I guess “proper” was kind of a poor word choice there, because I’m not going to tell you what is or is not proper for you. I used that word because without it, the alliteration would not have worked, and I wanted to have a slick title on this piece. What I really want to talk about today is the perspective that poker has been put in now that many US-based players don’t have the options to play on Full Tilt, Pokerstars, or Absolute/Ultimate Bet. As it turns out, life has gone on for every single player, but that doesn’t mean that we are all taking the shutdown with equal amounts of grace and patience.
I’m not sure to what degree poker was/is a part of your life. You might be a casual player that just peruses this site once in awhile for some tips. You might be a super-serious grinder who posts Hand Histories with the intensity of, say, General Patton as he stormed through the desert. Most likely, you fall somewhere in between those two relative extremes, or at least you did before ‘Black Friday’ and the crunch that it put on the global poker market.
Since that time, you’ve probably wondered if and when you’ll be able to play again. You’ve probably wondered if all of these doom and gloom articles are right, or if the brightest optimists in the room are really onto something when they speak of imminent regulation for online poker. Maybe you have heard the words of players like Phil Galfond and Tom Dwan (who both offered to put up $1 Million against the inability of players to cash out on FTP) and breathed a reluctant sigh of relief. If you read the recent thoughts of Brandon Adams, you might be worried all over again. But wherever you fall on the spectrum, let me assure you of one thing – you personally will be fine through all of this, and in the end, you’ll probably be a better poker player when you finally get back to the live (or digital) felt.
I say this with confidence because it’s not like our ability to fire up 24 tables and a sophisticated HUD to track every player on every site was an inalienable right that was somehow breached. That’s certainly something that many an online grinder enjoys doing, but it doesn’t exactly fall in line with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the list of rights that cannot be wrongly taken from you. (I guess you could call it your “pursuit of happiness”, but I’m guessing there are things in your life that make you happier than poker does.) You might be able to play poker online again at some point, and I’ll rejoice right along with you when and if that happens. But in the meantime, use the opportunity you’ve been given to NOT play as a chance to really assess WHY you play.
Are you in it to make money? Cool…..some people have the temperament and high skill level needed to consistently generate income from poker, significant enough income that because of their poker playing, they may not need to work another job at all. For those players, they will retain the skill advantages even if online poker sites stay shut down. They may need to find a live game in which to exercise those skills, but they can do that. Look at almost every major professional that you see on television – they excel in live games. The best online pros that are now “out of work” will still find a way in this environment to profit from the inferior play of others, even if they are no longer finding their opponents on a computer screen. If they don’t, it will be a great testament to the power of HUD’s and the players that they can create.
Are you in it to have a profitable hobby? Good for you! You’ve chosen the middle-road in terms of poker players, because you have some skill and ability, and you’ll likely do well in a game filled with novices, but you’re not using your hobby to pay your bills – that would make it your job. Hopefully you have an income source away from poker that allows poker to be your hobby, and if you do, then use this time to study, prepare, seek out the occasional live game, and get ready to be the baddest “recreational” player on the block when you get back into the online game. Remember, you’re not making life-changing money off of poker to begin with, so try not to act like your life has fallen apart. It hasn’t. Hug your kids, enjoy some sunshine, and I promise that poker will still be there for you whenever some form of regulation becomes a reality and the online game returns.
Are you in it for the Gamble? My friend, the news is nothing but sunshine and rainbows for you, because you can still flat-out gamble from your living room whether or not online poker is available! My goodness, you can fire up an online casino, play Fantasy Football or Baseball or Hockey or Basketball or NASCAR or Golf or even Fishing!. Most state lotteries now offer digital versions of their games, and if all else fails, you can open a day trading account and dabble in the gamble that is Wall Street. And I hope you’re catching the subtle point in all of this that if you were in it for the gamble to begin with, poker was NEVER the game for you at all! There are way too many skilled poker players to make it worth your time. No one has a skill advantage in the Powerball drawing, so you’re really better off investing in that. In all honesty, Black Friday has probably saved you a lot of money, so you should be thanking the US Department of Justice for making your Christmas a little merrier this year by saving you all of that money.
You see, life is all about perspective, and Black Friday has reminded us of that truth once again. Wherever you fall on the poker spectrum, your life will go on in spite of the current online poker vacuum. If you had money on Pokerstars or Full Tilt, you’ll be getting that money back (their press releases have promised as much, and they have regained their .com domains expressly to issue withdrawals to US-based players). If you really want to play so badly that you can hardly make it through the day without access to those sites, then you may have some other personal issues to attend to. Let me put it to the super-intense grinders this way: keeping poker in perspective and working on other things while waiting for it to return is DEFINITELY +EV for you. If you’re really fully espoused to the idea of positive expected value, then enjoy this chance to maximize your future expectation while waiting for the game to return. In the meantime, wherever you find yourself playing cards, Good Luck at the Tables!