I can't tell you how many times I've heard players whine when they get sucked out (including myself once upon a time), by lesser starting cards, saying "How could you of played those two cards, especially after I raised"?

My response these days is: "It was easy, I put my chips in, and said call", which in turn really ticks the other player off even more.

What many players who've been playing a while fail to realize, is this.

If you forget your past, you are doomed to repeat it, meaning to get inside the heads of a novice or intermediate player, you must first remember how YOU yourself played, when you first picked up this wonderful game of poker.

In addition, it's like they feel that I, and every other player, should play poker THEIR way, simply because they have read some book on the subject, or have been playing longer than the other person they are playing against.

Now, why should I, or anyone else do that? Why should I go to war, and tell my enemy, even though I'm no good at their style of war, I'm going to give up my style of war, and battle their way?

That would be quite stupid on my part, don't you think?

It is however, how the British lost the war of Independence to the American Militia men.

If you remember your history, the British were masters at war, and most major countries at the time, battled the same way they did.

Then came the American Revolution, and us yanks, well, we didn't play by the same rules as the Brits, because for the most part, we just didn't know any better.

The Brits marched in straight lines, while we yanks we hid behind the bushes and the trees, didn't know much about the 'rules of war', yet we won battle after battle, simply because the Brits couldn't or wouldn't adapt to our style of warfare. They were convinced their way was the only way, and were inflexible to the fact that there could be other ways of warfare, than just theirs.

So in love were they, with the style of war they'd played for centuries, they just couldn't figure out what made the American's tick. Why after they, the Brits had proven that this formal style of war, really was the best, did the Yanks persist in fighting the way they did, and even worse, the yanks were winning! Yet, so rigid they were, they refused to even consider adapting their style of warfare, to counter the style of the Yanks.

Now, equate this to poker.

We have the pro's and those who love to read the books of the pros, who with only a few exceptions, are so in love with the formal style of playing poker (best two cards pre-flop), that they fail to realize, that in reality, any two starting cards have the potential to win at poker. After all, it takes 5 cards at the river, to make the best hand, and they don't HAVE to be premium (starting) cards to do so.

Gus Hanson is however, as pro's go, is one exception that I've seen on TV, and has realized this, and has stated as much on many occasions. He plays the player, and not the cards, and he does quite well doing so.

Why should I, or any player, battle the same way the pros do, especially if I'm not good at doing it their way in the first place? Why should I be forced to play their game, go to war as it is, their style, simply because they've been playing longer than I have?

To me, it would seem quite stupid of me, to play their style, simply because some book says I must.

Granted, the books have quite a few good tips in them, but at the same time, the person who wrote them, isn't me, and isn't my personality, nor are they the persons or personalities of other players.

I can't count the number of times however, where someone has fallen in love with Ace King preflop, missed the flop, turn and river, with them betting it all the way, and then gotten upset because I or another player hung in there because we did hit the flop ourselves.

This is because many players who play poker the traditional way fail to realize, is that A/K is only a premium starting drawing hand, not a made hand.

I have a saying about Ace King, or any hand you fall in love with for that matter preflop, and I'm most willing to tell it to anyone who will listen.

"Getting Married to Ace King is not a good idea, because the divorce settlement will be painful, if it doesn't work out"

Poker is a reflection of life, and the person playing it.

No one is going to play text book poker all the time, and you shouldn’t expect your opponent to play poker your way, especially if they are new to the game. To do so, is a major mistake on your part.

One other mistake I see many experienced players make as well, is that while there are indeed many fish out there, that there are sometimes opportunities to learn from the fish as well. While the fish might be 99.99 percent wrong, there might be that .01 percent of truth that the fish knows that you don't know.

If you can take that small percentage and add it to your game, you will become a better player.

So, don't be like the Brits, instead of going off on some player because they sucked out on you, because they were playing their way instead of yours, adapt instead.

Say nice hand, and move on, making note of what kind of cards that person is playing, and be aware of it for future reference.

In that way, you won't be the like the Brits, and be inflexible, and you'll only lose one battle, instead of the entire war.

Welcome to Gabby’s Quest to try to change the Laws of Colorado, to try to rid Colorado of No Fold ‘em Hold ‘em.

Well, today I put my money (or my foot, depends on your point of view (smile)), where my mouth is. I may be tilting at windmills here, but I figure it’s worth a shot.

Recently on two plus two forums, I was telling the New Yorkers, who are getting their clubs raided, to stop whining and try to get the laws of their state changed to allow for them to play poker, legally.

So, started a conversation with my Evil Twin Sister, Donkella, who was whispering in my ear, what a hypocrite I was, and you know what, for one time in her life, she was right.

I’m constantly complaining since I moved to Colorado from Ohio in March of 2006, how live action poker sucks here, and Tournament poker isn’t much better.

All because the maximum bet allowed in Colorado is capped at a mere 5 bucks a bet. The type of thinking that comes with that (play any two cards to the flop, and sometimes to the turn and even the river) often spills over into tournament play as well, since that is the only way many of the locals here know how to play.

Tournament poker the max buy-in allowed, is $500, which even then, most casinos here won’t charge that, because they don’t have the balls to up the rates for the tournaments, and play hard ball with the customers here. In other words, tell them that’s the price, and if you want to play, that’s what you will pay.

Instead, they wimp out, when after one time not many players show up, they change it to rebuy events instead.

Well, Donkella tells me, you wimp, you shouldn’t be whining about this, practice what you preach. Contact your Colorado Senator, ask if they’d be willing to sponsor a law to get at the very least, the maximum casino bet cap increased to something OTHER than 5 bucks as it currently is right now.

