If you’ve been reading the blog this past week, you know that I’ve been trying to look at poker from the outside in, trying to see the online game as others do. I’ve mused on how we should clean up the game now that the re-set button has been hit, including doing away with hand-tracking software and adopting a dress code love televised events.

I got the following from a reader named Tom, who like me feels that what online poker really needs is a governing body. I thought that what he wrote was so perceptive that I’d run it in its entirely. I think he presents a good snapshot of where we are now. What do you think we can do to change it? Join in the discussion on my Facebook page.

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Dusty,

I almost always find your blogs intelligently written and thought-provoking, and the second part of “It’s Time To Clean Up Poker” especially so. However, I think that you’ve neglected an integral piece in this discussion. A piece that has been discussed in length before.

All of the major sports have governing bodies that look out for the welfare of the sport and its players. In the case of the PGA, it’s the PGA itself that actively seeks out sponsorships that increase the sport’s visibility while increasing the purse amounts for tournaments. The PGA of America mission statement declares to:

“promote enjoyment and involvement in golf among the general public, as well as to contribute to the game’s growth by producing services to golf Professionals and the industry. The PGA seeks to accomplish this mission by enhancing the skills of the PGA Professionals and expanding playing opportunities for the general public, employers and manufactures. Through these efforts, The PGA elevates the standards of the PGA Professional’s vocation, enhances the economic well-being of the individuals PGA member, stimulates interest in the game of golf and promotes the overall vitality of the game.”

The organization benefits and, consequently, the players benefit.

Where is poker’s governing body? Who is looking out for our professionals?

It certainly isn’t the WSOP. Aside from acting as a potential nanny in enforcing a professional dress code, Caesars Entertainment is only concerned about growing (or at least maintaining) the number of entries and driving tournament-related revenues.

It isn’t ESPN. ESPN has already inked a multi-year deal with Caesars to broadcast the WSOP through 2015. If ratings numbers continue to plummet, ESPN certainly won’t renew and we’ll be broadcasting WSOP events on regional Fox Sports Networks like the WPT is currently doing.

So that leaves the players. If we expect the players to do this themselves, I’m afraid we’re being overly optimistic. Personally, I don’t want an uneducated, anti-social, sub 25 year old at a WSOP final table carrying the banner for the rest of us. This sizable majority of tournament players lacks the basic skills to hold a minimum wage job.

That only leaves creating some form of poker players alliance. A model similar to the NFLPA in the NFL – a union, if you will. Take our most professional faces of poker (Negreanu, Lederer, Ferguson) and have them lead the charge for all poker players.

Threaten to boycott WPT tournaments unless there’s a corporate-sponsored overlay at each stop. Don’t sign the releases. Demand a piece of the TV revenues for all players that appear on broadcasts. Ivey won’t enter any WSOP tournaments unless he receives a multi-year, 8 figure deal from Caesars.

Great in theory, horrible in practice. These elite faces of poker have an obvious conflict of interest. Negreanu has championed the cause of poker player in the past, but would never threaten to boycott any events because that would be detrimental to PS and the sponsorship he currently enjoys. Same applies to Lederer, Ferguson and Ivey with FT.

We’re in a catch-22. Our most recognizable and professional names are the only ones that can affect change, but none would ever do anything that would jeopardize their online sponsorships / ownership stake even if it would improve the long term state of live tournament poker in 5-10 years.

So, we plod along… without direction… every man for himself.

People are actively trying to kill poker in America. The entire world is looking at us.

And we look like shit.

As I’ve said before, we seem to be the only industry that actively drives away sponsorship and audience growth by dressing and speaking immaturely. We wouldn’t go to the office wearing hoodies, flat-brimmed hats worn sideways, sunglasses and an iPod, but that’s exactly what we do on television in front of millions.

It’s costing us millions.

Want proof? More than 2.2 million people watch the World Series of Poker Main Event. The show delivers literally the most desirable advertising demographic: males, 18-35. Moreover, that audience is known to be willing to spend money, and have more education and discretionary income than the norm. Even better, that audience is mobilized efficiently because so many of them congregate in common places online; thus, you don’t need to overspend to attract them to watch. Finally, the poker audience is not passive. We feel misunderstood and have an underdog mentality that leads us to not just watch these shows, but advocate for them.

