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I am now officially on a poker kick, along with the rest of the country. More importantly, I am on a kick about what life lessons are learned in cards.
The Facts:
The Atlanta Poker Club (“APC”) is one of the best groups in the City for learning the game. They set up free poker in bars and restaurants all across “Atlanta;” you can play with the APC from Athens to Atlanta. Check out their available times and locations here.
On Thursday, I played at Loco’s Grill and Pub, which has some great beer specials. APC plays there on Tuesdays and Thursday with a warm up game from 6:30 – 7:30 and the real game starting at 7:30.
APC hosts a great and diverse crowd: 30% of players are women, it is split racially pretty evenly, and everyone from high rollers to the unemployed show up. You will not find a nicer group of poker players with wilder stories anywhere in the city.
The Lesson:
Obviously, poker is about reading and understanding other people, but there is a subtlety to the art that I learned when I knocked Keith, the antique dealer, out of the tournament on Thursday.
The goal of poker is to get chips. Sometimes you might try to get a lot of chips while other times you just need a few.
Keith was on the button, which means he was the last person to make a new bet. This is a position of power because Keith already know what everyone else did before he had to make a decision. Knowing is half the battle.
Keith watched the entire table “limp in,” which means everyone made the minimum ante to play and did not raise. With all the “limpers,” there was almost 300 dollars (fake money of course) in the pot. Keith safely assumed that no one had a really strong hand or that player would have raised.
This situation put Keith in a prime spot to make a little money. By bluffing a big bet, there was a good chance that everyone would fold and Keith could take all of their antes. Or he could have checked and then hoped his cards where in the flop, but a big bet is almost guaranteed to pull in some chips, whereas checking into the flop is a unlikely to make a winner.
Keith pushed all-in, wagering his entire stack for those blinds. The move may seem overkill, but very few people would make an all-in call for such a small pile of chips. Sometimes, in poker, like life, a little win can keep you going for a long time.
Keith was almost guaranteed to grow his stack a little; however, I read exactly what he was doing.
From my perspective, a call was about playing the opponent and not my cards. Statistically, my Ace/Rag (a rag is low card) was not likely to win, but I predicted that Keith’s hand was even worse, and he was just stealing blinds. In essence, I called his bluff because I knew his objective was to take a little pot and his action was overkill.
When I called, Keith also flipped over an Ace/Rag, but my 4 hit on the river, and I won the whole pot with a pair of 4s.
I took Keith’s chips and went on to finish 5th in the tournament.
In closing, I note that in life, business, or poker you can take a stance of power if you know what your competition’s objectives are. When you know what that competitor is doing, you can cut them off at the pass.
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