At my house we watch a lot of televised poker. When most people get excited to see a movie star, we get excited to see a poker pro. I often wonder however why we have different views on different things when we see it on TV, and when it happens in a live game.
For example: A pro player raises or calls a fairly substantial bet with fairly poor cards. The raise is obvious, they want to outplay the other people in the pot. The call, well, I think they feel mathmatically that they have live cards and the value in the pot warrents a call, or they plan to outplay the person after the flop, depending on what the flop is. In general people are in awe of plays like this. They feel the poker player is a good player for making the raise, or if they hit on a flop, for staying in and beating the opponent.
Now, take that same strategy and lets move to bar poker. First let me say, I'm either not brave enough or wise enough to play this style of poker. Again, I'm the school book tight player. I have however called a medium raise with 2/4 suited, I've seen people make a substantial raise with their 7/2, etc. They hit, they win, we hate them. Or they outbet us, show us the bluff, and we hate them.
Not complaining, really I'm not. I just find it interesting that when a pro does it they are a good player. When the dude next to me who has three to many beers does it, he's a dumbass donkey player.
Don't get me wrong...there are plenty of completely insane things I've seen at bar poker that NO pro would ever do. My personal favorite, one which I'll blog on eventually, is the "bluff call". What in the good Lords name is a bluff call!?
Just understand this, most of the time we know who we're playing against. Remember, some are the dumbass donkey players who called you with the crappy hands, others, really get what they are doing, understand odds, etc. and may have just completely out played you. There is a difference. If you don't feel there is, remember that the next time your favorite pro calls with a crappy hand. :)
G-night poker buddies!
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The thing people forget about this is the fact the telivised poker is edited. They don't show the 90 minutes of folds before the professional player makes a move. Bar players see this and assume it's the way to play, no setup or skill required. On occasion the bar player will get rewarded using this style, reinforcing thier misconception of quality play.
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