I’m always amazed at the number of players who discount poker tells.  There are those who claim they don’t work while others declare that they only need to look at their hold cards.  Many poker tell skeptics view tells as some sort of pseudo mysticism, a supernatural claim, equivalent to psychic readings and ghost hunters.

The skeptics of tells are usually the ones who tense up the most or overreact to players trying to use tells to read them.  About a year ago a player at my table got so upset with me for watching him during a tournament that he covered his cards and threw all his chips in the middle, glaring back at me and challenging me to “read that”.  Unfortunately for him, the player two seats after him looked at his hold cards and found a pair of smiling aces.  That player replied, “I don’t have to, I call.”  The angry skeptic was gone 5 cards later.

I think poker tell skeptics are blinded by their own ignorance of the term and its use.  Because they don’t understand the term or use, it is relegated to the realm of magic and luck.  I've even seen players that deny poker tells as a tool use a “tell” during a game to gain an advantage.  They didn't realize it because they were simply paying attention to the other players. Many poker tells are simply that, paying attention and utilizing what you learn at opportune times. 

The other type of “poker tell” skeptic is the former user of tells who has been burned by bad reads and now has sworn them off.  These players are usually rocks, set in their style, believing that there is only one way to play.  They get mad if someone calls them with a “weak” hand and moan in pain at every bad beat.  These players have given up on tells because they aren't 100% reliable.  They are looking for one answer that always works!  When that player discovers that there isn't one answer, they throw away any tools that fail them along the way instead of learning to use those tools with better skill. 

I've seen similar behavior from people who don’t know how to utilize modern technology.  First is the argument, they didn't need it before why should they use it now.  When they tentatively try out the new smart phone or computer, their ignorance fuels frustration and every failure is the proof they need to support the argument that they don’t need that or technology is stupid.  I certainly am guilty of this type of behavior when I bring home a product with the dreaded, “Some assembly required.” on the package!  

It's All an Act

It seems like there are somewhere around 27,000 singing competitions, 1200 dancing and 1 stand-up comic show.  So I’m wondering, where is the acting competition?  If the show is done right it could provide the audience with valuable insight into the acting profession.  Let the audience see script changes just before a shoot, let them see a set and all the distractions, and bring in quality actors to tutor and test the contestants.  Sometimes those tutors could step in and show their understudies how it’s done.  I don’t think you have to have A-list movie stars come on.  In fact the network could use this competition to highlight other shows on their schedule.  Tonight on “It’s all an Act” see Tina Fey coach two contestants on the art of comedic acting, and then stay tuned to 30 Rock…

It would be difficult to have audition shows, at least in the manner that most other “reality” competitions do, with long lines of people in several cities.  I think you could use the web/You Tube to great affect here, having people put up videos of specific scenes the competition selects.  Then having your judges and show runners go through the videos and choose however many contestants for the show.  The production end of the show could sift through all the video footage and put together clips to show the audience, some of them good, a lot of them awful.  If done right there would be a lot of interactive social media content, letting the viewers at home participate etc.

I think you could combine writers into the show, giving the writer’s work a chance to see the light of day, while letting a variety of actors interpret the words and act out a scene.   Every network must have tons of scripts that they own rights to that aren’t going to see the light of day. You could have a variety of themes and styles. One week could be “classic television from the past” where you have the contestants try acting out famous scenes from older shows, such as the “Hamlet” episode on Gilligan’s Island, a torture scene from 24, a courtroom scene from Law & Order, or even a snippet from Gunsmoke.  The audience would see a clip of the original scene and then watch as several actors attempted the scene. Other weeks could be “failed television pilots”, “Television Movie”, “Advertisments”, “Broadway!”, “Sitcom 101”, “Hospital Dramas”, “Sci-Fi/Horror”, etc.  Depending on who did the show you could even have category winners as well as an overall champion.

I could see the judge’s panel being made up of a casting agent, a director, and a well-known actor. Have a fourth judge seat be a series of guest judges, allowing the show to bring in major directors and other Hollywood heavyweights.  The winner of the competition is then immediately cast in a prominent role on an upcoming show for the network that airs the competition or a major motion picture for the studio that produces the show. 

