Sunday, March 7, 2010

Bad Bar Poker Play

I have been receiving lots of comments on the quality of play at some of the local bar games. Yes, that's right bad play at a bar poker game! LOL! I have made this statement before but will post it again.

Bar Poker - a promotion run by an establish to improve food and beverage sales.
The goal of any promotion is to make more then you spend. If not you stop running that promotion.

Unfortunately in MN we are only allowed to give up to $200 away in a given tournament and there must be no entry fee. It does open these promotions up to many that play for various reasons. Here are a few. Do you fall into any of these categories?

#1 Improve their poker game. There is a wide range of players that play for this reason. The only true way to improve your poker game is to play as many hands as possible and try and learn though experience. These people are students of the game and enjoy all the new challenges every tournament brings.

#2 Social. These people use bar poker as their socialization outlet. It is there way to go out and meet and associate with others. to many this may be there only outlet. Playing or learning to play poker is only a small part of the experience.

#3 Spouses or significant others. These players only play because of someone else. They may not even like the game of poker, but don't want to be left out. Many times these players are the first ones out because they don't care, but want to show their other half that they are least trying.

Now, your goal as a bar poker player is to look around your table and figure out which of these are you playing with. It will tell you if you need to adjust your game to their reasons to play. There is a difference to call with a race with some one from each of the categories. There is also always the chance that your best hand will not win. The key is to risk as little of your stack as possible until you know that you have the best hand.

Remember, have fun, patronize the establishment and say nice hand sir when you get sucked out on.

Wait a minute, and don't forget to tell your bad beat story to the tournament director. Who knows it may get blogged about!

2 comments:

  1. I've noticed a few other groups that might just be subclasses of your list, but get handled a little differently.

    There are the "I watch all the poker TV has to offer" players. They are students of the televised hands on TV. The lack sofistication and assume that raw aggression is what Phil Ivey does.

    Card lovers. These tend to be older people that just love playing cards. Poker is a game of luck to them. They can spot good cards but are oblivious to the people around them. They may ore may not be all that social.

    Drunks who happen to be there. We see this a lot. They've been drinking in the bar and "play in a home game or two". They aren't all that good but have plenty of liquid courage in them.

    Funny, I've been thinking about writing some posts similar to this :)

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