So who is the presenting sponsor for this event? Cadillac? Nike? Bank of America?

Nope. Jack’s Links. The WSOP delivers one of the premier audiences in sports, and it’s sponsored by a beef jerky company. Our demographic is not too much unlike golf’s — in fact, I’d bet the average poker viewer is more likely to spend money with advertisers than the average golf viewer. Yet to look at our sponsors you’d think we’re the redheaded stepchild of NASCAR’s bastard cousin.

Poker is big business, and the business is suffering. Ratings were down for the WSOP last year by 30%, and that’s the least of our problems. We have an image problem. This is a chance for us to alleviate our image as a bunch of guys who looks suspiciously like the Unabomber. Part of treating your poker like a business is dressing like you’re at your job. Why not look professional instead of like someone who might have a body in the trunk of his car?

Most of you know that I come from the golf world, but please don’t read this as me projecting my values on you. I love hoodies. My wife will tell you I’m the last guy who dresses to impress.

I feel like I’m merely stating the obvious. Historically, dressing well and behaving with kindness have attracted sponsors. Call me a sellout; I don’t care. I don’t know about you, but I got into poker to make money.

Now that poker is on the lips of the secular media, you have to imagine marketing officers with major potential sponsors are looking at us closely, thinking, “If this game goes legal, we need to know if we should get into striking position. Ratings will go from good to great and the demo will only get better. But look at these characters…”

The biggest sponsors are by nature conservative. In golf, those companies have no issue aligning themselves with top players because their odds of snapping are remote. (Tiger being the great exception.) Meanwhile, one of our lead spokesmen throws chairs across a room and collapses on the ground and cries for seven minutes. We are not a slam dunk for Audi or IBM.

I think the WSOP needs to take the lead on this in lieu of our having a governing body and establish a dress code. Since Black Friday, it’s possible that all the other poker shows will soon go away because they were either PokerStars or Full Tilt-sponsored. They’re not going to market to U.S. customers who are no longer served. The best chance to reach the general public is through the WSOP.

While I would support the WSOP implementing a dress code, the WSOP shouldn’t even have to lay down rules of behavior, but rather do as they do in golf and get the top 15-20 players in a room and explain how good decorum translates to dollars. They explain that if you want to make money, don’t throw clubs and please sign autographs. The PGA Tour is peer-led, as is the poker community, and if the top tier of players are aligned, the rest will take care of itself.

Poker is a strange animal in that we’re trying to be accepted and build viewership, but we need to ask people to take care of these basic things that should be obvious. This is a guy with a great education and real talent begging for an interview with your company, then when you get it for him he shows up wearing flip-flops and snapping a can of chew.

I’m not asking anyone to sublimate his personality. To me, the ideal persona is Daniel Negreanu’s. He’s clean cut and respectful, but also has a huge personality and keeps the table chatting. He talks a lot, but nothing he’s saying is bad for poker. There’s a good reason he’s among the highest paid poker players in the world: he’s a smart guy with a common touch.

Let’s turn that on its head. Do you know of a single player who wears a hoodie and talks trash constantly who has succeeded long term? I’m not talking about a flash in the pan, one-weekend wonder. I’m talking about a player with longevity who’s on one of the elite teams.

I’m something of an authority in this field. I’ve been ripped as much as anyone. I’ve had trash talk directed at me in quality and in volume. And I can tell you one thing I know for sure: I have never, ever been publicly blasted by someone who makes more money than I do at poker.

I understand that online poker grew into a multi-billion-dollar industry off the labor of hoodie-wearing trash talkers. I just want the game to remain a place where all of you can continue to thrive and make a good living, which will be impossible if we continue to behave the way we do.

