Poker After Dark, The Cash Game
Mood:
incredulous
I have nothing against high stakes poker games but most players would not be able to afford them.
Over the last two weeks, I've watched "Poker After Dark, The Cash Game" with Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonius and Gus Hansen.
The poker was good and sometimes outstanding, especially from Dwan and Ivey. They moved their game to a higher level with practice in big cash internet poker games. Negreanu referrred to this in his recent blog entry:
"Ivey, Dwan, and Patrik just play at another level. In order to compete with them you have to work very hard, play lots of hours, and study your weaknesses. I'm willing to admit they are far better than I am at no limit cash games, but I think Hellmuth actually believes he is the "best no limit hold'em player in the world by far," (his words not mine). He's either lying to the public when he makes those statements, or, he genuinely believes that. Either way, he's either lying or completely delusional."
There was much to learn from their play. Unfortunately, the cash game was degraded and trivialized by "poker prop bets" and a few "table all ins". How can one establish the top cash players in the world by random "coin flips" and "card calling"?
With a basic stake of $100,000, one player went up $500,000 and the losing players went down $100,000 each time they did this. Why not just give the money to charity, rather than making it part of a high stakes poker game?
Obviously what is needed is a high stakes poker tournament where the minimum by-in would be $100,000. Why not go global with such a tournament and see who the best cash players are? Limit rebuys to $300,000 per individual per table. Each game would run for a week and the person with the most cash would move to the next table of winners.
On a personal level, I had a great November playing poker, but a lousy December. For the year, I'm probably down $40 or $50.
For the rest of 2009, I'm playing for only play money which I'm doing well at: five first place finishes out of nine games with two seconds.
While there's no limit on how much you can win at poker, you have to decide beforehand how much you can lose (for entertainment purposes, of course). You have to control the game or the game will control you.(i.e. Know your limit and play within it.)
Posted by qualteam
at 5:40 PM EST
Updated: Sunday, 20 December 2009 8:21 PM EST
sad
a-ok
lyrical
St Johns