I can see a bead of sweat drip down the side of his face. The drop races to his jaw line where it slows and begins to slide ever so slightly towards his chin. The droplet reaches the apex of his face and stops, as if contemplating the depth of its inevitable fall. He reaches up and captures the sweat, swiping it way and saving it from the fateful plummet.
“I raise” he declares and he sets his arm back on the table. He motions towards his chip stack; it sits like a fortress atop a battle field of green felt. The cascading walls and slightly imperfect stacks form the battlements; the fortress shows scars of battles past.
Along the outer walls of the castle stand the foot soldiers; noble and brave white one dollar chips. They do the dirty work and ask nothing in return but a safe place to lay their head. They take the grunt of the war, often trading allegiance and sacrificed before any of the battle cards are dealt.
Behind our noble infantry stand the pale red Captains. Small is size, yet strong at heart, the five dollar Captains fight a stronger battle with help from the white soldiers. The Captains strike fear in to the hearts of the enemy; they are a clairvoyant sign that a larger battle may be looming. The Captains are trained on the offensive; enough of them can help secure a victory.
Atop the crimson Captains reside the green Colonels. These war hardened veterans are worth twenty five times that of a normal gunman and demand respect. When a Colonel is thrown in to battle, the lines have been drawn and there is no peaceful resolution. A Colonel often emerges as a protective measure; it takes a special brand of courage to call a Colonels bluff.
Among all of the troops and ranks stands a rare breed of war machine. The black chip, often few in number, casts a shadow upon the kingdom. One hundred times the might of a soldier, the black General stands atop the castle, directing troops in battle. The mere sight of a General at the peak of a kingdom can make enemies rethink their battle plans, for the risk of a General launched in to battle is worth a mindful assessment. The play of a General can often result in hushed tones and heavy respiration. The General is a decision maker, his fate controlled only by one man.
The King.
This particular King, seated across from me, declared his raise as “All In” and shoves his castle towards the center. I hesitated for a moment, glancing over the T82 rainbow of a flop. I peeked again at my pocket tens, unsure of whether this was actually happening. Trying not to hide my slight confusion, I responded with an “I call” and matched the size of this castle on the opposite side of the bet line.
My opponent flips over pocket kings and rolls his eyes when I reveal the top set. Sorry, bro. I guess sometimes all the battle preparation in the world can’t prevent certain massacres. All of the detail that went in to this battle is only possible in person; live poker is an intensity machine.
In the past ten years or so, the emergence of online poker has streamlined the way poker players find action. The convenience of sitting at home and playing micro stakes has brought players by the masses, helping create a profitable poker realm. We often get wrapped up with the multi-tabling and the sheer mass of options and forget about the simplistic roots of the game we love.
Most of the players I speak with have their roots and of poker deep in kitchen table games; five card draw and stud poker are often handed down by our parents. We learn the values of cards and hands from our fathers; we play for pennies in the basement. Poker is a recreational game and a social past time; it often brings the nostalgic feeling of family and friends.
We eventually learned of Hold’em and the people who are apparently making a living playing this variation. We watched Doyle Brunson and Stu Ungar wage their wars and take the titles. The game was a bud waiting to bloom; these men had no idea the flower it was to become. Fast forward to Chris Moneymaker and the poker boom, everyone knew the story of the kid who made it big.
None of this rich poker history would be possible without the element of live play. It is from the heart of the smooth felt that we draw our inspiration. Sure, we’ve grown used to the pixelated cards and time bank chimes. It’s a comfort zone, sitting on your comfy couch with your laptop and your dog. The T.V. chatting in the background and a cup of coffee on the table, you need only your finger tips to make a decision. Live poker, though so it seems, is not as “brick-and-mortar” as its online bretheren. Azn_Cutie his the nail on the head with this quote posted on PokerSift.com:
Live poker, on the other hand, will never be solved. It has much different subtle nuances than online poker, especially in terms of reading tells. Hand equity calculations don’t need to be exact because you can narrow hand ranges so much more through live tells and this, rather than exact calculation, provides you with a lot of the edge in the game. This is not to disparage online poker or say that online players are better/worse than live players, it is simply my opinion that both of these arenas utilize completely different skill sets and mine are much more suited to live play.
Although it is arguable that there might be more money in online poker, sometimes it is worth losing a bit of that value for authenticity. Azn_Cutie does well to note that online players are no better or worse than live players, they are just a different breed of competitor. All the differences aside, poker players need to take their true ambitions in to perspective.
Close your eyes for just a moment and picture yourself in poker glory. You stand at the pantheon of poker, your brightest moment and your finest hour. Are you seated behind a laptop or a desktop computer?
Nope.
You are surrounded by hundred of screaming fans, your best friends are hugging you and the tournament director is fastening the gold bracelet around your wrist. You make your way to the edge of the table, stack of hundred dollar bills sit aside your final hand. The seat is still warm from a battle just fought. The board is sitting right where you left it, right at the moment that you called your opponents fateful bluff. The cameras are flashing and the press is calling your name. For a moment suspended in time, the glory of live poker is infinite. You live to play this game.
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