Over the course of the next week or so, I am going to release a few blogs that aim to start a discussion on what we need to do as players to get poker ready for legalization. I feel it is important to take a hard look at our industry and look for things we can do to help the public’s perception of our industry as a whole. Here is my first installment of what I believe we need to do as online poker players to clean up the game of poker:

Given the recent events in online poker, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what the game should look like if and when it is legalized in the U.S. — and I do believe it will be legalized eventually.

To the outsider, today’s online poker must look like a patchwork hodge-podge with no hierarchy or obvious rule of law — the Wild, Wild West essentially (or an unregulated market run amok). It’s no one’s fault, as poker rooms and related businesses have filled obvious market needs.

But what’s worse is that when someone attempts to come in from the outside and join our community, they quickly surmise that they are in a caste system with insiders and disadvantaged outsiders (or high school run amok). Between our insider knowledge and vicious comments at the tables, we may be the only industry that actively discourages new customers.

All of this is to say that we desperately need a governing body. I’m as free-market as they come, but we need some organization to provide us with a sense of order. In the same way that kids secretly crave rules, I believe we (consciously or unconsciously) want a governing body. When a site acts in predatory fashion, what method do we have to sanction them? When a player behaves dubiously, how are they investigated and punished? A twoplustwo post?

How we arrive at a governing body will be the subject for another day, but I feel its first job should be to even the playing field, democratizing online poker so that everyone has the same shot at the brass ring. This may feel like socialization, but it really is good marketing. Yes, in the near term, an insider profits by having access to software and the like that a newcomer might now know about. But in the long term, the real money is in the sheer growth of the player pool, which can only happen if we attract and retain new participants.

In the business world they call it “churn.” Churn is the percentage of your customers who leave after trying your product. If for every one customer you add, you lose one customer, you’re just standing still. Poker rooms spend millions marketing to new customers in the interest of growing the player pool. Unfortunately, other mitigating factors are causing players to leave as quickly as they’re showing up.

Most people get their introduction to poker by either watching poker on television or playing in a home game with some friends. Since poker is such an awesome game, most people who give it a shot actually continue to play. I would bet the conversion rate for people who try out poker with their friends and then report back they like the game and would play it again in the future is astronomically high relative to most other games and/or products.

Many will want to learn more about the strategy of the game and how they can maybe make a few bucks if they can improve. For most, it isn’t a passion, but they like the fact that they are competing using their cards and their mind. And because most don’t live around a casino or know enough people interested in poker to get a regular game, they’ll make the natural progression to the online game.

That’s when things get ugly.

The online-poker industry has had a way of catering, perhaps not intentionally, to those who are “in the know.” The average poker player logs on and is looking to play a few hands. He simply wants to enjoy the game. Little does he know the myriad ways he is at a disadvantage to the sharks around him. More than likely, he will log on and play without the following:

1. Tracking programs that statistically break down hand histories
2. Buddy finding” programs that find and direct the user towards weak opponents at the tables based on their poor performance on the saved-hand histories that sharks have.
3. Memberships to data-pooling websites that track all hands played across the various online poker rooms that tell players about opponents they have never even played with.

The player logs in completely oblivious to all of this, and is at a disadvantage to many of the players around him who are “in the know.” Once this person realizes he’s being preyed upon, he is often going to be inclined to tell his friends that he’s been ripped off (even though that’s not entirely accurate). This is obviously not good for online poker.

Heads-Up Displays (HUD), hand history based tracking software and other for profit data pooling websites need to go

A HUD overlays stats on all of your opponents directly on the tables at which you’re sitting. As someone who’s used a HUD on and off over the years and has seen the evolution of various hand-history-based tracking software, I can say unequivocally I don’t like their presence in the game. While the recreational player isn’t literally being cheated, I believe that theoretically he is.

Now I know many people will disagree with this and cite that the major online poker rooms allow them and everyone has the same access to this technology. That is true. But the existence of this software — in fact, the necessity of this software — is not made apparent to the novice until it’s too late and he’s had a negative experience. Even if he becomes aware of it, he’s nonetheless disillusioned to find out that the practice of playing winning poker has been more or less automated. It’s far less a game of mind and skill than he imagined.

