Fame before game

''The Magician'', "The Mouth'',  "Kid Poker'', ''The Professor"  and even "Jesus"  are all famous nicknames in poker.  Although the players they belong to all have achievements on the table they are best known for their strong personalities. They have their own catch phrases, multiple nicknames, books, merchandise,  TV shows and they even reached a strong and long lasting (b or c) celebrity status. Which means they usually make most of their income from activities outside playing poker. The persona's they embody are all one-dimensional characters similar to what you would find in action movies. You can put them in categories,  time for some pictures! :)

The bad boy                                                                            The old time legend

Phil Helmuth
"The Poker Brat"

Doyle Brunson
''Texas Dolly"
"Big Papa"
"The Godfather"

                   

The math guy                                                                        The average Joe

Darvin Moon
"Darvin Gump"
"The Luddite Logger"
"The Moonman"

Howard Lederer
"The Professor"

Something to note is that they stay in character when they are not playing during interviews and television shows. It's always interesting to wonder if they act the same off camera, I guess some will but for others it will be nothing more than an act. 

Their talent and knowledge of the game is often debatable and by the online generation they are all considered pretty bad to absolutely awful. Some of them haven't performed and are losing players for years now, but they still have a big fan-base. The biggest reason for their popularity is that 99% of the people who watch poker on television have no idea what is going on. They might know the rules of the game but to identify the best player it takes a lot of poker knowledge and talent. The average viewer will support the player with the persona they identify the most with or the guy with the most entertainment or shock value. Another reason that talent is not easily recognized is that the monitoring of results in poker especially live is hard and results are influenced by luck (no it's not gambling!). This means you cant recognize the best player in the world like you can say Usain Bolt is the best sprinter in the world. 

The small percentage that does understand the game is frustrated by this lack of recognition for talent, for me this is an extremely short sighted and naive opinion for multiple reasons. If you are a player that  wants to earn money you must embrace these poker personalities because they are extremely good for the game. First of all they are known for donating large amounts of money at the online tables. They also attract new players that are inspired by these colorful characters, and new players will always be losing players. Finally they are usually teaching the wrong stuff in their books, articles and videos making their fans terrible players.  

Outside poker there are also many areas where personality often outweighs talent, two areas that come to mind are music and politics. No music critic will say that Britney Spears is even close to the most talented singer of the last decade but she did get people to buy an insane amount of her records. Furthermore most political analysts wouldn't argue that George W Bush was the most talented politician in the US but he got voted president twice supported by more than half of the American population. Poker personalities are fascinating, amusing and extremely good for the game. Although not from poker winnings we can't deny they are probably among the top earners in poker. They might oversell their talents, which can  be annoying but at the same time completely harmless! I wish i could say the same thing about politicians......

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9GH-yvPHSY

ps.... almost forgot to post pictures of some Dutch poker personalities, you can actually run into them on the streets or during a tournament near your home!!!!!!

Rolf Slotboom
"Ace"
"Rofl Slotboom"

Nicky Roeg
"The Freeroll King"

                              

$

When you observe a few poker players talking from a distance you will notice they talk a lot about money.  You might think that they are shallow people obsessed by money and I guess some of them are :), but not more than in any other part of society.  Money in poker is the only possibility to keep score, it is used as a tool to reward achievements. And in any competitive environment people will discuss their achievements. So if a poker player tells you  he won a considerable amount in a tournament you can see it as bragging, but you can also interpret it as a marathon runner telling you he finished a marathon in under 3 hours.  As a poker player you can not be attached to money, no matter how good you are there will always be huge fluctuations in your finances. Losing attachment to money is considered to be a bad thing in society but i think it can be extremely liberating as long as you don't go to the extent that you create debts.  

Money is a controversial subject to discuss especially in this day and age with so many people in debt.  Nevertheless  we are all judgmental about the way people earn it, what they earn and what they spend it on including me.

The Dutch are extremely proud on the fact they save a lot and when they see someone barely spending any money only buying necessities they say that person is good with money. For me money has no value when it is not spend but used as some sort of false sense of security. I wouldn't want to die and conclude the biggest achievement of my life is some number on some bank account.  In the end money is only a tool to  help us achieve ambitions, gain experiences and pay for the basic needs in life (food/ shelter/healthcare/ transportation).  There are other reasons why people value money i wont go into detail on all of them but here is a list i could think of:

- a sense of security                                                  

- a status symbol

- increased self-worth

- maintaining a certain lifestyle

- financing an addiction

- getting women :)

I am going to focus on the first part,  a  lot of people say they dream of financial independence which is a rare exception. People tend to adjust their lifestyle to how much money they have and with the uncertain value of money due to inflation, an unstable economy and a failing financial sector it will stay a dream for most. Humans are group people and the way to survive before we invented money was to live in harmony with your tribe, I think this is still true today. Real security in life comes from a big social circle that supports you when times are tough. Most homeless people on the street are living there because of a lack of social support not just financial despair. If you want real security, spend some more time networking instead of actually working!  

ps.. If poker horribly fails for me I need a couch to sleep on or a garage to life in for a while,  don't let me down guys!  :) 

Song:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-X7VlyzcX8

Strangers on a train

When you sit down at your first table in a live tournament you usually see seven or eight strangers and maybe one or two players you know. Poker is a game of information so you need to get good reads  on these people in a short time. You want to know if someone is nervous, experienced, playing a lot online, not afraid to gamble and use these reads to adjust the way you play. 

