of the charge depends on the size of the game and the house you’re playing in.  In some cases, a “time pot” may be used.  Rather than charging everyone the same amount, the time for the entire table is taken out of the first pot after the dealer sits down.  Most people reading this blog won’t play at tables that require time, because time games are usually larger games, and most of my readers will be beginners.  However, if the casino in your area charges time, just have your chips ready when it’s time to pay up, and be done with it.  Time charges and pots can be a very complex subject, beyond the scope of this blog.  However, I’ve already described the basics, which is all you should need to know for now.

Rake -  Rake is a percentage taken from each pot by the dealer and dropped into the house money box.  Small games typically have a 10% rake with a maximum anywhere from $3-$5.  Somewhat larger games ($10-$20, $15-$30 etc) might have a 5% rake instead of 10%.  As a rule, you want the maximum rake to be low, because this takes money off the table at a far slower rate.  A $5 max rake game is borderline unplayable, $4 is pretty high, but probably playable, and $3 is very reasonable.  If there’s a choice, and the only real difference between one casino and another is the cost of the rake, absolutely take the one with less rake! Rake is sometimes taken in increments of $1, but sometimes is taken using coins, usually half dollars.

Drops -  A drop is a fixed amount, not a percentage, taken from each pot.  Typically a drop will be $3 taken on the flop, and if there is no flop, no money is taken.  This is a “drop on the flop.” Any drop on the flop of more than $3 probably makes the game unplayable.  Occasionally a “dead drop” is taken on every hand, before any cards are dealt.  These games are already basically unplayable just because of the dead drop policy.  However, dead drops have become less common, and to be honest I don’t even know offhand of a casino that still uses this policy.

The main thing you have to consider is how much money comes off the table in a given length of time.  I can tell you from spreadsheets that I have personal done that a typical casino with a 10%, $4 max rake will probably take in between $60-$80 an hour per table.  Sometimes it will be more, rarely will it be less, but the average is probably about $72 an hour.  Now if this is a $2-$4 limit game, that’s almost a full 25 big bet buy-in per hour coming off the table, never to be seen again.  This takes its toll over time and is very significant.  Without the rake, a break-even player should be able to, well, break even!  However, with the rake, you must now be better than break-even just to stay afloat.  The rake is one very important reason why you need to build up your skills before spending a lot of time playing poker.

Time charge games charge everyone equally, but rake games charge players who win lots of pots more than those who win few pots.  Obviously if you don’t win the pot, the rake doesn’t come out of your money.  However, if you win the pot, that pot is smaller by the amount of rake taken by the house.

The object of poker is to win MONEY, not POTS, so you can actually pay less than your share in a raked game by concentrating on winning big pots, but not necessarily MORE pots.  We’ll get into how to go about this in a future blog.

One more thing, if most pots in two different sized games are reaching the maximum rake, you are better off playing in the larger game, because the amount taken is a smaller proportion of the total amount in play.  So if it’s all the same to you if you’re playing $2-$4 or $4-$8, play the $4-$8 game.

That’s the basics of time charges, rake and drop.  Make sure to consider this before you sit in a game!

PokerGuru

This blog will give some practical advice about choosing which size game is right for you when you visit the casino.  I’ll stick to Texas Hold’em for this post, because most of the time that’s what will be available.

The smallest Hold’em  game usually available will be $2-$4 limit.  This game usually has a $20 minimum buy-in, but realistically that will not be enough money to play the game.  My personal choice is to buy in for 25 times the big bet, which in this case would be one rack of chips, $100.  It’s not necessary that you follow my advice exactly on the 25 big bets, but try to buy in for at least 15 or so.

The realistic prospect for playing in this game is that you’ll win or lose $60-$100 dollars if you play for four hours or so.   You could win or lose more than that, but this is a common result.

If you want to play in a larger game, you can usually expect your results to fluctuate more and more as the game gets larger.  The larger the game, the more aggressive the players tend to be, and therefore your results will have bigger swings.  Also, players tend to be better as the stakes go up.  If there are three size games available, you can be quite sure the best players will be at the highest level game.

The structure of a game influences the way the game plays.  $3-$6 is played with a three-chip, six-chip structure, and tends to have nicely sized pots and decent action.  $2-$4 has a two-chip, four-chip structure, and tends to have less action and smaller pots.  Although it can take some getting used to, more chips equals more action.  $4-$8 is played with a four-chip, eight-chip structure, and tends to have good action and big pots.

There are few or no casino poker games where you can expect to show up with less than about a hundred dollars and have enough money to play.  This is why I use the 25 big bets guideline when I buy chips.  If you only start with five big bets, you’re likely to be out of money after only one or two hands.  If you get a big hand, you don’t want to be all-in!

If you’re going to play no-limit, it’s uncommon to find games less than $100*. However, because you can lose your entire stake in one hand, you’re going to need to bring more than just one buy-in if you really want to play.  You cannot be afraid of losing a buy-in if you want to play no-limit!  My advice is that if you don’t know what you are doing, DON’T PLAY NO-LIMIT!

These rough guidelines should allow you to gauge how much money to bring to the casino when you want to play poker.  Just remember, if you’re not sure whether a game you’re in is too big for you, then it probably is too big.

PokerGuru

* in Los Angeles and large metropolitan areas of California, this is not always true

Poker dealers in live card rooms make virtually all their money from tips.  The typical pay for a poker dealer is barely more than minimum wage, so they need to get tips to survive.  This blog is a guide to tipping your dealer.

Tipping shows appreciation for a job well done.  Therefore the dealer needs to do a good job for you in order to deserve their tips.  Doing a good job includes dealing quickly and accurately, being friendly and helpful, and in general simply running the game well.