It wasn’t that long ago that one of the biggest impacts on your win rate was how pleasant of a time you could create for recreational players so they would be willing to come back. The late, great Chip Reese, who was famous for entertaining the fish, looked at himself a lot like an actor in a play. Give the people looking to sit down and be entertained a bad time, and they wouldn’t come back to see your show again. Make them feel at home, give them some laughs and they will come back for a good time in the future. That is the way it should be.

After all, the incomes of pros come exclusively, either directly or indirectly, from recreational players pumping money into the poker economy because they want to enjoy themselves. We really aren’t a whole lot different than any other person in the entertainment industry. And you know what, right now our show sucks.

In addition to the amateurs, do you know who else is being cheated? The best pros.

For several years now, as the popularity of these programs and websites have shrunk pros’ win rates by at least 50% on average. The programs are aiding players so much in the decision-making process, it has tremendously reduced the amount of skill needed to play the game. The programs practically scream the answers out loud to you. Some very mediocre poker minds have enjoyed quite a bit of success at the tables simply because they spent some time understanding their HUD.

In all sports, skill rather than equipment needs to be determining factor in winning. Look at how baseball regulates bats, golf legislates club making, and NASCAR monitors new technology in its racecars. As Michael Crichton wrote in “Jurassic Park,” “Just because we can do it doesn’t mean we should.” A sport in which one player can’t distance himself from the competition is a sport that’s doomed to fail. If success in poker is merely predicated on who best deciphers the sea of information that’s out there, we might as well be day traders.

Now, can you imagine if it was up to baseball players to legislate themselves? It’s safe to say that a democratization of the playing field would be slow in coming. And what if the only way they had to sanction a cheating player, or to affect any change in their industry, was to post on an online forum? It would be anarchy.

Practically speaking, the changes to online poker really need to come from a one overseeing body. The poker rooms themselves will never disallow this software and here is why: the fear that regulars who start games and create action (and therefore rake) will leave and go to sites where the programs and websites are allowed. In fact, any site that has either limited or prohibited the use of any of these programs has never had much success. It is far too risky business for any one online poker room to disallow these programs, and as a result, the recreational player will never be able to log on and play in the type of environment that he is expecting.

We need to make the online game more like real poker where you actually need to pay attention to the players around you and let your mind work on how to exploit what you saw at the poker tables, not some hand-history tracking program.

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I discuss this issue further in my upcoming podcast which you can be on the lookout for here: Leatherass on Poker Podcast

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What this essentially involves is going to a cash center (often found in grocery stores) and making a deposit through them. Follow Steps 1 and 2 as seen in the image above and you should be eligible to play in a number of hours.

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM IMAGINE MEDIA CEO SCOTT BROWN:

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Through Dusty’s books and others, as well as through the free instructional content we try to produce on a routine basis, we’ve worked hard over the years to earn your trust. To that end, we’re endeavoring to find you safe sites on which to play poker, and provide you with valuable incentives to do so. Today we’re announcing one such effort here.

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For those of you who’ve purchased Dusty’s books in the past, please know that signing up for this offer will still get you Treat Your Poker Like A Business 2, free of charge. We thank you for your past purchases, for which we are incredibly grateful. Please know that this new offer reflects our adjustment to the new realities of the poker market.

If you have any questions at all, please contact us at info@imagine-books.net, and we’ll get back to you promptly.

Well, it has obviously been a difficult time for everyone the past few days. I would liked to have been here to weigh in on this whole situation, but I was in England with my wife for the Party Poker Big Game 5, where ultimately I became too ill to play, first with a major ear infection that turned into vertigo during the flight. All wasn’t lost, however, because I was later able to co-host the show for nearly 24 of the 48 hours that the show ran. (Not as easy as it would seem with vertigo. Fortunately I was able to blame any incoherence on sleep deprivation.)

I want you to know how flattered I was that so many of you came to might site and Facebook page when you heard the news on “Black Friday.” I truly wish I was in a position to provide better leadership. My heart breaks for all of us. For most of us represents not only income, but community as well. I’ve had the chance to cross paths with so many fascinating, thoughtful people I’d have had no chance to meet were it not for poker. The money is what it is. But for a lot of us we have the sense that the train is pulling out, and our community is waving goodbye to us from the station.