In movies the hero usually spots a huge tell within five minutes, most of you will remember the Bond movie Casino Royale. After a few hands bond spots that the super villain Le Chiffre scratches his eyelid when bluffing, not a read i want to risk a 5 million $ buy-in on!

Although an amusing and entertaining piece of fiction most poker players ( and MI-6 agents) will agree  it is not realistic. Real reads you get from observing, conversation and listening to conversations.  I always talk to my neighbors at the table, people love to talk about their poker career. After 10 minutes you know exactly the type of player sitting next to you with just a few questions. And if you listen to their stories you will trick them in thinking you are a nice guy :). After they think you are a nice guy they start showing you hands and folding a lot more when you are trying to steal a pot. With an aggressive approach to the game it is definitely better that people fold a lot to your bets. 

For these reasons I really don't understand why so many good young players just sit there with their ipods or playing with their phones completely ignoring the rest of the table, they are trowing away free information!

Because I don't own a car I travel a lot by public transportation and taxi's.  For some reason every time I sit in a train an old person starts talking to me. Because I am a bit of a history freak I always enjoy these conversations. A lady in her 70's once told me how student life was in the 50's in my hometown  Groningen. These conversations are much more memorable than a fellow student telling you about how drunk he was last thursday.  A lot of people only move within their own circles, i see a lot of students for example that only hang out and talk to other students and who have severe prejudices about people outside their group. This is fine but id rather stay in touch with people from different backgrounds and age groups, it makes life a little more exciting for me. A traveling live style combined with playing poker definitely gives you the opportunity to meet interesting strangers! 

 

Song:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FLDdjj27kQ&feature=fvw

Listen to me, I am the unluckiest guy in the world!

In poker about 80% of the players think they are the unluckiest player in the world, I'm absolutely awful with numbers but that can't be right….The fact that people think they are unlucky does not bother me one bit, it's the fact they can't shut about it is what annoys me! People new to poker might think its fun to talk and hear about how terribly unlucky that hand was but after a while you heard them all. I usually tune out and think about what I'm going to eat tonight (Most players do this when they act like they are thinking during a hand) and try to put on a compassionate face.

It's human nature to complain and in poker it is helped by the fact that only one person has no reason to complain, the winner of the tournament. If you go play a tournament find the players that don't complain, don't curse, don't yell, they are usually the most fun to hang out with and usually are the better players. You will have a fun weekend/day/week and they might learn you a thing or two if you share some jokes and anecdotes instead of bad beat stories. It is a long process to become a player that never complains and it never ends, but when you minimize the times you complain you become a more positive person both in poker and outside poker. 

Dutch people are well known for their complaining, it's become a national sport, there are even special television shows where people get invited to complain about stuff !! Complaining is universal, but in every country it covers different topics. In Holland it is small and annoying stuff people bore you with;  delayed trains, losing sports teams, traffic and the weather are probably the most common subjects  Lets compare this with a few other countries;

Italian shop owner from Napoli:  ''Some mobster wants to have 10% of my profit every week''

Indian guy:  '' Damn India is crowded more than than 1 billion people wtf! '' And look at the train I have to take every day!

Mexican guy: ''I keep trying to cross the border to the U.S to get a better life but some redneck tries to shoot me every time and when I go back some drug lord tries to shoot me :("

Farmer in Bangladesh:  ''All my cows drown every 4-5 months''

Gay guy in Afghanistan: '' When I hold my boyfriends hand on the street some angry people dig me a hole, put me in it and stone me to death''

Kid in Congo:  ''Im hungry"

If your hear those people you think,  hey you have a point, that does suck!  If  people are annoyed by you complaining it means your life is great and you should enjoy it!  Now nothing until sunday have to get back to grinding online.

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIEOZCcaXzE&feature=related

Look at me, I am an attention whore!

Poker players are some of the laziest people in the world (me including).
How do you get  500 of them to put up 5000 euros to play a game of cards on the other side of the world if they can play in their underwear behind a laptop sometimes not even leaving their bed :) ?
The solution is simple; put a few cameras there, get some bloggers, a couple of parties,  a few hot hostesses, promotion girls and most importantly a few (sponsored) attractive ladies at the table. In the big ones even announcers are present,  who build so much tension you think the players are dismantling a nuclear bomb at the table. Now it's more than just a few people getting together for a game of cards, it turned into an event, an experience, a show! This complicated marketing scheme is based on two simple principles:

