I have been so busy this year so far I haven’t had much time to think about what I want to get out of 2010. I thought about playing some more competitive golf, but after such a terrible performance at Pebble Beach last week, I am just not sure the inspiration is there right now to play a ton of professional golf. So I started thinking that I have never really taken a shot at the WSOP and I kind of think it might be pretty fun and challenging at the same time.
My bread and butter has been online cash games and I have really only played poker to make money since my career began. With that in mind, I am getting the itch to rent a house for a month, bring my family along and see if I can’t make some noise at the WSOP. I am not going to make any bold predictions or even set any goals other than to simply play my best each day and see where it takes me. It would be way too presumptuous of me to believe that just because I have had a successful high stakes online cash game career that it will instantly translate into immediate success at the WSOP. I just love challenges and I think I can have a great experience at the WSOP. If something good happens, then great, but I am not going to put any pressure on myself more than I just naturally will as an ultra competitive person.
I read Doyle’s blog today and about fell out of my chair that he actually read my blog and responded to what I wrote! I certainly never thought he would read it and thought it was pretty cool that he read it and cared enough to comment on it.
That being said, I want to clarify a couple of things in there just so my thoughts are represented a little better than maybe I had presented them in my original blog.
With respect to Doyle’s quote, “My thanks to Dusty for the nice things he said about me. I didn’t really know everybody thinks these young guys are so much better poker players than me. I do know I’ve survived through several generations of new superstars. Most of them are gone now. Send this new bunch down to Bobby’s Room and let’s find out if they are really so great.” I hope I didn’t imply that all of the young online poker players think Doyle is not a great player anymore. Far from it. First off, Doyle can count me as someone who thinks the world of his game. As far as others go, I think there is a small segment of the real cocky, young (like 19 yr olds) bunch of kids who see him make a questionable play or two (which everyone does from time to time) and use that as ammunition to try and tear down someone who has been in arguably one of (if not the most) successful poker players of all time. So if you happen to be reading this blog too Doyle, this is not prevalent thought in my opinion, but rather I just notice it from time to time from some obnoxious forum tards, not anyone with half a clue.
Actually to point out one specific example, one play I hear about all the time that argues why Doyle isn’t as good as he is made out to be is actually a play that I think argues FOR why Doyle is so great. Doyle vs. Antonius
In this play Doyle has been picked on a lot for calling with a hand that can virtually never have a great amount of equity against Patrick’s shoving range. For that reason, Doyle has been picked on for making what some believe to be a clearly -EV call. But what so many people always fail to understand in poker is that poker problems CAN NOT be approached in a bubble. If you think you can put some information into a computer and it will spit out the correct decision in poker, trust me you will never be that great of a player if you believe that.
Poker is an incredibly dynamic game and every decision you make, at least in some small way, affects the results or decisions you make in the future. For example if you ship in J2o off suit pre flop against someone you play regularly against and get called by aces, it is possible that doing so, even if you knew your opponent had aces and would call every single time, may be a wildly + EV play if you think your opponent will be slow to adjust or will call you with a much wider range in the future. In a bubble, of course, it would be a bad play to put all your money in in a situation like this, but poker is not played in a bubble.
Getting back to the Doyle hand versus Antonius, Patrick had been relentlessly 3 betting Doyle and just running over the table in general. Doyle is not a man who is going to let someone else call the shots for very long, nor should he be. I was watching that tournament as a starry eyed wannabe poker player and I remember that final table very well. In fact it taught me a lot about poker. I learned from Patrick that aggression was a very valuable tool. I also learned that you have to have confidence in yourself and your game as it was apparent that both Doyle and Patrickhad had that self confidence that all of the greats have. But what I also learned is that sometimes you just have to say, “Fuck you I call” or “Fuck you I raise.” And I think Doyle was pushed to his limit at that final table with Patrick just running it over. So Doyle took a hand like 33 and simply thought, “Fuck you I call.”
I mean really how bad was it even if we were to approach it in a bubble? I would bet any poker stove calculations would give Doyle around 50% equity given a pair is the favorite over two overcards and Patrick was probably not much more likely to have a pair larger than 33 than he was to have A2, A3 or 22 specifically. So Doyle simply let him know that he was tired of his shit and he wasn’t going to get run over anymore. Plus Doyle is a smart enough poker player to think beyond simply that final table. I am sure he could recognize that Patrick was a potential force to be reckoned with and he may well be playing with him at Bobby’s room in the near future and he let the up and comer know that, “Look, if you think you are going to just waltz onto the scene and try and run me over on national television expecting me to just lie down and take it, you’ve got another thing coming to ya.” For all we know, Doyle may have thought that even if he lost the hand, he could use that image to take a big slice out of Antonius’ winnings back at Bobby’s room. And the quote at the end by Doyle when Patrick lost the hand was absolute gold!
Lastly, I wanted to clarify one other thing with this quote by me in my original blog post about Doyle, “The greats stand the test of time and Doyle should make no apologies for not pouring over spreadsheets and complex equations like most of the top online players do deep into his 70s when he has already done everything you can do in poker.”
I doubt anyone took this quote and thought I was picking on Doyle as it may imply that I think he has not kept up with some of the younger online players, but in case anyone did, I want to clarify my point. What I meant was as it applies specifically to online cash game poker, I do think it is possible that if Doyle threw himself into all of the 10/20 and 25/50 games at Full Tilt or PokerStars tonight, I think it is certainly possible that he may struggle briefly. I think those games are games that even a great player can stop playing for a few months and since the game evolves so quickly, get his ranges all out of whack and make some bad plays pretty easily.
BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT ONE THING, I firmly believe that if he put even a small amount of energy into it, he’d find a way to be the best player in the game in short order. I think in poker Doyle can do whatever he puts his mind to do. So for everyone out there who starts stupid threads wondering if Doyle could beat 2/4nl online and garbage like that, you know something, right off the bat I am not sure there is anyone who could expect to start tearing up the online games coming from a primarily live background. Poker is a game of adjustments and the online cash game is a pretty unique game relative to live play and anyone would struggle relative to their skill set. But great minds achieve great things in short order. And if Doyle wanted to be the best 10/20 or 25/50nl player online, you can bet I would be ready and willing to take some action from anyone who wants to bet against him.