Shows I Want to See: End Times

Plot: Seminary student contacted by the New York Arch Diocese upon graduation.  Meets with Cardinal who tasks him with discovering the false members of the church.  The young priest soon discovers the church has been infiltrated by Satanist who are attempting to bring about end times.  

1^st Season he is paired with a New York Cop investigating a series of murders with satanic ritualism.  Cardinal tasks the young priest with learning more about the Satanist while assisting the police with their hunt for the killer.

Characters:

Lead 1: Gordon Sims newly graduated priest

Support 1: David Samson New York Homicide Detective. 

Support 2: Cardinal, He is Gordon’s mentor and benefactor.

Season 1: Antagonist: Satanic High Priest.  I think for a show like this to be successful there has to be an early introduction of an arch nemesis.  I don’t see him as being the serial killer that is caught at the end of Season 1.  It would be suggested to the viewer that this high priest was behind the murders though and enabled the killer as part of a larger plan.

Over the next few days I’ll look for who you would cast in such a series and make some suggestions.

Golf Lessons in Poker: Mental Toughness

  One of my favorite Adam Sandler comedies is Happy Gilmore.  The whole movie plays upon golf’s gentlemanly nature.  It’s hilarious when Sandler goes off!  A key to this humor, except for Chris McDonald’s character, is that Sandler is almost always mad at himself.  Ok, yes he gets into it with Bob Barker!  Again though there are standards of play and in golf’s rules you report yourself if you score incorrectly etc.  In the movie Sandler has to learn not to give into his “hockey” side.  Sure he can hit the hell out of the ball, he’s got a ton of potential, but when he isn’t mentally tough, he screws up again and again.

In real golf, the greatest golfer of our time Tiger Woods enjoyed a mental dominance of his opponents for an extended period of time.  He didn’t have to trash talk.  When he walked on the course on Sunday with his red shirt on, Tiger was King Kong and the rest of the players were praying they didn’t get squashed.  When Tiger missed a shot, he would sometimes curse, mad at himself for his lack of perfection but by the time he walked to the next hole he had complete focus.  Poker players need to give themselves a mental walk to the next hole, where they can refocus and determine how to best take their next “shot”. I think poker players can learn a lot from golf.  In fact poker should borrow golf’s rules of gentlemanly behavior.

Golf’s number one lesson is a highly overlooked aspect of poker, mental toughness.  There are a lot of distractions and behaviors to overcome.  Can you not only keep your focus on a given hand but can you keep it up all the way through the tournament or day?  Will you be knocked off your game by the last hand or by the behavior of the other players?  If we played with the gentlemanly aspect of golf, it would be incredibly bad form after a given “hole” (hand) for the other players to talk during your “shot” or to go off on you for shooting with a particular club or the way you approached the hole.  In fact all comments in golf are supposed to be held, especially in tournament play, until you get back to the clubhouse.  What follows are several comparisons between golf and poker that I hope you can use to better your poker game.

Bad Beats:  If you know that in most cases the other guy is going to be at 30% to 40% against you, are you mentally strong enough to overcome it when they hit against you? Have you designed your game and stack to overcome this? Do you have a plan of attack to deal with it? 

Bad Behavior:  Golfers are lucky, other than whomever they are paired with on the course golfers often don’t hear the opinions of everyone else.  A golfer is for the most part locked in his head.  Imagine how much tougher it would be to make the golf shot if not only could the golfer hear the announcers talking about how lucky a shot he just made but other players were standing around telling the golfer shooting that he had no chance.  In poker there are a lot of times where the table lacks golf’s gentlemanly behavior.  People will be rude, yell out from other tables, and ridicule players decisions.  What I’ve found most interesting about rude table talk is that it rarely affects the person that is being spoken about near as much as the other player or players at the table.  Someone gets lucky on a hand and the table starts chirping, ridiculing the lucky player for their bad decisions.   The player who got unlucky, well they can’t stop thinking about that hand because the table is still talking about it.  The bitter taste in their mouth just won’t go away and they focus on the unfairness of it all.  Meanwhile other players at that table avoid situations with the lucky player, reasoning that he is “lucky” and it’s better to fold.  Mr. Lucky many times rakes additional pots from the carryover of the “lucky” hand.  Can you keep your focus on the task at hand? Can you avoid the moods and discussion of others to play your game?

