A - Z of Poker: Day 4

From London to Vegas in 26 Letters

Day4: D is for ....

D is for Discipline. An obvious choice. If you had to pick out a few essential qualities for successful poker then you might be able to argue that mathematical ability is necessary (but you will find plenty of counterexamples among "natural" players), or that player-reading is vital (but, in truth, a solid and winning game is possible without this especially online where its importance is limited).

The ability to bluff ? The heart to gamble ? Being born lucky ?

All of these are useful but one quality that is simply indispensable (and without which all the other qualities can founder) is discipline.

This is a problem, since many otherwise brilliant players clearly lack it in sufficient quantities. The evidence for that is the descent-to-busto regularly endured by obviously winning players. Quite a lot of them seem to think "D is for Dice".

Discipline means many things in practice: bankroll management, game selection, tilt control, session management and so on.

Unfortunately, discipline is hard to learn, hard to practice, and lapses in discipline tend to be rewarded with swift and severe punishment from the poker gods.

Discipline is going to be the "D" in my plan to play "ABCD poker" in Vegas this year. "Apply Basic Commonsense and Discipline". For me, this will mean things like: NOT accepting the unlimited free alcohol on offer at the cash tables, NOT playing for 28 hours without a break, considering sleep as an option from time to time, and so on.

D is for Disappointment. It's incredible that this game can seem to exert such a strong pull on us, and such desire to get back in the game, when all it really seems to offer most of the time is constant and repeated disappointment !

This is especially true in tournaments. Short of winning the whole thing, the result is generally:

disappointment at an early exit or else:
disappointment at not making the most of a good start or else:
disappointment at falling away in the mid stages or else:
disappointment at losing out on the bubble or else:
disappointment at only just making it past the bubble or else:
disappointment at not making the final table or else:
disappointment at only just making the final table or else:
disappointment at not making the final 3 where all the big money is or else:
disappointment at getting to the final 3 but not finishing the job

Cash games also don't fail to disappoint. Either we played a long time but didn't win much, or we are disappointed that we left too early, or left too late. We didn't cash in when we had a big stack, or didn't carry on when we had a big stack to play with. Or we didn't play well, or we DID play well but weren't rewarded. Or the other players were too good, or too bad. And so it goes on.

In any case, we will be disappointed if we don't get a chance to put it all right next time, and soon.