It’s also something that many of us are good at, not to mention a huge part of our daily ritual. Subtract all those things at once, and your world is turned upside down.

Many of you have asked how I’m doing personally, for which I’m incredibly grateful. I’ll quickly address that before moving on to how you’re doing. I also want you to know that I’m going to be recording a podcast in a day or so that answers some of your specific questions, and addresses the particulars of what you should and shouldn’t be doing during this time of great upheaval. Today what I’d like to articulate is a larger theme; a hopeful one.

I’ll address for a moment what’s happening in my life. It was disconcerting to say the least, to be in England and far from my work, my company, my friends and my family. I’m generally someone who likes to process information before reacting — and given distance, sleep deprivation and illness, the processing came slowly.

Having taken a week to think things through, you might be surprised at the conclusion to which I’ve come.

In a strange way, I almost feel as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I don’t think I truly realized how stressful it was to write books, play a million hands a year, study poker, make instructional videos, write columns for two magazines, play the WSOP, fulfill my Team Poker Stars obligations, and everything else that is involved with being aggressive with my career. Plus, the games simply got absurdly hard online, and I was trying to be a good husband and father while trying to stay one step ahead of kids who don’t have one-tenth of all of those things to worry about. Fortunately, I’ve saved the vast majority of what I’ve made over the years in online poker, which aids me in the perspective I’m gaining.

Enough about me. Let’s talk about you.

The main reason this whole situation weighs on me as it does is that I genuinely feel for my friends who’ve made a living off this game directly or indirectly. I know there are many out there who either didn’t save money very well or were newer to the game and didn’t have time to set aside money.

But what I’d like to do is instill in you a sense of hope and optimism for poker and our community. I’ll tell you a quick anecdote about my time in London that might build a bridge to this larger point.
When I had a chance to speak with my business partner about what we’d do in the aftermath of this devastating news, we committed to one another that we’d soldier on and find an opportunity here somewhere. As we were about to hang up, he gave me a Churchill quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Later that day I was texting back and forth with another friend, Matt Reilly, who’s spent a lot of time traveling abroad and recommended a restaurant where I could take my wife for a good meal in London (which are rare). When the host took us to our table, we were seated next to a wall on which the same Churchill quote was written.

That had to be a sign.

Awhile back, I posted an article that says the most important characteristic that determines success is not talent; it’s grit. Part of grit is getting through the tough times. If you talk to any successful person, they’ll tell you about a time when they could have stopped, but instead decided to keep going. When those who have grit go through hell, they keep going.

It is incredibly unfortunate that something like this has happened. I think we all knew that poker could go away for a period of time, but I am pretty sure most of us thought that if it did, there would at least be some warning of some kind. I don’t think many of us ever thought we would go to log in and get an FBI logo pop up on our screen! I know I sure didn’t.

Having finally arrived back home and gotten in front of the computer for a good chunk of time, I’ve read through much of what has been said and written about this whole situation. Most are reacting emotionally, which I understand. Maybe the big three poker rooms acted illegally (though that’s far from a certainty). I absolutely share the view that most of you have that the U.S. government created an environment that was totally unreasonable for these businesses and defied our civil rights, as well as our right to make a living.

That said, I would like to encourage people to try and take the high road as much as possible regarding this issue. It is going to be much, much better for poker in general if we can all band together and take the appropriate steps to legalize poker and end our worries once and for all.

Most of us agree that the U.S. government is increasingly lost and almost entirely irrational. I used to think of the government as being populated by the best of us; now it seems we are going to have to act more maturely than those who govern us. It has come to this: online poker players are going to have to be the grown ups. For once we are going to have to do something more than type a rant on the interwebz.

I would suggest listening closely to the Poker Players Alliance. While some may be frustrated with their lack of accomplishments over the years — I know I have been. But the reality is they have a damn hard job and they are our best option. They are good people trying to do their best and I think it is going to be wise to support them in any way they ask.

