Playing Cards...........

If anyone knows me they also know that I enjoy gambling and playing poker, sometimes to a fault I must admit. But the story line behind this blog is poker and in particular Texas Hold Em, not whether I play or not.

I read this morning where this young 23 year old Canadian named Jonathan Duhamel beat out 7300 other players for the $8.9 million dollar prize! Sporting flip-flops, plaid shorts and a sweatshirt at the final table Monday night, he looked more like someone who just rolled out of bed than the guy who just won $8.9 million in the World Series of Poker. The kid was a Strawberry picker not that long ago and the computer age got him into poker, online poker, online Texas Hold Em.

Remember when a few good old boys would get together at Binion's in Las Vegas for a card game and could win up to 1 million dollars? A few professional poker players and professional gamblers played a game of cards for a trophy (bracelet) plus a cash prize taken from the $10,000 entry fee charged. Do you or did you ever stop to think with 7300 entries now days at an entry fee of $10K that's $73 million dollars someone is taking in plus TV rights from ESPN and others..............it's not a game with a few good old boys from Vegas any longer!

I personally remember being a person standing in the back round watching what at the time was big poker games in Las Vegas at Binion's and at the Golden Nugget, and now in order to fit all the players in the so called tournament is being played in the largest conventions centers of the largest hotels in Las Vegas and other places. Now the so called good players of which they add one or two each year are playing on obscure TV channels amongst themselves and starting new games so as not to allow all these online jokers a seat in the exclusive rooms with no crowds what so ever.

Now to my point of this entire blog..................Texas Hold Em, no skill involved what so ever and a game of totally luck if you have the cash to hang in until the last card. Yea, don't give me that "read" or "tell" crap and feed the rest of us that for the most part garbage of being able to pick up on "tells" the other players have to give you an edge. Sure now and then you'll be able to see by a persons nervous moves or blinks that a card helped his hand but until the dreaded "river card" hits the table it could be anyone's game to win, even the dude with a bunch of money hanging around with a 3 of diamonds and a 7 of spades. Back in the day I'm sure a pair of "pocket rockets" (aces) or "big slick" (ace and king) would win quite a few pots, but today the way everyone stays until the last dog dies to see the river or the flop the only ones you can beat with those cards are the dudes with scared money!

No not even back in the day was Texas Hold Em much of a game of skill, in my humble or not so humbler opinion, it's totally a poker game of more luck than anything...............the strategy if you decide to play a hand is to have enough money to call the other players that might raise the pot. If you got the cash in front of you the hand you hold just may be a winner. When I played with the boys back home on poker nights we played a game called "gut" now and again and that's what Hold Em takes, more money and more guts to hang around with literally shit cards until the end. Sure there is still some bluffing but I'd venture to say not near as much as there used to be when real men played poker!

Just like a whole lot of other things, technology is good but not good for everything!