- Everyone is an attention whore
- Sex sells

Being confronted with your own vanity is never fun, i mean writing a blog and advertising it on your  own facebook is about the most vain thing a person can do. Therefore i'll focus this post on the sex part, attracts more readers anyway... Im specifically focussing on the female team pro's, I'm not going to play the name game because i don't know any.....  Their backgrounds are diverse; modeling, playmates, hockey (singing), and yes even a rocket scientist http://www.pokerstars.com/team-pokerstars/liv-boeree They all have a few things in common; they are all attractive, they all enjoy the game and almost all of them are not respected for their poker skills on every single poker forum. They state in interviews that they want to get better but they cant because the skinny 18 year old social awkward guy sitting on the other side of the table wearing a hoodie and sun glasses is too busy sta
ring at her boobs and to shy to exchange some friendly banter. In a perfect world the following conversation would occur between the two opposites during a break:

Hot female pro: Hey, I'm fortunate enough to be pretty and talented enough to be a marketing tool for Pokerstars but i have no idea what to do at the table and i want to learn! Some guy told me you play 58 tables 14 hours a day can you teach me? (Followed by some winking, smiling.. currently the strongest part of her game)
Socially awkward online sicko:  Yeah sure I'll give you 10 hours of coaching, I charge my friends 1000$ an hour but for you I'll do it for free. In return i want to look at your boobs some more and learn a little about women, internet porn is getting boring.

In poker self-deprecation is the first step to improvement, stop being a hypocrite and start your learning process. Every person at your table can add something to your game or even give you a life lesson.
Don't be embarrassed about the things you suck at but make fun of them, why so serious people?

ps... If anyone is in anyway offended by this rant (unlikely with 15 readers ;)  you can send an angry or threatening e-mail to: Barthoogeboom@gmail.com, it will take two to three business days for a response..

Another ps... Below a video with the song of the week to brighten your day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK42LZqO0wA

A new direction!

Most of you will know me as a lazy student who likes a beer and a laugh, but since the start of november i decided to throw my life around a little. I have been supporting my studies with money from poker for two years now and always took it serious from the start. I have had some doubts about my business studies for a few years and i realized that i didn't really like it that much ( yeah i'm kinda slow, took me 4 years). I was close to finishing my bachelor but with the pace i was studying at it would still take a long, long time. It was impossible for me to see myself behind a desk or having a career in business..
I realized i don't have any ambitions in that world so I figured id try something different.

It was time for a gamble in my life and quit my studies for at least a year and try it as a professional poker player (or an unemployed guy that spends way too much time on his hobby)! This sounds way more exciting than it is, I will be sitting behind my computer for hours a day and ill be frustrated about 25% of the time :) But the benefits of this job are huge, I can plan my own working hours, I can travel whenever and wherever I want and take my work with me. And how many people can honestly say they turned their hobby into a job? I'm also going to play a lot of tournaments live in the Netherlands but also abroad, playing 2-3 tournaments in the European circuit and going to Vegas in June for the world series. There are also plans to stay abroad for a month and play online with friends but we have not decided on a month or a country. Think ill spend about 25% of my time on the road and the rest of the time with my roommates in Groningen in my old student House ( stay in school guys).
I'm not going to bore you guys with results or with analyzing hands and stuff on this blog.

Ok one hand :D!

PokerStars Game #53483114701: Tournament #336692444, $220+$10 USD Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2010/11/30 1:12:45 CET [2010/11/29 19:12:45 ET]
Table '336692444 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Hero (970 in chips) 
Seat 2: micide (2030 in chips) 
micide: posts small blind 15
Hero: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [3d Jd]
micide: raises 30 to 60
Hero: calls 30
*** FLOP *** [7d 9d 4s]
Hero: checks 
micide: bets 60
Hero: raises 90 to 150
micide: calls 90
*** TURN *** [7d 9d 4s] [Qs]
Nimby88: checks 
micide: checks 
*** RIVER *** [7d 9d 4s Qs] [2c]
Hero: checks 
micide: bets 450
Hero: said, "lol so sick"
Hero: said, "jack high"
Hero: calls 450
*** SHOW DOWN ***
micide: shows [5s 3s] (high card Queen)
Hero: shows [3d Jd] (high card Queen - Jack kicker)
Hero collected 1320 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1320 | Rake 0 
Board [7d 9d 4s Qs 2c]
Seat 1: Hero (big blind) showed [3d Jd] and won (1320) with high card Queen
Seat 2: micide (button) (small blind) showed [5s 3s] and lost with high card Queen





It's going to be all amusing poker anecdotes, traveling stories, drinking stories and my progress towards my goals this year. Which brings me to my last point of this rant, I have set some goals for next year. They are all badly thought trough and conflicting with each other just like everything else in my life :D

Goals 2011:

- Have as much fun as possible
- Stay healthy, or get healthy whatever you think applies :D
- Travel as much as possible
- Keep a stable income outside tournament winnings (sngs, cash)
- Stay humble and down to earth whatever happens
- Keep a stable mindset
- Update this blog once a week

Have a poker trip planned to Venlo which will probably be my next blog entry. Playing the 330 euro side event on friday and the 1080 euro main event on saturday along with some friends. Ill make sure ill have a good story to tell next week!

Have a good week everyone!