I know you are receiving many canned letters from poker players tonight, but this one will be a little different – it comes from MY heart.

I am a hard-working tax-paying American. I serve my country by working as a third grade teacher in a public school in one of the poorest parts of my city of Phoenix, AZ. Despite that, the school in which I teach is making some amazing things happen with our mostly English Language Learners. We are in position to become the first Excelling school in our area. If we don’t do it this year, we will most certainly do it next year.

When I am not working hard at school to help my students be the best they can be, I usually turn the computer on and play some poker. Now, I am not a full-time poker player, but I love the game enough to spend a lot of time learning everything I can about the game. And I do like to play… a lot.

Shortly after I started playing this amazing game, I began to realize that it was not simply a game of luck, but truly a game of skill. Not only that, I actually became a winning poker player. It was never a question in my mind that I would pay taxes on my poker winnings. I have done so because I believe it is my responsibility to do what is right for this great nation in which I had the privilege of being born – A nation I have always thought of as “the land of the free.”

I think you can imagine my shock and surprise, on April 15th, 2011, when I came home from a job I love to play a game I love only to find that that right had been taken away from my by other Americans who felt that they understood better than me what it was okay and not okay to do. It was truly one of the more depressing moments of my life. Deep down, I felt what it must have been like for those who like to wind down their day with a glass of wine or a mug of beer to be told they could not do that anymore. By the way, I am not a drinker, but I do believe in the right of every American to enjoy those things in life that do not endanger others.

Mr. President, I know you are an avid poker player. I know you are familiar with the history of the game, and the importance it has played in many historical events. Skills honed at a poker table can help an average negotiator become a skilled one. Being able to look a world leader in the eye without flinching is a skill that is sharpened with a well-timed bluff based upon the many “tells” you see in your adversary. I know you use these skills for the highest benefit of our country. I know this because I am a poker player, too. Good poker players have an appreciation of the skill and cunning of other good poker players.

The recent decision by the Department of Justice to shut down the very websites on which I legally play poker flies in the face of the very freedoms we so cherish in this country. To take away my freedom of choice of entertainment is an insult to the freedoms that were put in place by our Founding Fathers.

I know there are some players who win money and do not pay their taxes. Clearly, this is an issue that needs to be resolved. However, it is not something you resolve by punishing the many who do pay taxes on their winnings. Poker is going to be around no matter how much our government might want to quash it. Rather than fight it, why not regulate it instead? It is an industry that can more than pay for itself through taxes. It is to the benefit of our country to regulate a game that many call our “true” national past time. Don’t kill the game that many presidents from Abraham Lincoln on up to the present have had a familiarity with. Some of our greatest presidents have loved the game – most of them in secret because they knew the game had a negative connotation with so many of their constituents. The game has changed a lot from the river boats on the Mighty Mississippi and the saloons of western towns. It is much more controlled. Cheating is very difficult. Frankly, if it was still the game it was in its infancy, I honestly wouldn’t be playing it.

Be the first president to come out and say, “You know what, poker is a fascinating and beautiful game.” Because it is – if played by reasonable people.

I urge you to come out against your own Attorneys General in the state of New York and take steps to make Internet Poker legal – precisely because it is a game of skill rather than luck. I urge you to call on Congress to regulate a game that can more than pay for itself through taxes.

I look forward to your response on this issue. I hope that I, along with my over one million fellow Poker Players Alliance members, can count on your support.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Dave “L8Bloomer” Hatton

Over the years that I have played, many friends have come and gone.  Relationships have changed, and people have decided to leave poker behind.  Knowing how brutal the game can be, I am not surprised.  it is always with a bit of melancholy that I part with old poker friends, especially when I am the one who has decided to leave.  Your poker friends become a part of who you are, and when you or they leave the game, it is all part of the withdrawal that goes along with this crazy game called poker.

I consider myself a decent poker player, and I occasionally develop friendships with players who are not at my level.  I think it is part of my nature as a teacher to do that.  I think I have helped around a handful of players become not only better players, but winning ones, too.  This is not to say that I am this amazing poker coach – because I think it is less about the game than it is about the attitude one has towards the game.  If one can withstand the bad beats, the negative variance, and the long dry spells, as long as one has their head screwed on straight and is consistently learning the game, one can beat this game.  If any of those things are absent, it is better to not play.  Or, if one wants to play, then it is better to give yourself a good long break and make sure you are ready mentally for what it takes to make it in this game.  Most of all, if you are not having fun, get out.

Incidentally, in all the years that I have played, I have only been close friends with only one other player that I thought was better than me at the beginning of our friendship.  Mind you, I have many acquaintances who are most certainly better players than me now.  I even have some acquaintances who have played in WSOPs for years.  I envy them a bit, yes – I will admit it!  After all, it is one of my dreams to play in the WSOP.

But I have had a handful of friends who have gone on to become better players than me.  Initially, I admit that I was bitter about this.  But then, I realized this is pretty much a golden opportunity for me.  Especially since I know them so well, already.

Well, in the past month or so, one of my closest poker friends suddenly became a better player than me.  Missythemoo started chatting with me in an MTT. This was in the summer 2010.  Now, I wasn’t much better, but I’d certainly put up better past results.  He also had a particularly horrid run of brutal finishes.  But one thing that I admired throughout – he never blamed to software, or the site, or anything.  He just kept educating himself.  Now I am finding out some of the things he did to become a better player, and wishing I had done them, too.  For example, he spends a lot of time watching the best players play.  He takes advantage of the free replays that both PokerStars and FullTilt offer.  He also goes to any number of high stakes MTTs and just watches.  He can’t see hole cards, but he can still get a decent idea of how they play from when their hands bust.

