If only they played poker the way I think they should play…

…I’d win every hand!

I overheard a conversation at the tables today, and it is almost the same conversation I’ve heard so many times before that it’s getting pathetically old.  It went something like this:

Woman:  “Where have you been playing lately?”

Man:  “I’ve been playing 2/40 spread at The Moose.  It’s a better game.”

Woman:  “Can you really protect your hand?  I mean, can you prevent bad players from calling you down?”

Man:  “Well, sometimes you can, if they aren’t 3/6 players.  But if the 3/6 players play the spread game the way they play 3/6 then they’ll still call you down.”

You see, here’s the thing:  bad low limit players always think that they’re the shark among fish, and that their opponents always seem to “suck out” on them by making outrageous calls all the way to the river.

There’s some truth that people will call all the way in low limit games – but if you know the math, and you’re playing a tight/aggressive, smart game, you can come out ahead over the long run.  You see, poker is not a game of short-term results.  Poker is a game that rewards players who consistently make better decisions than their opponents.  As one book I read makes clear, in the short-term, luck is king.  In the long-term, skill is king.

So it got me to thinking – these players who always talk about how bad the opponents are, and how they would be winning players if only their opponents played smarter – why aren’t they playing at the no-limit tables?

There’s a kind of mockumentary movie about the World Series of Poker, called “The Grand.”  It’s a funny movie, but there’s a scene where one of the players, clearly mocking Phill Hellmuth, says something like “If only my opponents played poker the way I think they should play, I’d win every time!”