Real Life Rounders Essays - Deception, Poker Strategy, Bluff, Poker

Real Life Rounders "No, I guess the ladies didn't help me. I flopped the nut straight." Yeah baby ? I won! It just so happened that this was the final game of cards for that particular evening ? always the highest paying jackpot. I sat in all my glory. The two queens in my hand that everyone had been fearing had meant nothing. The pair of "ladies" served as bait in one of the most grueling and mentally exhausting night of card playing in my life. My straight, a sequence of 5 cards in numerical order, will be remembered and duplicated for some time within the group of patrons that night. But it was not just mere lady luck by my side. I outsmarted or out-guessed my opposition. It was through a conditioning of memorizing facial and verbal expressions that I was able to earn quite a healthy sum that evening. On January 1, 2000, first day of the new millennium, and it was time once again for the annual "end of winter break" card game. This occurs when a small group of friends and neighbors that normally never see each other throughout the year get a chance to bond through a spirited night of playing poker. Among the eight players gathered around the table on this particular eve were my good friends Dave and Joe. It was every man for himself at the table, but on occasion, the three of us have been known to work together and then at the end of the night we would split out earnings. Minimum buy-in was a hundred dollars since this was a once a year special occasion for us. It was ten o'clock at night, and the game was under way. At first, we played some small money games just to feel out the competition. You can tell many things from the eyes of your opponent. During this stage, you would be examining who is working together, detecting others tendencies, and starting to counting cards. Usually the player(s) who win these games are the first ones out of money when the real games start. This is because this means that they are beginners, and lack of experience or inability to disguise a bluff later lead to the deflation of their over-confidence. By about two o'clock in the morning, the heavy bidding poker games begin. Now all your hard work begins to pay off, and the night really becomes fun. We had about five people left as the others had lost all their money at this time. As a tendency, we do not play just one style of game, but many different styles of poker. Cincinnati, Texas Hold ?em and Stud name just a few. The only notable difference in each type in the number and/or order in which you receive your cards. Each type brings out a new personality - and thus a foretelling mannerism - in each of my friends. Some become more aggressive while others become quiet and uncomfortable for each type of hand they are holding. For example, if Joe licks his upper lip or stares blankly off, he has a good hand and will bluff that he has a bad hand to get others to invest more of their money into the game. A technique that would not be something you could find in a reference novel but is considered unique to the opponent and situation. Meanwhile, there are usually all sorts of worthless bantering going on. This trash talking means absolutely nothing, yet can mean absolutely everything as it served a dual purpose. The first was to confuse the opponent either by making him or her lose count of the cards or by disguising your reaction to your own cards. The idea was to make no expression at all, hence the term "poker face". The second purpose was to intimidate the others by trying to psyche out the opponent - forcing them to play your game. A good irritant that works only if you are winning for the night but happen to lose one hand would be, "It doesn't matter, I'm just paying you with your own money anyway." Around four o'clock, we came across a high stakes game. The pot was up at around $280, and there four of us still left in that were going for it - Joe, Dave, one other, and myself. The other guy was drunk by this time and out of money; obviously, he was not a legitimate contender. Dave lit a cigarette,