Page 8 - September 2005 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
Psycho Logic by Jim Mercurio
My therapist used to tell me to not worry about what people thought about me. I found out she was right. And wrong.
A half hour of absolute joy for a loose-aggressive idiot like myself, I picked up aces, kings and two ace-kings within two rounds of a $300 winner-take-all tournament at Hollywood Park. But I only had to showdown one hand.
I picked up some blinds and a couple of healthy pots in a matter of ten minutes. I’m thinking I’m playing rock-solid poker—making money with textbook tight-aggressive play. And, of course, I was. But in the eyes of the other players, I was a hyper-aggressive bully who was playing every hand and got lucky once with A-K when I happened to get called.
of the reasons Howard Lederer’s rule of leaving a limit game after losing 30 big bets is not a bad idea.
A seemingly less harmless defense mechanism is sublimation—which is channeling socially unacceptable behavior into a more acceptable one. Instead of kicking the dog, you hit the punching bag. Instead of beating up your neighbor, you go and play aggressively at the casino.
So what’s so bad about blowing o some steam with a few, appropriately-named, steam-raises? Let me tell you a story. I once tried to deftly apply a pretty sophisticated defense mechanism: projection. But clearly I was in over my head. In fth grade, I said to Marcy G: “ Tommy thinks you are cute.” She replied,“ at means you think I’m cute.” I folded and said,“Good hand.”
My grade school crush morphed into a Caucasian female Johnny Chan who peered into my soul and picked o my blu . And therein lies the problem. You ever notice how easy it is to spot denial, sublimation and rationalization in others? It’s a cinch. Raise with value, you get some respect. Raise with anger, you get re-raised or trapped.
is is why you should never play when you’re mad, distracted, upset or depressed. Your actions need to be congruent with how you should feel about your hand at any given point. And they should be in service of one thing: winning money. If there is something else going on, it’s going to lead to an undesired result: giving away your chips to the therapist across the table.
An hour later, when I tried to steal the blinds with a substantial raise from the cuto , the button, the small blind and the big blind called. I felt like the Rodney Danger eld of poker. (If you don’t get the reference, you’re too young to be reading this column anyway.) I realized something. In life, my therapist’s advice was dead-on. However, in poker what other people at the
And he would run. (Ironically, the T-Rex was holding a 4-7 off-suit and would have folded if the caveman came over the top.)
But when the pain involved isn’t physical pain but pain to our psyche, we have more complex processes: ego defense mechanisms. Some of my personal favorites are rationalization, denial and sublimation.
e Je Goldblum character in the Big Chill said, “Rationalizations are more important than sex.” Have you ever gone a day without a rationalization? Here’s one that can get you broke fast: “It’s a loose wild table. I can withstand the bankroll uctuations, and the dealer ashed one non-spade so I should cold-call 4 bets on the button with 6-7s.”
“Most humans prefer to avoid pain. So if a prehistoric caveman poker player found himself face-to-face with Tyrannosaurus Rex (and you thought A-K dominated A-3?) he would often appeal to his favorite defense mechanism:
flight. And he would run. (Ironically, the T-Rex was holding a 4-7 off-suit and would have folded if the
Most humans prefer
to avoid pain. So if a
prehistoric caveman poker player found himself face-to-face with Tyrannosaurus Rex (and you thought A-K dominated A-3?) he would often appeal to his favorite defense mechanism: flight.
A Look into the Future of Gaming: Wireless Jackpots?
table thought of me was of the utmost importance. eir perception of me
forced me to play like the little drummer boy for the next hour.
Maybe my therapist’s advice wasn’t immediately applicable to poker. But let’s look at some other tenets of psychology — a science devoted to how and why others feel and think the way they do — that might lead to poker insight.
Look for your opponent’s defense mechanisms. Denial can hurt too. And then do the harder thing. Pick o your own
caveman came over the top.)” the reshold of Pain. Intuitively, it might seem
Denial is linked to an interesting concept called
emotional crutches and get them out of your life. Or at least your game.
Jim Mercurio is a writer, lmmaker and poker player. He produced the lm Hard Scrambled, which stars Kurtwood Smith (That 70’s Show) and Richard Edson (Do the Right Thing). Come and hear him speak in November at Screenwriting Expo 4 (screenwritingexpo.com). To say hi or to stake him, email him at jim@jamespmercurio.com
like this term de nes the point at which losses begin to hurt. But Mike Caro spins it the other way. e scarier point is where your losses hurt so much, that to lose more would no longer cause pain. is is one
look into the future of gaming may include wagering anytime, anywhere on cell phones
and other wireless devices. With better-quality graphics, larger screens and more reliable
connections, cell phones will make wireless gambling easier than ever, experts say. gaming consoles, including Xbox and PlayStation,
Casinos are also hoping to gain a wider audience by making their services compatible with more and more cell phones. Last month, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn signed a bill allowing gambling via handheld devices in public areas of casinos, allowing visitors to play by the pool, in the lounge — anywhere in their facilities.
In the future, gamblers will be able to place their wagers on electronic devices from small-screen cell phones to big-screen TVs.
PokerRoom.com, a popular online poker site, launched an interactive cell-phone poker game in April and will eventually accommodate handheld
computers, including the BlackBerry.
that initially will allow people to play over the Internet for fun, not money.
Experts say the growth of gaming on high-tech devices is inevitable, and needs vigilance. Stay tuned for more developments.
...Gaming News Continues on page 12
Also, 2003 World Series of Poker champion, Chris Moneymaker is developing gambling games for
Page 8 September 2005
Gaming News (Cont.) Poker : Wired Aces and River Rats with Jim Mercurio