Phillips, Larry. Zen and The Art of Poker
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Software Advantage #5: The player is taken through the same range of emotions as a live game.
Critics of poker software often overlook the fact that most of the same emotions occur in software play as in a live game. Thus, it can be used to master oneself—a benefit whose value cannot be overstated. By responding to various obstacles that appear, the player moves in and out of emotional states. This is extremely good and valuable practice.
Software Advantage #6: Software can be used to work on yourself, as well as the game.
The fact is, after a certain point, the player already knows the game. It is often more helpful, therefore, at this point, to use software to work on yourself—self-control, calm, composure, concentration, and so on.
We cannot put ourselves in too many situations, too often, where our moods are called forth and challenged (frustration, anger, annoyance, disbelief). Using software to get into these situations (and out of them) again and again allows us to develop emotional resources for live-game play.
Software Advantage #7: Software can be used to bring poker knowledge to the forefront of consciousness again.
We often hear the phrase, with regard to computers: “I’ll bring it up on the screen.” Well, this is a primary use of poker software too—to “bring it up” on our screen—to put it in the forefront of our consciousness and get ourselves back into the groove. The player can use the software to “recall” the game, to front-load it into his immediate thoughts and bring himself up to speed for a live game to come. This brief trial run provides an opportunity to make mistakes ahead of time and to stave off dangerous tendencies in our play—playing too loose or staying too long in a hand, for instance—thus correcting them before the live game starts.
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Two Cautionary Notes Involving Poker Software
1. Don’t practice when you’re tired.
Occasionally, deliberate practice on poker software when you’re tired can be helpful (to see if you can maintain the Zen). Such times occur in live games, too—usually late at night. However, don’t practice too much when you’re tired, because wrong lessons can be learned and strengthened, bad habits reinforced. No real learning is taking place when you’re tired. (In fact, unlearning may very well be taking place.)
2. The computer game takes place at high speed.
This is another trap of computer software—the ability to play at lightning speed. Then the player gets in a live game and becomes impatient because the game seems to unfold in slow motion (complete with long dealer-shuffling gaps in between) in comparison to the game he’s become accustomed to on the computer screen.
A second problem is that the software gets you through cold spells quicker. You can fold hundreds of terrible hands in a short time—the equivalent of untold countless hours of play in a live game. Thus, our emotions need to downshift in order to compensate for the difference in tempo of play. Software’s ease of folding bad cards can be a dangerous model for the way a cold spell is going to feel in a real game. It’s much longer, slower, more painful, and the suffering is more drawn out.
Final Note
Very important, with regard to poker software, is the amount of time we practice. If we overplay, the game starts to become lifeless, boring, and flat; we lose interest and begin to play mechanically, not really paying attention. Eyes glaze over and a kind of burnout
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occurs. Lackluster, halfhearted play takes place.* (While this may seem harmless, in actuality it is not much different than playing when tired or when drinking—the end effect is the same. A lack of interest occurs that catapults us quickly back into the amateur ranks.)
How much practice is too much? Or not enough?
This is an objective decision, but it is also a subjective one; it goes by how you feel. The player must develop a sensitive personal “antennae” for when he is right on that edge. If you feel you are playing too much (on the software), then you probably are. It has primarily to do with your interest in the game.
There is almost nothing more important than this “interest” in the game—an eagerness, a sharpness, even excitement of it. It keeps an edge to the player’s game, keeps him learning, noticing, and, above all, caring. Whenever this caring stops, indifferent play begins.
Proponents
Proponents of poker software sometimes make the mistake of forgetting that the human brain is a computer, too—able to assimilate facts and information at lightning speeds unrivaled by anything at Microsoft or IBM. Rest assured, each player at the table has his own computer with him—and as long as it is assimilating and weighing facts correctly, learning the right lessons and constantly adjusting, it will be an opponent for you not to underestimate.
Critics
To critics of poker software, we might say this: While software does have its disadvantages, it is good not to judge too harshly, because of its relative newness on the scene. It is well to remember that nothing involving computers ever gets worse as time goes on—it always gets better.
*Any player who doubts this can prove it to himself quite easily—simply by overdoing it. Practice poker software for several hours beyond what feels right. You will soon see how impatience and irritability set in, followed quickly by boredom, indifference, and poor play.
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Acknowledgments
Every student has many teachers, and I am indebted to those who taught me, for the lessons in this book. These include:
The gang in Blanchardville, for whom poker is an endless game; the Monroe game: Ross Lancaster and John Gobeli, Roger Seffrood, Greg “Duck” Wuetrich, Max Wyssbrod, Angelo Andrias and Ken Rufer; Gary Stamm, Justin Stamm and Fritz Amacher, Markus Meier, Greg Syse and Bob Golackson; Todd and Fred Wirtz, Max Voelkli, Duane Hanson, Mary Ryan, Richard Kundert, Buffy, Cutty and Buck; John Huber and John Wagner; Buck and Richard Tschanz; Bill Buehler, Bob Flanagan, Clark K. and Werner Z . . . Tom Bacon and Ginger R.
The LaCrosse players: Fred, Tom, Gilby, Oz, Kaz, Squirt, Ken Peterson, and Charlie Kline.
Joe Willi and Kenny King and the cast and crew of Diamond Jo’s riverboat: Kurt, Kevin, Jimmy, Leon and the dealers and personnel on the Miss Marquette Mississippi riverboat.
Special thanks to: Schmitty and Laura; Jeff Conway of Old Smokey; Carl Wenger, Hugh Richardson, Clint Bellmeyer, Wayne Tyler, Dean Jackson, Don Roberts, Ray Babb, Bob McGranahan, Mike Palm and Bill Schultz.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 175
Also, players and friends: Bob Wittman, Dave Juergens, Craig Stamm, Ken Kruser, Mary and Pete Massey, Rick Reinke, J.P., Dan Waisman, Bill Dearth, Dewey Weum, Robin S., Dennis R., Jeff, Louis, Mike, Rich, Audrey, Duane and Dan, Gloria T., Greg J., Jimmy N., Sony, Frank F., Portage Dave Bailey, Dave Stoltz, Tom H., Big Al, Jimmy Ryan, Lyle, Don, Steve, Dennis, and others too numerous to mention. They know who they are.
In the poker industry: June Fields, Linda Johnson, Michael Konik, and Peter Ruchman of the Gambler’s Book Shop in Las Vegas; in the publishing industry, Joel Fishman and Kevin Long of the Bedford Book Works, world’s greatest agents, and Deborah Brody of Dutton for effort above and beyond the call.