The Biggest Loser PKR

One of my fiancee's guilty TV pleasures is the torturing of obese people, otherwise known as weight loss television.  Be it English, American or Australian in origin the concept is the same.  Take a couple or family, or multiple sets of couples and family pairs, who have serious over eating issues and put them on the road to normality through an intense period of physical exercise, nutritional balance and emotional reflection.  You often find yourself wondering how some one lets them self get morbidly obese.  Sometimes there is a serious emotional trauma or medical condition as a trigger but often it is a combination of poor will power, a general sense of having given up and most of all low self esteem. In the case of the USA culturally bad eating habits with regards to portion sizing also play a big part.

At this point I guess you are wondering where the poker comes in.  The concept of winners and losers clearly has a central part to play in the game of poker.  Poker is a zero sum game so for some one to be winning some else has to be losing.  The majority of online poker losers fall into two categories.  The first deposit once, lose money, and are never seen again.  The second group stay around a lot longer and make small deposits on an infrequent basis.  These people see poker as a hobby.  They have a real love for the game and don't mind continuing to chase the dream as long as an evening doesn't cost more than a night out would have.  Let's face it, an evening out at a pub, nightclub or theatre can be way more costly than a couple of poker tournaments.  Some of these hobbyists will eventually become break even and winning players.

So what about the big losers?  Beyond the 'donkeys' and the 'fish' are the 'whales'.  These guys are few and far between but when you find one they can stun you when you find out how dedicated to being bad at poker they are.  Consider an online site like PKR.  It has constant games but is by no means the biggest poker site online.  Most tournament players you find sat at your table will be somewhere between a few hundred dollars up or a thousand dollars down.  The biggest tournament fish I have come across was down $20,000 dollars on Sharkscope.  Stop and consider this for a moment.  At the moment on PKR there is one monthly $500 tournament, one monthly $250 tournament and nothing else above $150.  The average tournament buy in would probably work out around $20.  So to be down $20,000... you have to bad for a very long time. You have to stop and admire that dedication to being awful.  Most players who stay in the game for a few years at least pick up enough of an understanding to hover close to break even.  Some guys though... they never learn.  It is more common among live players but online most people get better or get bored of losing.  In many cases the big losers are rich businessmen who have a love for the game and enjoy playing an aggressive style and like bluffing a lot.  It is their way of blowing off steam and there is a lot about poker that appeals to those in the finance sector, especially stock traders.  In many cases what they lose is peanuts compared to what they make or to what they would be losing playing Blackjack in a casino.  Clearly there is a less pleasant side where people have gambling issues or an addiction.  This is very much a minuscule minority in my experience but it definitely exists.  This is a more complex area and is something I will return to in its own blog at a later date.

Clearly in cash game poker there are ways to lose money a lot faster.  Even great players can get smashed by variance in the short term and go on hideous losing streaks having done nothing wrong.  So if that can happen to the best of us... what chance does a really bad whale have?

So, moment of truth time.  How much money do you think the biggest loser on PKR has donated to the rest of the community?  Stop and really give it some thought for a bit and then come up with a figure...

Okay, you have one?  So clearly you guessed upwards of $20,000 given my earlier example.  Did you go above $100,000?  The biggest loser on PKR has given away over $200,000 from his personal funds.  I don't know who this mystery individual is but I could certainly hazard a guess at four or five names.  I won't though, as that would be rude.  I can only hope that a) this individual really enjoys his poker and b) he gave at least three times as much to charity.

That degree of what can only be described as degeneracy is quite baffling to me.  Before you feel too outraged or horrified though let us bear in mind that everything is relative.  There are people who can blow through millions of dollars in a week at the casinos in Las Vegas playing games that they have no edge against versus the house.  Let us also remember that the entire Western economy was apparently paid for on credit cards for the last ten years.  As I said yesterday poker is a funny old game.  However it is a funny old planet populated by funny old, and young, people.  Does any of it really make any sense?  Probably not, but if it did just think about how boring everything would be...