I've had 7 hours alone in the car today to think about all this. There's been some terrific posts particularly by Stu (honey badger), Phil and even Mitch (whose post must be the most coherent thing to come out of Derby this century).
I now agree more or less 100% with what Stu is saying - there are tons of other aspects of being a professional poker player than I neglect and will definitely dedicate more time to in the future. However, I do not think most of what he is saying IS actually relevant to our game. I actually think myself and Mitch especially are pretty good at the things he's saying we are not. Giving the recreational players value for their money and respecting them is always at the forefront of my mind in game, and it's something when I first started in this business I was useless at.
Poshboy from Cambridge trying to interact and "entertain" rich Chinese businessman or ex-con drug dealer from London? LOL. (These are 100% fictitious people by the way!) I had no idea. Still struggle of course, but 2 years on and I have established great relationships with numerous people from all over the world from all walks of life. From Rastafish from Jamaica to Ming from China.
So I actually think I'm pretty good at the "other" parts of being a professional poker player. Out of all the regs, I don't think I'm that high up the list in the "playing the cards" part of the job actually, but I do think I'm good at the other stuff.
Without wanting to name names of course, I'd like to think that the recreational players that regularly played in our games really did enjoy themselves, and have NOT stopped because they didn't enjoy the games or they were too cliquey. In fact, I'd bet money that that has nothing to do with it.
I'd be more convinced that your points applied to our game Stu if there were £1/2 games all over the midlands/country running except in nottingham. In fact, I'd be certain you were right! If Gala Leeds and Birminghams broadway were getting big 1/2 games every night and not the premier poker club in Europe then there's something wrong right?! But there isn't big £1/2 games running anywhere at the moment. I'm pretty certain that it's mostly down to the recession and the game getting tougher.
Funnily enough I got to hone my "entertaining" skills tonight in a £2/5 game in the Vic in London. I'd been to see Michael Mcintyre, (which was absolutely fantastic btw - totally hilarious from start to finish - loved it) and stopped by the Vic "on the way home" (= driving an hour through central London at 11pm on a saturday night - nightmare!).
I sat in seat 2 and on my left was a young eastern european-looking guy who acted and played like a reg. On my right was a wealthy-looking Asian chap dressed in a suit and drinking a pint of fosters. I get bored if there's no banter or conversation at the table so who was I going to start a conversation with?
The guy on my right of course! We had a laugh, showed each other a few hands, had some banter and what was the outcome? When the game broke he and I played heads up for about half an hour and I won a lot of money off him. How does this make me feel? Well, first and foremost I obviously felt good about winning the money. I didn't feel particularly proud of myself though. It's not something I'd go bragging about. I made conversation with him over anyone else because I believed he was a weak opponent from whom I could win more money off in the long run if I had a good rapport with him. What does that make me? Just doing my job? Or some sort of hustler? If it's just doing my job then fine, I can live with it, I won't lose any sleep over it - I wasn't dishonest in any way, nor did I make out I was useless at the game or anything. He was a pleasure to play with, took losing very well - when he got stacked he shook my hand, said that he enjoyed playing with me and wished me goodnight. He had even bought me a drink...:S
Anyway, I digress. Other points that have come up:
1) PJ's hollywooding. I've said this to him before - he does take longer over decisions than most people I play against. But I can assure you this is NOT him hollywooding for the cameras or anything like that, that's not in his personality- his mansfield education just means his brain takes longer to process things than most people
2) "Chopping it in the car park". Appreciate your words on this Phil. Anyone that has played in the game for more than 5 minutes should be able to realise that we go against each other as hard as anyone. In fact, I'd even say that I go after them harder than anyone else! Trust me, there used to be nothing sweeter than stacking Mitch, nowadays it's PJ, used to be Stato too. We honestly love playing against each other and taking each others money! It's great for banter, rubs - we even have a chart in our house to keep track of how many times we've stacked each other (I'm not faring too well atm sigh!)
3) Trolls - whatever, let them say what they like - it's really sad when people create accounts to make abusive posts hidden behind anonymity, but letting it bother you and rising to it is pointless. It's not like anything you say will change their minds, and even if it would, what's the point? My only issue is when they accuse you of something that if true, looks very bad to others. E.g. when poker_truth said I was lying about HHs. Then I have to come on and defend myself so others reading don't think it's true because if I ignored it then people would assume it WAS true. Maybe I'm wrong there.
Anyway, great discussion, blonde's died off a bit recently so good to have a bit of controversy and debate all of a sudden! Bring on page 700
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