Just as importantly, I also think it is going to be wise to still focus on improving your game as much as possible. In any chaotic environment like this, cooler heads will always prevail. Those who are acting like the sky is falling and aren’t looking for opportunity in this mess are going to be the ones who get hurt the most.

Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a crises go to waste,” and I agree.

If you are freaking out and canceling your training site memberships and assuming that because you can’t log in today, that you never will, I can PROMISE you that that is a mistake. Things will get resolved. I still believe poker is headed toward legalization.

What we do know is that when it is legalized, it will be more lucrative than it ever has before. And who do you think will get the lion’s share of that pie? The guy who panicked and stopped working on his game? Or do you think it will be the guy who decided that if others aren’t going to work on their games, he will, and when it comes back, he will be better than ever?

This isn’t rocket science. I know that when I was just starting out, I saw an opportunity to be really good. I saw that most poker players were complacent and didn’t treat their poker like a business. I saw that most people took time off when they were running well, and played epic long sessions when they were stuck and likely not playing their best. I saw that most didn’t save well and it hurt their ability to make more money because they couldn’t move up in stakes as fast. So I decided to treat my poker like a business long before I wrote a book by the same title. And because I took advantage of this opportunity, I can withstand this set back.

Let me tell you who I’m going to try to be, now that I’m no longer who I used to be. I am going to take whatever time away from online poker that we have to take my game to another level. I always felt that if I wasn’t consumed playing so many hands that I could study and get on a level with the top 5-10 poker players in the world. Maybe I’m nuts, but hey if you don’t have your dreams, you don’t have much of a chance. If I’m wrong, so be it.

So I am going to take a lot of time over the rest of this year and play around with tools like Poker Stove and Flopzilla and really break down the game of poker in a way that I have never before. And I think that I can go from where I am now to many levels beyond. If I’m taking steps to get better while others are going backwards, then that is a good situation for me regardless of my world ranking. There is no better time to try and improve than when others are not because that is when you make the most relative progress.

Think of it this way: For the past few years, trying to improve has been like trying to distance yourself from another person while you are both on an escalator. You can get ahead of the person before you, but not easily. But imagine if the other person got on the escalator going in the opposite direction. Now every step you take forward is twice as important because the other person is going backward.

A large chunk of the poker players are going to stop studying and will be hopping on that escalator going backwards. Now your study time means at least twice as much because when you go forward, they go backward. And remember, in poker we are measured only against the people we compete against. So this is a great chance to really distance yourself.

Will you be the one who goes backwards and likely never be heard from again in poker? Or will you be someone who seizes this opportunity to gain two steps for every one you take, and ultimately gets paid in the end? It’s your call.

I know which one I’ll be doing.

Hi everyone,

QUICK PROMO NOTE:

WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT OUR BIG GAME PROMOTION: Anyone who buys a book on my site between now and Sunday is eligible for a drawing to win 1% of my total prize money from Big Game V, April 15-17 at Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham, UK.

10 more of you will take home a book of your choice from the site.

PLUS between now & Sunday, anyone who enters the coupon code BIGGAME will get 20% off all purchases on http://www.dustyschmidt.net. For more discussion, please go to my Facebook page.

Now, back to what you came here for …

***

On our most recent LeatherPod, we talk with mental game coach Jared Tendler, author of the much-anticipated new book, “The Mental Game of Poker.” A brilliant guy, he helps answer many of the burning between-the-ears questions listeners have been sending me since the inception of the podcast.

Early in his career, Jared worked with golfers, so he’s perfectly qualified to comment on the psychology we saw on stage at this week’s Masters and relate what poker players can learn from it.

From there we talk about these topics:

*Distinguishing variance from poor performance

*The characteristics all winning poker players have, and what all losing players have in common.

*Developing the winning skill

*Rationalizing variance, particularly as stakes go up and dollars increase.

*Making the decision to play through or stop when you’ve got something less than your A Game working

*Compartmentalizing a losing day so you can enjoy the rest of your life.

