Money
Blindness
By:
Rune Hansen (Z)
Money
blindness is a serious illness that affects
most poker players. Especially when they
move up and down in limits.
Let
me ask a question. How much is 100 bucks
worth to you?
Your answer could be:
a) a good sum of money. I can buy a lot
of stuff for $100 bucks,
b) not much considering I play in a $10-20
game, or
c) a decent bankroll for my $0.5-1$ game.
In other words, the value of money depends
pretty much on the situation. Money blindness
is the condition where you confuse these
different situational values of money.
The
first thing to realize is that the moment
you start gambling, chips will (usually)
represent a much smaller value to you,
then when you are out shopping. For some
odd reason chips don't feel like real
money that you can spend and most people
tend to spend them more recklessly than
they would elsewhere. This "chip illusion"
is still in effect when people go to the
ATM machine to buy more chips. It's still
only chips you withdraw from your account.
It is not before the next day that you
realize how much you have spent in terms
of what you could have bought for this
sum. Therefore, leave your credit card
at home/in another room, and only bring
the sum you can afford to lose. Gambling
is fun if and only if you can be disciplined
about it.
But
apart from this overall consideration
about gambling, I also think that money
blindness has some important implications
for poker strategy, especially when you
move up and down in limits. Say you are
used to playing $2-4 and decide to move
up to $5-10. In a $2-4 game a 100 bucks
will go a long way. With average pots
of say $30, you need to win quite a few
pots to win $100, and you need to lose
quite a few to lose $100. In a $5-10 game
two rounds of blinds cost you the value
of an average sized pot in a $2-4 game.
Usually, this does two things to your
game; it makes you defend your blinds
more than you should, and it makes you
gun shy (you need a better hand than in
your usual $2-4 game as you risk a lot
more chips then you're used to). These
two effects of money blindness can be
pretty hard to overcome, especially when
you add the fact that the table usually
is more aggressive than what you are used
to.
Money
blindness is also a factor when you move
down in limit trying to contain the damage
when you are running badly. If you are
used to average pot sizes of $100 and
session wins in the =/-$500 range, then
you probably will find yourself playing
like a maniac in a $2-4 game trying to
win a vast number of pots so that you
can make a decent session by the $5-10
scale. And this is a recipe for disaster.
Often, you find a high limit player playing
a waiting game at a lower limit than he
usually plays, and you will find him playing
extremely recklessly. and often being
the whale at the table.
In
order to overcome money blindness, I have
come up with a trick that has proven awesome
results for me. Instead of thinking in
$-values, I simply think in terms of average
pots for the table I'm playing. If I'm
stuck $250 in a $5-10 game, I don't think
of what I could have bought for that money,
or how long it will take me to win that
money back at a $2-4 game. I simply consider
myself stuck 3-4 pots - a situation I
have overcome several times. The Average
Pots Concept is a measuring stick that
doesn't change depending on the limit
you play and focusing on this unit when
evaluating your situation will allow you
to escape the most common effects of money
blindness and will help to keep you from
going on tilt whether you are stuck a
few pots or ahead a few pots. As a matter
of fact this little trick will go along
way in removing focus from short-term
swings to long term hourly rate. You don't
feel the sense of desperate urgency when
you're stuck and you don't feel the sense
of invulnerability when you're ahead.
And this should actually allow you to
be in a good frame of mind for playing
more often.
Acknowledgement:
Thanks to Leigh Lightfoot for taking the
time to proof reading my articles.
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