I was once a poker fanatic. I was a decent player, but like most poker players I thought I was a lot better than I actually was. It is, after all, a game built around the ego, so no surprises there. I still play some home games every so often, and still vastly overrate my skill level, but all aspirations of becoming a professional poker player (and believe me when I say that I at least flirted with the idea a number of years ago) have disappeared. Last night the wisdom of this disappearance was confirmed.
Phil Ivey -- considered by many to be the most feared poker player in the history of the game -- was involved in the final table of a huge tournament (the biggest on the poker calender), with one of his opponents being Darvin Moon, a woodcutter from Maryland. Moon may be one of the most feared woodcutters in the world, but a top poker player he is not. In terms of skill level, a match up between these two players is the equivalent of Lionel Messi pitted against, well, a woodcutter from Maryland.
To cut a long story short, Ivey was short on chips, and in need of a double-up. In Darvin Moon he found someone willing to oblige. Ivey took his Ace-King to battle against the Ace-Queen of Moon. This was the spot the top professional was looking for. Well, until a queen landed on the flop, that is. In one fell swoop, Phil Ivey was all but out of the tournament. The remaining two cards provided no relief, and so out crashed the most feared poker player in the world. In the crucial moment, his enormous advantage over the woodcutter was irrelevant. Their respective fates were ultimately wrapped up in a deck of 52 cards; a deck which favoured Ivey, but which could make no promises or assurances.
"I'd rather be lucky than good" is the adage adopted by many a rubbish poker player, usually uttered after inflicting yet another bad beat on some poor college student trying but failing to crack a seemingly lucrative cash game. Phil Ivey was good, but Darvin Moon was lucky, and it is the latter who maintained hopes of winning poker's most prestigious prize at the end of the hand. The former exited making no mistake, and yet being punished for exactly that reason.
I'm simply not built to deal with this reality. When it happened to me in the past I felt like the psalmist who complained about the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering. The simple fact is that poker is a game rife with injustice. Bad play gets rewarded. It is a mathematical certainty. Misfortune is a part of life in the real world, but at the poker table you are inviting it into your life in spades, quite literally. This is something I could not do.
Still, Phil Ivey is cool, and that has to count for something.
Phil Ivey -- considered by many to be the most feared poker player in the history of the game -- was involved in the final table of a huge tournament (the biggest on the poker calender), with one of his opponents being Darvin Moon, a woodcutter from Maryland. Moon may be one of the most feared woodcutters in the world, but a top poker player he is not. In terms of skill level, a match up between these two players is the equivalent of Lionel Messi pitted against, well, a woodcutter from Maryland.
To cut a long story short, Ivey was short on chips, and in need of a double-up. In Darvin Moon he found someone willing to oblige. Ivey took his Ace-King to battle against the Ace-Queen of Moon. This was the spot the top professional was looking for. Well, until a queen landed on the flop, that is. In one fell swoop, Phil Ivey was all but out of the tournament. The remaining two cards provided no relief, and so out crashed the most feared poker player in the world. In the crucial moment, his enormous advantage over the woodcutter was irrelevant. Their respective fates were ultimately wrapped up in a deck of 52 cards; a deck which favoured Ivey, but which could make no promises or assurances.
"I'd rather be lucky than good" is the adage adopted by many a rubbish poker player, usually uttered after inflicting yet another bad beat on some poor college student trying but failing to crack a seemingly lucrative cash game. Phil Ivey was good, but Darvin Moon was lucky, and it is the latter who maintained hopes of winning poker's most prestigious prize at the end of the hand. The former exited making no mistake, and yet being punished for exactly that reason.
I'm simply not built to deal with this reality. When it happened to me in the past I felt like the psalmist who complained about the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering. The simple fact is that poker is a game rife with injustice. Bad play gets rewarded. It is a mathematical certainty. Misfortune is a part of life in the real world, but at the poker table you are inviting it into your life in spades, quite literally. This is something I could not do.
Still, Phil Ivey is cool, and that has to count for something.
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