To find out more about Jared, go to jaredtendlerpoker.com

Here’s the podcast. If you’d like to have this podcast emailed to you in MP3 format, please just send us an email at info@imagine-books.net.

<>

WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT OUR BIG GAME PROMOTION: Anyone who buys a book on my site between now and Sunday is eligible for a drawing to win 1% of my total prize money from Big Game V, April 15-17 at Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham, UK.

10 more of you will take home a book of your choice from the site.

PLUS between now & Sunday, anyone who enters the coupon code BIGGAME will get 20% off all purchases on http://www.dustyschmidt.net. For more discussion, please go to my Facebook page.

Hey everyone,

As you know, our goal is to get you good content each day. It might be stuff that I write or stuff that others contribute, but in any case this is a fun venture and we hope it’s useful to you.

Please remember to log on to my Facebook page, where we post new content, as well as discuss hands of the day (mine and yours) and answer/debate questions of the day. I’m also putting stuff out in smaller bites on Twitter.

Finally, if you’d like our podcast emailed to you in MP3 format, please just send an email to info@imagine-books.net.

As always, if you’re interested in my books, you can get them here.

On with the show … Thanks!

***

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PREPARE YOUR GAME FOR LEGALIZATION
BY DUSTY SCHMIDT

NASCAR racing is the gold standard in America for fan attendance, with races drawing upwards of 150,000 spectators.

How popular is online poker? On a given Wednesday afternoon, the number of players logged on to PokerStars exceeds 300,000. Even as the economy has fallen, interest in online poker has risen. And it’s accomplished despite online poker remaining in a legal netherworld in the United States. That’s like Lebron James averaging a triple-double for the season while playing with a broken leg.

Online poker is bigger than it’s ever been, yet it’s present audience is probably smaller than it will ever be.

Should online poker become legal in the United States — and the indications lately are that it will — it could have a seismic affect on the game. How much the total audience would grow is anyone’s guess, but it would surely inject the game with new blood. The biggest step forward occurred when PokerStars formed an alliance with Las Vegas hotelier Steve Wynn to advocate for legalization. Wynn has the ear of Senator Harry Reid, who has championed poker legislation in the past. Now the offshore businesses are aligned with the on-shores, providing some much-needed momentum to the movement.

As is the case in most things, you need only follow the money to see the way things are trending. Someone with Wynn’s clout wouldn’t invest himself in such a partnership were he not certain that poker legalization was imminent. He’d not put his interest, time and personal equity behind this endeavor were he not abundantly sure of its eventual success.

Should online poker be sanctioned, it could be a full-scale land rush. This might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — and this is coming from a guy who in an earlier column said that online poker may never be harder than it is now. While I said it was a great time to get in if you wanted to supplement your income or perhaps replace your so-so income by doing something you actually care about, I actively discouraged people from throwing themselves into poker if they had dreams of becoming wildly rich. For a variety of reasons I felt the poker economy was struggling.

As a result, I was focused on making as much as I could, as fast as I could. If my business had an expiration date on it, I wasn’t going to invest much in the future.

But if your business is suddenly granted a huge contract — which is essentially what legalization would do — and that contract indicates you’ll have a job for the rest of your working days with huge performance incentives, you’d be advised to shift your emphasis to research and development. You should be laying the groundwork for the future, as opposed to just making money now.

I’ve become much more optimistic because of this pending legalization. I could not have given this advice in good conscience six months ago, but today I can say that if you have an inkling toward making serious money at poker, now is the time to make your move.

How can you prepare yourself for what appear to be boom days ahead?

If you’re considering poker as a career or serious income stream, my advice is this: Quite simply, you need to play, then play some more. There are probably 12-18 months until the online game is fully legislated in the U.S. You need to take advantage.

I know that sounds simplistic, but it’s true. Many of us study poker theory and immerse ourselves in instruction sites and forums, preparing ourselves for the day we eventually commit to the game. Well, my friends, that time has come. You need to get out of your head and onto the virtual felt. You need to regiment yourself, and get yourself on a steady diet of tables. You need to make your game instinctive.