Better Playeritus: Can you mentally overcome losing a hand to a player you view as having less skill than you.  Can you imagine what the reaction would be if at some skins tournament, Tiger went OFF when a lesser player, which is everyone else, win’s a skin?  Does he have to go over and remind that player how much better he is? Nope.  Further do you keep up your mental game after the lesser player beats you in a pot or do you donk off all your chips in anger?  Does Tiger go to the next hole, pull out wedge club instead of a driver and face the wrong way to shoot, angry because the other guys shot went in? No, his focus is on the hole in question and winning the skin he is on.  If the wind is blowing terribly when Tiger plays but stops dead calm when the lesser player plays, does he point it out to everyone to remind them his disadvantage?  

TV/HOT CHICK/Booze/Cell phone/Buddy waiting: Can you focus when there are a lot of alternative activities to enjoy? Can you take advantage of those who aren’t paying close enough attention?  Are you focused on the game or playing face book games on your IPHONE? Is your pal out of the tourney and just waiting for you to drive him home? Even the best golfer in the world was affected when all his outside interests impacted his life.  It appears to have bled over into Tiger’s golf game as well. 

Missed Opportunities:  You folded and your hand hit.  You got bet out of a pot with a draw and of course it hits.  You didn’t maximize the number of chips you could have gotten.  You left the table to take a piss and the other player is sure to tell you that while you were gone you missed pocket aces.  If you had bet on the river you would have taken the pot down but you checked.  You misread your hand and threw away a winner.  The question is can you overcome your mistakes to focus on the task at hand. Can you forgive yourself for your mistakes so that you can enable yourself to overcome?

Momentum:  We’ve all “felt” momentum in our favor or against us.  The question is, can you be patient and disciplined enough for the other player’s rush to finish or to change the momentum?   Can you lock yourself down or give yourself time before giving in and making a bad play?  Can you be disciplined when momentum is in your favor not to donk off chips because you have so many?  I’ve seen this many times and have been guilty of it myself.  I get a big stack and start feeling good, giving myself the feeling of victory before actually winning anything.  This is especially prevalent on big pots or big hands.  The players all get so focused on the one big hand that the winner of the big hand loses all focus.  Essentially the chemicals in the brain are saying, “YOU WON”, when in reality you only won a pot.  I’ve also seen players overvalue momentum, feeling so invincible they no longer make wise decisions.  Tiger still uses the correct club no matter how hot he is. 

Unknown player:  The new player sits down and you have very little clue how he plays beyond your initial read of him.  Suddenly your focus goes from the hands in play to just him.  What does he do, will he do that again, etc.  An hour later you look down the table towards the guy whose game you have down pat.  He has a boatload of your chips and you have a small book on the new guy.  That’s great if you are there to make a small book on the new guy, it’s horrible if you are there to win some money playing poker!

Feelings:  We’ve all had days where we wake up and poker day is here and…you just don’t feel it.  Sometimes you don’t notice until you start playing, it’s harder today for whatever reason.  Thoughts of real life are invading your poker calm and after a bad start you just “feel” it’s not your day.  Do you have the mental fortitude to fight through it to play good poker?  Ever felt too good? You’re just so darn happy to be playing cards and hanging out with friends that you play too many hands and not very well. You’re laughing and smiling but the other guy has the chips.  Sometimes how you are feeling is a boatload of tells for the other players.  Your poker face is out in the car while you laugh drink and have fun.  Meanwhile the quiet killer is raking chips.  Can you sacrifice being good time Charlie long enough to lock down on the card game? 

So Take a cue from golf to bring better focus to your poker game.  Oh and don’t piss off Bob Barker!