Poker in the eyes.

I love head games. 

Not the kind that are foolishly played between two people in a relationship...no one ever wins those. Everyone just eventually loses, and I am speaking from experience as I have been an unwilling participant in a few of these in my past relationships. I loathe these kind. I'm far too competitive a person for these, which makes it almost impossible for me to give up playing once the game has begun. Toxic. Flabby.

No, the head games I am writing about are actual 'games' in the traditional sense. Strategic, thoughtful, smart games that come in all shapes and sizes. 

Some board games barely touch on being 'thinkers' such as Monopoly, where you rely heavily on the luck of the dice. Your only real decisions are should I buy it or should I build on it? Not all that stimulating, and in my experience, about a 1/2 hour into the game, people are already starting to get bored with paying the lucky bastard who rolled snake eyes after landing on Park Place and now owns the best two properties and runs the game. Not much fun, really.

The next level up I suppose are games like Risk. I played quite a few games of this in my early high school days, where strategy was amped up a bit. You didn't want to attack too many countries and leave your armies depleted, but you needed to take over a few opponents each turn to get  those precious red cards that turn into new fighters. Again, some strategy, but a lot of luck needed in the dice and what cards you pulled. A bit better, but still, I don't remember playing a game where at least once the table was bumped and those little plastic Atari pieces scattered all over the board, and everyone had to try and remember how many  armies you had on each country. Then there was always someone accusing the rest of the players of ganging up on them. Better than Monopoly, but still...meh.

As far as more strategic board games go, Talisman (or "Taliflab" as we lovingly called it) Carcassone, Dominion...these are fun. Not too hard to learn, don't take hours to play a game, but you can play them for hours and not get bored. Lots of options to consider with each move, decisions with consequences...sure, the luck factor is there with all of these, but they are all good 'thinkers'.

My favourite head game by far, however, is not a board game at all. It's poker. Texas Hold'em to be more specific. To be even more specific, All-In Texas Hold'em.  

There were two things that really turned me on to this amazing, cerebral game. 

Firstly, it's massive popularity over the past ten years has created about 20 different poker tv shows (by my count) that have made names such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Helmuth Jr. and Doyle Brunson common to a huge amount of people. You may not know anything about poker but I'll bet (no pun intended...) that you've heard some, or all of these names before.  In the forefront, the televised portions of week-long World Series of Poker Main Event from Las Vegas have always been my favourite. Poker's popularity really took off in 2003 when an accountant named Chris Moneymaker won the title, which came with a gold bracelet (poker's Stanley Cup) and a cheque for $2.5 million! The fee to enter this tournament is $10,000 per player, but he won his entry in a $39 satellite (qualifying) tournament. It showed the world that you didn't have to be a pro, or have a lot of money to play with, or even beat the big boys. It instantly became a 'sport' where anyone could actually win. That appealed to millions of people pretty quickly, including me. One of my dreams is to actually play in the main event some day and sit at the tables with the best in the world and see how I do. Hell, a guy from Woodstock (Evan Lamprea) not only tried, but in 2010 was the chip leader after 5 days of play. Of the seven thousand or so players who entered the tournament, he finished 46th for a payday of more than $168,000 (The winner received just over $8.9 million).  It shows that anyone can do well, you just have to be in the game.

In any game of poker, luck is part of it and that can not be denied, but, you can give yourself a massive advantage if you know what you're doing. 

Secondly is where the headiness (and the fun for me) comes in...

If you listen to any poker pro, they all agree that poker is a game that they learn something from every time they play. You can never know everything, which is one reason why it appeals to me. Just when you think you've got something figured out, the game changes again. I've read a couple of poker books on how to read tells (physical movements of your opponents or strategies that help you determine what the other person has) or what to do with certain hands, but these are only guidelines, and can't always be trusted. For example, I know, when looking at the eyes of an opponent as they look at their cards for the first time, what to look for when they look up. Do they look excited, defeated, neutral? It's not just about the look on their face, though, not by a long shot. What are their shoulders doing, what are their hands doing, are they looking at the chips in the pot, their own chips, my chips, or trying not to get caught looking at these things? You see...so much to look for. These 'tells' however, are usually VERY subtle. But sometimes, they're not. So now you have to determine if this 'not so subtle' move was on purpose to make you think one thing when you should be thinking the opposite, or are you playing against someone who legitimately over-reacts at the table and will soon be broke.  Even more mind games coming....does the person you're playing KNOW that you know what to look for and they are trying to make subtle moves to trap you? Ouch. So head-scratchingly good! 

It's this dynamic of the game that makes me love playing in tournaments. At any given time, your table could consist of a few beginners to the game who just like the social aspect, a couple of life-long students of poker who think they know all the in's and out's, and a few of us who land somewhere in between.  Each hand plays out differently as you need to adjust your style based on who is left in the pot. The beginners usually think their mediocre hands are better than they actually are and the 'experts' think THEY are better than they actually are, which is particularly satisfying when you put one of these jerks out. Especially if they are one of these jokers who wear the PokerStars jersey and sunglasses at the table The rush of adrenaline you feel when you knock someone out and live to see the next hand is exhilarating.  It's all thinking, all the time, and you just hope the poker gods smile down on you once in a while and give you a good hand to play.

I am lucky enough to have a semi-regular monthly game at my house (with mostly the same guys), have played in tournaments at Casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Windsor, and I'm currently playing in a once-a-month, 6 month long tournament here in town. LOVE IT! The really good news is that it's all very low-stakes tournaments that anyone can afford.  I may never get rich playing at these low stakes, but I'll never go broke and it's almost always an amazing time. After all this poker playing, I still consider myself a very average player with tonnes to learn, and that's exciting to me. Maybe someday I'll end up cashing in at a major tournament, or maybe not, but as long as I can find a game, I'll be happy.

Shuffle up and deal!

All for now.

G'day.