win247.co.uk

People of all ages rightly claim that they have been playing poker for many years. Many will gladly inform you that they learned the game at the kitchen table, adding, “I’ve been playing all my life.”

I’m one of those who, when asked, will say that I have been playing seven-card stud, five-card draw and other games since I was 14. Our local games sometimes included a hand or two of Texas Hold ‘Em (but just a few hands in the dealer’s choice games).

In the past couple of years, this writer has made an effort to learn the game that the legendary Doyle Brunson calls “the Cadillac of poker.” I have become proficient enough to win $100 or so in low-limit cash games and finish in the final 20 of a few live tournaments.

However, experiences I’ve had in recent months make me long for the good old days of poker. You know what I’m referring to – BTV – Before Television.
Of course the good old days didn’t really exist, I learned a long time ago not to yearn for the past, because it’s misleading to do that. We quickly forget what the old days were really like and only remember the good stuff.

There have always been talkers, whiners, braggers and intimidators. Reading Brunson’s “Poker Wisdom of a Champion” convinced me of that. It’s just that now we see all the unsavory characters live and in color nearly every day of the week, on our television screens. They’re known to a much wider audience than when Brunson, Pearson, Amarillo Slim and Johnny Moss were young.

I noticed a young fellow’s hair as I played a couple of seats away from him at a riverboat casino tournament in 2008. He was a tall, rather thin guy, about 25 years old. He was conservatively dressed, but his hairstyle separated him from the shaved heads and gray hair around the table.

This guy was loud, using a couple of classic four-letter words and jumping up from his seat, hollering with delight when he took a medium sized pot and howling when things didn’t go his way. Then it hit me. The hair!! It was greased in little ringlets or curls, exactly like Mike Matusow!

I watched this imitator for a couple of hands, just long enough to watch him lose to a straight on the river. His medium two pair came in second best to the hand of a strong player to my right. When the river card hit, “imitation Mike” jumped up, practically ran about five steps from the table and hollered the dreaded “f” word. Very loudly.
It was then that the poker-room manager came onto the scene, warning him to watch his language if he stayed to watch the rest of the tournament. The remaining nine players at the table were showing their pleasure with quiet smiles. I would guess that no one was surprised at “Mikey’s” early exit.

I know not everyone who plays poker in public is going to be the quiet, gentle giant that Brunson is. We will never see a roomful of Howard Lederer types or 8,000 Phil Ivey’s in Las Vegas for the WSOP. What really disappoints me is that this young fellow was suffering from what the late Puggy Pearson called “mistaken identity.” Pearson said one of the first things a gambler has to do is make friends with himself.

One of the true strengths of a successful poker player is to be comfortable in his or her own skin, to be himself or herself and no other, at the table and away from it. I think one of the reasons this is good advice is that it allows more mental and physical energy to be directed to the poker game. Acting like someone is not the same as having a table image. Committing yourself to acting like the person you are is the first step to that image.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I may not be a fan of Mike Matusow’s actions and words. They are a bit over the edge for me. But I will be the first to admit that he is and always will be a formidable opponent at the table. A recent telecast that included Matusow clearly showed that he can play the game at a high level and be his usual, loud self, or he can eliminate several other pros and not say a word.

The young want-to-be who left the tournament early had Matusow’s hair, his actions and even a bit of his mouth. But he lacked one important ingredient.
He didn’t have Mike’s game.