A Job to Enjoy

BY: Johnny Hughes

Poker is everywhere. It is easy to look at and compare games. There are plenty of places a group of gamblers are circled up all over the world. What are you looking for stranger? My favorite quote from the Bible was, "He was a stranger and we took him in."

Many things that I used to worry about have been cured by the poker boom. There is always another game tomorrow or tonight. It is all one long poker game. When I was a young man, I ran small poker games in the house where I lived, usually with a partner. I also played the big games. It was hard work just getting together seven people to squat with a little bit of money. That was during the Maverick boom on TV. It created a lot of poker but nothing like this, the Mother of All Poker Booms. All these college students smoked long cigars and quoted Maverick's Pappy's sayings much like you hear Rounders quotes now. My house and fancy garments smelled of smoke for years.

My nightmare is that I am facing final judgment and Saint Peter says to me,"You have to run a poker game. And deal."

Which reminds me of the old joke. You know why a stage coach driver and a poker dealer are alike? They both spend the day staring at ten assholes.

I now get up and leave games any day of the week that are fabulous. My leaving rules have changed. In general, you watch the skill levels of the players and the stacks of the weaker players. You have one eye on the dead money and one eye on the door. Often I will tell myself, I am leaving when the four seat and the nine seat go broke. But lately, I have been doing the old heel and toe whenever the debate about leaving begins in my head. Recently I lost a pot a show horse couldn't jump over right when I am having a conversation with my self about the knowing when to walk away part.

Winning is about not losing. It is not about not losing today or this hand or this round. When you lose a big pot which changes a whole day or a week, it does not change your strategies and starting hand discipline. Tilt is a subject for those of the sucker persuasion. Unless those cards actually squirt cider in my ear, they are not about to do anything very new.

Poker is a job. It is a job you design as to hours, working conditions, associates, location, and the level you gamble. You should select games based on money and comfort psychologically and physically. I am a part timer as three or four hours is all I enjoy now. When I was a young man, I was too lazy to work and too nervous to steal so I learned everything I could about it and proudly became a gambler. Being kind of lazy is a character trait of which I have always been most proud. None of my square John jobs were nine to fiver props.

I have never let work interfere with my poker. I have also found that I enjoy my day more if I jump off winner and have my chips in shape to play a really big pot with this as the math. I am in one pullout and way off winner. Now I am fading a flush draw. Worst case, I lose my first pull out. All of this poker writing seems to ignore the happiest fact of all. I am betting them their own money. Where all this money comes from is of very little importance but none of it came from me.

Treetop Straus told me a story about playing poker with a bank robber. The guy would get broke, go rob a bank and come back to play in the game. The FBI followed the guy back to the game and arrested him. When questioned, Treetop spoke for all poker players when he said we don't know or care or ask where the money comes from.

All this talk about bankroll management assumes some hard dry spells that happen to younger folks that have deceived themselves about the absolute brilliance of their poker play. I'm happiest if I have not bought in much and I build up slowly. Sitting there loser is not much different but I forgo potential profits to keep the amount of chips I buy much lower than the other players and I do it over and over.

My record keeping reflects how much I was in and if I was stuck. Some of these flashy young players get way in and make dramatic comebacks after I've grabbed a little winning and gone home grinning.

I don't manage my poker time and bankroll to create the best possible result. That's because I am lazy. It is not worth going back out for a second load at night to me. It is to the younger players. I'm living in a little bitty town and have to commute to the poker games in a bigger town. For the first time in the history of God's favorite card game, there are several options, a big favorite not playing at all. I play best if I play three hours or less. Smart people shouldn't work over twenty hours a week at anything but art.

With poker booming, the individual has more control than ever in history in creating his or her own job. You can be a dealer, house man, or a winning player. The Who, What ,When, Where, are as important as the how to play poker. Work should be fun. Who, What,When, and Where are biggie factors but winning is essential.

If you live where there are no casinos, for the first time there are tournaments and house games in every little town. Meeting all the players and forming real friendships with all the house men and women is part of the professionalism of poker.

People who love their jobs don't watch the clock as much. But I do. The long drive home is really not at all the same when you cash out loser. In square John jobs, people get stressed and irritated, they just must stew in their juices. A poker player can walk around, go home, go the the lake. You take a week off. Come and go as you please. Go play only your favorite places on the road. No bosses. No budgets. No schedules. Thank your lucky stars for poker on TV.

Another element of job design and poker is to pick your most comfortable spots. I only have so many poker hours in me per week so I want to go to the best game where I am off big winner and feel great there. Beautiful women, better home cooked food than I see any place else, well mannered and fun players, and hundred dollar bills flying like a a blizzard of confetti all make for a wonderful day. Games now have the most comfortable chairs.

Get this! There is a park and a lake by one of the games and the Canada geese just arrived and also a Swan. The leaves are changing..golds, reds. The holiday season is here. I walk around there and count the cars that arrive to start the game. If I need a break, I go down to the lake but those geese don't care to hear any bad beat stories from the likes of me. Imagine in the real work world telling the boss,"Screw this, I am going to hang at the lake until I decide whether to work anymore today or not."

As much as I preach "It is all one long poker game thinking.", I hate to lose. Losing hurts more than winning feels good especially if there is a question about a big play.

To enjoy your poker job and feel best about your poker job has to have a 75% win rate as a given. You think, I am up so much in this gambling joint. If I play as well as I have in the past, I can anticipate a cash flow based on past performance. The best predictor of future performance is past performance. Reality leads to poker self confidence. You should not be thinking, I am down $200 today. But you should be thinking, I am up so much for the year or month or in this gambling joint.

You look at losing the chips in front of you in a heart beat as a positive thing. This little dab is only one pullout and I am up many pullouts in this joint. Tell 'em "You might win your selves rich boys, but you'll never break me."

To design your poker job for mental comfort makes the day to day of it more healthy and more profitable. Gamblers can't be getting rattled about which ever way their luck is running because it is bound to change.

A disciplined and skilled poker player can walk up to any hold 'em game in the whole world and watch them play two rounds. If there are multi way pots and three of them are playing trash hands, he can beat it most of the time but not all of the time. You come highly recommended but not fully guaranteed.

If I like the way I am spending the day, it pays off in good steady play and winning. Look for a game you enjoy and the money will come in behind that.

The Who,What,When,and Where are complicated these days with everybody over nine years old wanting to get some chips in front of them. Cash on the wood sure makes gambling good.

Design yourself a fun job and throw off lots of your score to the girls. It makes you lucky. They are gonna get the money anyway so enjoy doing it. Poker money has no home.

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