My favorite thing about “missy” is that he doesn’t rant and rave about bad beats all the time.  When I came to the realization that online poker was not rigged, I stopped being friends with some good players because of the way they complained about their luck.  One of these players was even in the top 100 on the PocketFives.com leaderboard. His rants left an extremely bad taste in my mouth.

I think I have helped at least one player realize that ranting and raving is all for naught. It certainly doesn’t make one a better player. When the ranting and raving stops, then the searching begins – the searching for the best ways to win begin.

Because that is where I am, I can do the things that helped my successful friends become better players. And now I have the doubly good fortune of being able to find out those things first hand.

It can be very easy to become jealous of friends who become better players than you, but if you set your jealousy aside, then you will be able to reap the rewards!

Lost in all of this was the fact that the weather forecasters had actually predicted a 20% chance of rain.

When I tried to point this out, my comments were merely brushed aside by others – ignored, really. It got me to thinking about poker. You know, how I used to think that this site or that site was rigged because I didn’t think I was winning according to the odds. For example, if I was all in with a flush draw, and it seemed like I was NEVER hitting the flush, I would think, heck, I am supposed to hit the flush 38% of the time, and I am not hitting it at all, but the other players are hitting them all the time!

After I read the comments on this article about weather forecasting, I really began to realize that the same thing is true for poker. I decided to take a closer look at how I was actually doing. I actually started keeping track with paper and pencil, counting the number of times I was shoving with a flush draw, and lo and behold, over the long run, I was almost exactly what the odds said they should be.

Weather forecasters are not perfect. What weather forecasters actually do is look at all of their data and say to themselves, under similar circumstances to the ones we are seeing in our computer analysis, we predict that we will have rain approximately 20% of the time. Don’t we see the exact same thing in poker? Don’t players complain that they never win a flip or that their 70% sure bets always seem to be losing?

Well, there is a reason for that – probability does NOT work to perfection. Go to this website where you will find a virtual 10-sided die. Pretend that your hand of KK is represented by 1-7 and your opponents AJ is represented by 8, 9, and 10. Roll the die ten times. Did you hit exactly 70%? If you did, that is what you are supposed to hit, but I can guarantee that most of you did not. Some of you might have hit 8, 9, and 10 90% in the first ten! First time I did it, I hit 1-7 80% of the time. Now, if you roll 100 times, you will go through stretches where you hit 8, 9, or 10 five or six times in a row – sometimes more! That is because probability is not perfect. However, if you roll the die 1,000 times, you will likely be very close to hitting 1-7 70% of the time. Roll it 10,000 times? Statistically speaking, you are going to be so close to 70% that the difference will be negligible it will make that one stretch when it hit 8, 9, or 10 fifteen-twenty times in a row just a statistical anomaly.

Players have those times – we know they do. “Damn it! Can I EVER win a flip???” They are going through a statistical anomaly. They happen!

When I came to understand this, I noticed, that over the long term, everything actually evened out. If I was playing my cards right and getting in good, it was only a matter of time before I would win my share of tournies – as long as I was doing everything I could to improve my own game!

Ignore the bad beats. Are you getting in good? Then just keep playing your game. Do you understand push/fold ratios to the best of your ability? (f you don’t get PokerStove and learn how to use it. It is free) If so, just keep playing your game – the wins will come.

I have my moments, definitely, but within a few seconds, I am back to the realization that bad beats are just that – bad beats. They are a part of the game that you have to reconcile with, or you will find that you are just not cut out for the game. Meditation helps – but that is a whole other blog entry!

Why I do this, I do not know. But tomorrow, I am certainly going to be ready. I am going to trust my true instinct, which was working extremely well the last couple of days – I was just ignoring it. Time to get back to my real game and keep building this bankroll.

GL at the tables, all!

I had a big day yesterday. I came in fourth place in the $20 $15,000 Guaranteed on PokerStars for $1,478! It is my 5th largest cash ever. If you take out the three tourneys I won as a donk in the early days, it is only my second best cash, LOL!

At the beginning of the year, I said the only withdrawal I was going to make was to pay my 2010 taxes, if need be. So far, I have kept to that resolution. I still have to make my withdrawal for taxes, but it has definitely been a good beginning of the year – which includes an entire month of no poker. In two months, I have definitely put myself in good position bankroll-wise.

That brings up another important discovery for me from early this year – PartTimePoker. PartTimePoker is a poker staking website. Players can request to have a portion of their buy-ins purchased by investors. In turn, the investors get a percentage of whatever winnings they may earn. Of course, there is also the chance that they may lose their investment. But I have hit upon a strategy that has been working wonders for me. I have made over $1,000 there so far this year. All of my investments have been in BAPs (Buy a Piece) as the name implies, I have bought a piece of a player, and they, in turn, have sent me a portion of their winnings. I am currently invested in about 25 players and I have agreements with 5 more players to invest in them. That information is actually public – you can see who I am investing in here.

One thing I am excited about is I might have my first stake. A stake is when you are the only person investing in a player. I have been talking with a player who is interested in being backed. We are in the negotiating stages right now, but it is definitely looking promising.

I will definitely have an entry up later about how I invest in BAPs and Stakes. Suffice to say, the old investing adage, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” definitely holds true when investing in poker players! I learned that by investing a large portion of my bankroll in one player. I mean a very large portion – about 40% of it. Fortunately, I had other winnings that allowed me to offset that large loss. I will leave you with that small tidbit until a later blog post.

It is good to be writing about poker again!