Most of a dealer’s tips come from dealing cash games where players tip the dealer when the player wins a pot.  The normal tip amount is $1.  When I was dealing, $1 per pot was just fine by me.  Some players tip more, and of course this is highly appreciated.  I myself often tip quite a bit more if I win a large pot.  But as a dealer, I had no particular expectations, and was always thankful for any tip I received.

And thank the players I did!  A dealer should always thank a player for any tip, large or small.  There is no set amount, and no dealer is entitled to have any expectations.  If a dealer makes a remark or otherwise indicates displeasure at the amount of a tip, they’re done in my book, I won’t tip them again.  However, some dealers do such a great job I’ll tip them extra.

Skill does count in dealing cards, but remember, everyone is a newbie at some point.  Therefore if an obviously new dealer is trying hard, paying attention, and doing their best, I tip them well.  However, if an obviously experienced dealer is making it clear that they really just don’t give a darn about what they are doing, they may not get tipped by me.

Dealers should be mistake free, but keep in mind nobody’s perfect.  Even the very best dealers do occasionally make mistakes.  However, not all mistakes are created equal.  I’m quite forgiving of small mistakes, especially if it’s clear the dealer is trying to do a good job.  Also, some mistakes are really nobody’s fault, they are just accidents.  On the other hand though, a dealer who obviously doesn’t care about what they are doing is likely to make more mistakes, and bigger ones, and will inevitably receive (and deserve) fewer tips.

There is a great attraction to dealing poker because one can often obtain a very good paying job with little education or experience.  However, this does not mean that just because you managed to get hired, you are automatically entitled to a huge, easy income.  A dealer must first provide a service, then reap the rewards.   Personally, I happen to love poker, playing, dealing, or supervising.  Some dealers however, know little about the game and obviously don’t care about the game at all.  These dealers should find other work!  I want to see dealers who are passionate and knowledgeable about poker, not freeloaders trying to make easy cash.

If you win a pot, tip the dealer.  A buck is usually just fine.  If the dealer is especially friendly, accurate, skillful, or likeable, feel free to tip them more.  If the dealer obviously doesn’t give a darn about what they are doing, tip them less, or tip them nothing.

It’s not necessary to tip the dealer if you steal the blinds or win a very tiny pot.

If you enter a tournament and make it into the money, toss something for the dealers when you get your winnings.  The amount to tip here is a personal choice, and should be based on a percentage of your winnings.  If I win $100, I’ll probably toss a ten to the boys and girls.  However, if I win $50,000 bucks, I’ll probably toss them $1-2,000 or so.  As the amount of money goes up, the percentage I tip will go down.

It’s a personal choice whether to tip, and how much to tip. Tipping dealers does help the players, because as dealers make more money, the competition for these jobs increases, and the quality of dealing goes up.  Good dealers should be rewarded for their work.

Also, keep this in mind: dealing poker is MUCH harder than it looks.  I played for about eight years before I started dealing, and thought I knew it all.  However, when I first sat down at a table full of live players, I was terrified.  I found out very fast that it’s far more difficult and stressful than I thought, and had a new appreciation for poker dealers.

Also, cut the dealer a little slack already!  Dealers are human, and humans make mistakes, have bad days, get stressed out etc.  A little patience and friendly interaction helps things run smoothly.  A dealer who’s being attacked by the players is under immense stress, and probably won’t do their job nearly as well.  A dealer who’s relaxed and sitting at a fun, friendly table tends to deal faster, more accurately, and do a better job.

PokerGuru

Since television broadcast of poker tournaments became popular, poker has boomed, and so have tournaments.  However, all tournaments are not created equal. Here’s a quick guide to selecting which tournaments you might like to play in.

Tournaments are roughly categorized based on price.  Tournaments range from $25 to $50 for the smallest ones, to a large sum of money for the biggest ones, such as the World Series of Poker. Keep in mind that my definitions here are loose ones, meant to guide you in your selection. Many factors could change these rough guidelines.

Most of us belong in the small money tournaments (under $100).  Here you can expect a low level of competition.  Most of the people in these tournaments are there to have fun, and won’t be expert players. Usually these tournaments aren’t very long, as the blinds go up fast and you don’t get many chips.  These are a great way to get some experience playing live poker without risking much money.  However, poker tournaments are almost always no-limit hold’em these days, which means you can lose it all on a single hand.  If you play enough tournaments, you will eventually go broke on the very first hand of the tournament.  However, most of the time you’ll get to play a while before you go out, and occasionally you might even win some money.

Medium level tournaments we’ll say are those between a $120 and $300 entry fees.  Here you can expect some fairly good competition and fewer casual players or tourists. These tournaments tend to be far more difficult than the smallest ones, attracting much better players.  Also, these tournaments have a far more serious atmosphere, and last considerably longer.  If you are a beginner, these tournaments probably aren’t for you.

Large buy-in tournaments we’ll say are those between $500 and $1000, give or take.  Here you’ll expect to find players who are quite knowledgeable, aggressive, and deadly serious, including many professionals.  These tournaments might take a long time to complete, possibly having the final table the next day, depending on the number of entries.  The prizes may be quite large, but don’t expect to win unless you know what you’re doing.

Championship level tournaments are those larger than $1000.   Here you will find many professional players and many very good players.  These tournaments are very difficult and always deadly serious.  These tournaments almost always last longer than one day, and sometimes require players to play 12 or more hours on the first day.

Once again, these are rough guidelines, so use your judgement when selecting your tournament.  Also, keep in mind that most of the time when you enter a tournament, you will bust out and get nothing back.  However, when you win you will often get many times your money back, which is a great feeling.

So enjoy your tournaments, and good luck!

PokerGuru