Again, that sounds obvious. But why do you think baseball players spend hours taking batting practice and 30 minutes watching video? Why do you think Kobe Bryant takes a thousand jumpers every day, as opposed to having a coach diagram his jumper on a chalkboard? Why do you think Tiger Woods hits 500 balls on the range rather than watch his swing on tape for five hours?

It’s about repetitions, and poker is no different.

Much of my ability to win at poker is related to raw experience. I’ve played nearly 10 million hands. I know that when someone check-calls the flop and check-raises the turn that it is a really powerful, underutilized play that weak players will use to try to trap you for two bets before they sneak in a check-raise.

You rarely ever see a check-call on the flop and a check-raise on the turn as a bluff. The only way I know that is because I’ve played so many hands.

If you’re someone who’s working a day job but wants to become a poker player someday, I would suggest apportioning your money into three categories: 1) Education. Choose the game at which you feel you can best succeed, find a coach who’s done well at that game, and then actively watch his videos and read his books. 2) Present bankroll to get repetitions at small-stakes games. Get comfortable with the software and the ebb and flow of the games. 3) Future bankroll. I advocate having enough money for 100 buy-ins before you move up in stakes, though that number is for full-time players. Adjust accordingly if you plan to be a serious part-time player.

My advice is a little difference if you’re already taking the game seriously, in which case less might be more.

If you’re presently an online pro or part-time pro, you need to focus on improving your game now more than ever. Scrub your game free of bad habits. If you’re playing 12-16 tables, now might be a really good time to drop down and really scrutinize the way you play. Take notes actively as you play and write down the situations and opponents that are giving you a hard time. When you sit down to play the next day, devote an hour to reviewing those notes, looking for common denominators among your problem areas. Either figure out how to correct those issues, or ask for help.

Right now I’m concerning myself with improvement, and am less focused on income for 2011. I’m willing to drop down to 6-8 tables if that means I evolve as a player. My simple goal is that on Jan. 1, 2012, I’ll look back on today and laugh at how little I knew about the game.

My advice is to make your goal the same.

This hand isn’t anything special, I just thought there was something to learn from it. In no limit holdem you have the ability to bet anything you want. So in this hand it looked like my opponent had ace high and wasn’t going to fold for a small bet. But since I can have anything in the blind, I decided that I wanted to win this pot and made a big over bet which I felt would fold ace high every time.

For a discussion of this hand, please head over to my Facebook page. If we’re not friends already, just send a request and we’ll let you right in. Thanks!

PokerStars Game #60536556600: Hold’em No Limit ($5/$10 USD) – 2011/04/08 15:13:36 PT [2011/04/08 18:13:36 ET]
Table ‘Roka IX’ 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: VernonH ($985 in chips)
Seat 2: Leatherass9 ($1087 in chips)
Seat 3: 2PairWind ($1757 in chips)
Seat 4: Se7enTr3y ($1084 in chips)
Seat 5: Jaxx1980 ($1830.50 in chips)
Seat 6: fish2013 ($1262 in chips)
Leatherass9: posts small blind $5
2PairWind: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Leatherass9 [6c Jc]
Se7enTr3y: folds
Jaxx1980: calls $10
fish2013: folds
VernonH: folds
Leatherass9: calls $5
2PairWind: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ts 2s 2d]
Leatherass9: checks
2PairWind: checks
Jaxx1980: checks
*** TURN *** [Ts 2s 2d] [Tc]
Leatherass9: bets $19
2PairWind: folds
Jaxx1980: calls $19
*** RIVER *** [Ts 2s 2d Tc] [7d]
Leatherass9: bets $154
Jaxx1980: folds
Uncalled bet ($154) returned to Leatherass9
Leatherass9 collected $65 from pot
Leatherass9: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $68 | Rake $3
Board [Ts 2s 2d Tc 7d]
Seat 1: VernonH (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: Leatherass9 (small blind) collected ($65)
Seat 3: 2PairWind (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 4: Se7enTr3y folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: Jaxx1980 folded on the River
Seat 6: fish2013 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)