The Small Margins

Most poker players, professional or amateur, are aware of the small margins that exist in the game.  The nights when an entire session ends up revolving around the outcome of one hand.  When the cracking of pocket aces deep in a tournament stop you from getting a top three finish.  When you end up in coin flip spots where you know the pocket pair almost always has a fractionally slight edge.  Most of the tilt inducing frustrations in the game come out of the small margins. 

There are times when I have felt this awareness before but rarely as keenly as today.  If a pair of pocket sixes had held up against Jack Ten off-suit I would today be playing in a 2,500 euro event at the PKR sponsored WPT Ireland.  The hand didn't hold and I went on to lose the Heads Up so I am instead grinding six tables of $0.25/0.50 cash games and listening to the wind howl past my window.

Poker, especially tournament poker, is full of these turning points, it is what has turned what seems like a very un-televisual game into a major TV money spinner.  This was something that the World Poker Tour went a long way towards developing.  This years WSOP Main Event was full of them and thanks to the live broadcasting we got to see everyone of them in real time agony.  Ben Lamb was very much the favourite to win it going into the final table but ended up finishing 3rd, though I'm pretty sure the $4,000,000 helped to ease his pain.  Imagine though if the best player at the table had won the following pot.  How much extra leverage would he have been able to bring to bear on the table and to what extent would he have controlled it?  In the end Collins went out 5th so this beat wasn't the end of the story but it was certainly one of a number of turning points that day.

This hand from the 2003 WSOP Main Event is another great example of a turning point, though not in the sense of a bad beat.

Sam Farha believes he has the best hand and even names Moneymaker's hand out loud.  He cannot make the call though.  Going against your gut instinct is often the worst mistake a poker player can make as your instincts are built from a lot of subliminal information you cannot always process rationally.  'The Moneymaker effect' is often cited as the biggest reason for the poker boom with the amateur accountant going from a $40 satellite to a $2,500,000 pay day.  If Sam Farha makes the call would online poker have blown up quite so big? Would it have taken another year or two years to get there?  This is a wonderful turning point on so many levels.  Farha is likely sick of hearing about the 'bluff of the century' or being the comedy value on High Stakes Poker.. if he had made this call he would not have had to, he would have been the 2003 Main Event Champion.

Chris Moneymaker went through two satellites on Pokerstars to win his Main Event seat with what was the last of his online bankroll.  His story is full of dramatic turning points. One should never get hung up on the element of luck involved in the game, though you should be aware of it.  Moneymaker takes the pot down here with the worst hand, a lot of players would have been unable to do the same in this position.  This is why a poker player should never rest on their laurels but strive to improve.  Moneymaker had heart and guts to counterbalance his lack of skill.  In the 8 years since then the game has altered beyond recognition.  The best are better and the mediocre are average to decent.  To get a big break you need a bit of luck but ultimately the more skillful and experienced you are the easier it will be to find yourself in spots where you can catch that lucky break.  This is why you should never stop learning and looking to learn.  I could get hung up on my lost flip but I won't.  Instead I will question why my bankroll is not big enough for me to have played this WPT event anyway.  The simple answer is that I am not yet where I should be, I still have a lot of room to improve.  If I keep working though maybe next time the small margin spot will go in my favour and I will be even better placed to exploit it than I am now.  All I can do is wish all my friends out in Dublin the best of luck and hope that the small margin situations go in their favour.