I hate FREE

It’s weird for me to write that, because I actually love a lot of things that are free, especially technology related. I also subscribe to the maxim, “If it’s free, it’s more”, in life…in general. I’m a cheap person, meaning I’d rather do some bargain hunting to find the best price than just pay for something without knowing if it’s a good deal.

Online, I’m a huge supporter of Open Source software, which is usually free to download and use for the general public. It is especially nice when it also happens to hurt Microsoft, as is the case with Open Office, for example. I also love free web services like Facebook and Twitter.

Rethinking it, I guess a more accurate statement than the title I gave this article is, “I hate what is happening to the reputation of free”. A little wordy, so I’ll leave the title for now. What I’m frustrated with in our digital culture is that, in many cases, little to no value is given to anything that is given away for free. A perfect example of this is playing online poker.

A few years ago, during the Chris Moneymaker boom that poker experienced, new gaming sites popped up all over the Internet allowing people to play against people all over the world, for free, from the comfort of their homes. No need to go out, get dressed up, face your opponent and have to stare down someone trying to determine your bluff, and most importantly, no money.

These sites became an instant success in providing a medium for the millions of people who suddenly felt inspired to feel the rush of going “All-In” and wait to see if their 2 cards would hold up to win it all. With almost no barrier to entry, literally anyone with an Internet connection and a gambling itch that needed scratching could sign on and be pushing their chips into the pile (figuratively speaking, of course) without having to open their wallet.

I, equally enamored at the bright lights of future fortune and instant success and fame, signed up on one of these sites and started to hone my game. I quickly realized that there were too many people looking for an easy score than anyone who really wanted to learn and improve their skill at this easy to learn, but impossible to master card game. At first I was frustrated, because what I would see happen in literally every single game I sat down in was 7-8 of the 10 people seated at my “table” would go All-In on the very first hand! Knowing the fundamentals of the game, I easily figured out that not all these people were getting great starting hands. As a rule, it is better to play slow early on (lots of folding unless you have a great starting hand), get the feel of the table and try to stick around so you can be there at the end. I mean, isn’t winning the whole point of playing a game? Apparently not.

To whatever level of excitement going All-In on the first hand, regardless of the hand you are dealt, it plays to the detriment of the game. Now, instead of having to face 10 opponents each trying to figure out how to beat you and everyone else at the table, I was one of 3 people left at the table. I had all my chips, as did one other player. But the person who inevitably would luck out and win that first hand with Q-7 off suit (typically a bad starting hand), would have 8 times as many chips as the rest of us. If you’re anything like me (I’d like to think I’m rational), your immediate cry to the world is, “This is NOT FAIR!”.

The reason I stopped playing online poker is because it became too easy to win, and I don’t mean that in a good way. I wanted a challenge, to improve my game and see how good I could really get. But online is not a place for that to happen, nor do I think it ever will be. I can teach you how to win at online poker in seconds, and if you’re really interested in trying it, it really is quite simple. The problem is that you will get bored, because playing winning poker is not fun or exciting. It simply takes discipline, very little knowledge of the game, and a tiny bit of luck. Every once in awhile, that guy who won the first All-In, will call your massively dominant hand (KK to his J-4), and because of his chip lead, you are forced to go All-In early, he will suck out on the river (last card dealt) and knock you out. But, I can honestly say that I win about 70% of the time, and come in 2nd 25% of the time by following these very simple rules.

1. No matter what cards you have (AA or anything else), DO NOT PLAY THE FIRST HAND. This is the most important rule, which is why it’s first. If you do, you WILL lose. Every once in awhile, you’ll win (probably about 10% of the time), but if you do that, you are just like everyone else. No need to keep reading if you can’t do this first one.
2. Play tight. This is a general rule that should apply to the rest of the game, until you are heads up (1 other person left). You can get to heads up by playing extremely tight and folding everything until the other guy busts out, or you can push all your cards in when you have a AA, KK, or QQ, or top pair with an Ace kicker after the flop (you will win 90% of these hands, and I promise you will get called, so you might as well get your money’s worth if you waited for one of these hands to play it).
3. When you finally get to heads up, realize that if you’re playing the guy who went All-In on the first hand and won, you are better than him. This has to be true, since you are still in the game, and you know what hands he plays that you didn’t. So believe it. Outplay him, watch what he does and take advantage of every mistake he makes (trust me, there will be plenty). He is trying to finish you off so he can get to another game and try to do the same thing. Use this. When you’re strong, push him, you’ll get called. When you don’t have it, back off. You cannot and will not bluff him of his hand (if he even knows what it is).
4. Finally, when you are heads up, now is the time to be aggressive. Notice I don’t say play stupid. If you have any pair or at least 1 Ace-Jack, you might as well put it all in because you almost always will have the advantage. Like I said, if you get this far, you’ll win if you’re still paying attention – because the other guy isn’t. It never ceases to amaze me how easily a player who has convinced himself he is good, because he has a huge chip lead early, is now so eager to hand over his chips. And you will gladly take them.

So, it’s really that easy. You don’t have to read a book, or even know what the hand ranking are (although it helps). You will learn little things along the way, and as you increase ever so slightly your sensitivity to how you play and continue to observe how others play, you’ll be on your way to creating a monster advantage for yourself for a long time, if you can stand continuing to play there. And if you run into someone like me (you probably will, if you play long enough), give it your best and learn from everything that happens. Poker is a lot like life: you take the bad beats and get up and just keep going. And yes, you can quote me on that.

All this is to say, I no longer play poker online. I recently played a game, sat down at a table, and won using this exact strategy (took about 20 minutes). I almost got sucked out on one hand, where he hit an Ace on the river (I had KK to start), but luckily by that time I had him covered. The very next hand, I sucked him out where I hit a K on the river. Just goes to show, if you stick around long enough, what goes around will come back around. After that, it was smooth sailing to the win.

Getting back to my original point, I still don’t understand why so many people enjoy this type of play. I guess it reflects our instant gratification culture. If it’s not easy, they don’t want to work for it, and are on to the next “adventure”. To me, there is an immense amount of joy and satisfaction in winning this game by playing well and beating worthy opponents. Unfortunately, that experience does not exist in the virtual world and I am unwilling to pay (and most likely lose) lots of money for. I’d rather go see a movie, but that’s just me.