Being a good gambler

Eric, Jon, and Ed have all needled me about playing higher stakes, telling me that I'm good enough. I certainly think I'm better than all of them and I do so unabashedly--I have to be better, better be better after investing more than 10x in the amount of time playing, reading, watching and thinking poker. Just as in everything else, confidence needs to be earned.

But in addition to being a good poker player, you also gotta be a good gambler. One measure of being a good poker player is the stake that you play for--naturally the higher the stakes the tougher the players you're playing against. But a good gambler plays at games/tables/stakes in which he can win the most money. At this stage in my poker career, winning more takes a back seat to losing less. And sitting down at a 2-3 no limit table, commiting $100 when my bankroll is a mere $150, is not a smart gambling proposition. I have full confidence that my game is sharp enough for me to sit down and not be a underdog, but I have no confidence in winning THAT ONE particular session, and no stomach to swallow the deficit if I lose. It's much better to make more/lose less than to buy the skewed notion that you belong as one of the big boys for one night.

Here's an analogy for the above situation. Say I have $100 in my wallet and $500 in my bank acount, someone makes a proposition to me: "I'll flip this coin: if it lands head, you win $120, if it lands tails, I win $100." This is obviously a winning proposition for me: I am a 6:5 favorite, winning on average $10 for every $100 invested. But I just can't take it with only 1 bet in my pocket and 5 more in the bank before I go broke.

If the prop is $1.2 to $1, and he guarantees at least a thousand tosses, then it's a diference story. That is why I play 50/1 on PTY and 1/2 live. It simply the smarter gambling move for my budget.

So Ed, if I can budget $500 monthly for poker, then I'll more than happily play no-limit in casinos. Since I don't have a $50,000 job, $100 buy-in's seems like a long way from now.