Now, Donkella is seldom right, as most times I try to keep her in her cage, as she gets me into nothing but trouble when she gets out of her cage when I’m playing poker. This time however, it appeared to me, that she was right, and I should either pay up or shut up.

So I did some research here:

http://www.leg.state.co.us/


and discovered that one of my Senators is named Ken Gordon.
So, after a little more research, I drafted the following e-mail letter to him (my address and given name has been x-d out):


From: xxxxxx
To: ken@kengordon.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2025 2:41 PM
Subject: Why can't we have N/L Poker Laws like Florida does(at the very least)?

Honorable Senator Gordon,

I moved here from Ohio back in March of 2006, and I'm now a registered Colorado Voter who lives in Englewood (Arapahoe County).

I understand based on the website here:

http://www.leg.state.co.us/

that you are one of my Representatives. If this is not the case, and it is not you, can you direct me to who that might be?

When I moved here, I came to understand, that the maximum bet in Colorado has remained the same (at a max bet of $5) since the Casinos opened over 15 years ago.

I'm perplexed as to why that amount has never been raised to at least adjust for inflation.

Why do I care? Because I'm an avid Poker Player, and a good one at that.

Before I moved here, I did quite well playing both live action and tournament poker.

However, since I moved here, I've been stuck with what is called by the locals here, No Fold 'em Hold 'em otherwise known as, 'Bingo' or 'Lotto' poker, since because of the $5 max bet laws, the players here, play any 2 cards all the way to the river.

You really can't beat the game here, and as a result, poker really sucks here, and makes me hate living in Colorado (and I'm not the only one who feels this way).

I've been hearing rumors from Casino table game dealers, that the Casinos are working with the Colorado Lawmakers to raise the maximum bet to $100, because of the no smoking law that goes into effect as of Jan 1, 2008, where no one will be allowed to smoke in the Casino.

Is this indeed true? I'm hopeful that it is.

Either way, is there any way to get a law passed to allow for N/L poker much like Florida recently did?

They way I understand it, the max buy-in there you can buy into a NL game is $100 (at a time), but you can bet anything in the game itself, once you buy into the game, up to and including what you have in the game at the time.

I'm not sure however, if there are hourly limits or not in the case of Florida's law.

Is there any hope that you might consider sponsoring some sort of legislation to allow (at the very least) for something similar to Florida's law, so we here in Colorado can play real poker, instead of this No Fold 'em Hold 'em we are currently stuck with?

In addition, is there also any way legislation could be passed to allow for larger tournament buy ins (currently the max allowed by law is $500), so that some of the major televised events (aka the WPT and the WSOP) would be interested in coming to Denver to host an event here? In most cases, most people don't buy directly into these main events anyway, but instead, win their way into them via satellite tournaments hosted by the hosting casinos.

Please advise, and thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to read my e-mail.

Sincerely Yours,

xxxxxxxx


To the two rags crowd … I will keep you posted on any results I obtain, good or bad. If I don’t get a response from Senator Gordon, I will try other Colorado Representatives, until I do get at least a response back from at least one of them.

If this doesn't work, well, Colorado is one of the states you can get the states constitution changed, as well as have laws added/changed on the books, by petition drive to have an issue put on a ballot to be voted on.

Maybe that would be one way to get the law changed here, is by petition drive to have it added to the ballot in November of 2008, which would be when the next Presidental election would be, to get the most eyes on the topic, and the best turn out on the issue. That would also give us enough time to get the needed signatures to do so.

Feel free to join in this effort with me as well!

Comments or suggestions anyone? If you're not from Colorado, has anyone else tried this approach in their state to either get poker legalized or the maximum bet raised?

You know that evil twin sibling, as we all have one, they were born on the day we first started playing poker.

For guys, his name is Donkzilla, for women it’s Donkella.

They are the ones that when you know you should fold a hand, they take control over your body and then you hear the following coming out of your mouth:

I call, I raise, and the worst … I go all in!

Oh gawd, you think when that happens, my evil twin sibling as escaped their cage, I’m doomed!

When you first start playing, your Evil twin sibling is the one who is in control, they hate it when you read a book, learn from a mentor and get better at Poker.

This is because as you learn more about poker, the stronger you get in your game, and the more able you are keep your evil twin sibling in their cage(s).

Your evil twin then is constantly whispering in your ear in a tournament (or worse, a NL cash game), gee, you really want that Highball, and make it a double! Don’t stop at one drink, make it two, then 3, then 4. Next thing you know, your evil twin sibling is in full control of you.

Donkzilla is whispering … that babe is really HOT, look at the ta-ta’s on that one! You want some of that, yeah man! Play nice with her, don’t try to steal her blinds, let her win!

Next thing you know, she’s got all your chips, and even worse, you didn’t get any (you know what) from her!

Meanwhile, Donkella is whispering about the aggressive guy on the button, don’t let him steal your blinds, he’s just pushing you around because you are a woman! Go ahead, call him with 7 duce, after all it *IS* suited!

Personally, I hate it when Donkella manages to get out of her cage (when I don't want her to), and Murphy ’s Law is, it’s normally when I’ve paid the buy in for a 1k event or higher.

Sometimes though, I do let her out on purpose, like when I don’t care about making money, when I just want to have fun.

One things for sure, Donkella knows how to have fun. She loves to flirt with all the guys, and make a really arse of herself, if I let her carry it that far.

On a recent trip to Vegas, I even managed to get a kiss out of a guy who was really cute, when I let Donkella out for a spin.

I was at Binions, playing in one of their 4 daily tournaments, and having a really fun time.

I had just the day before won a $2500 jackpot on a 25 cent slot machine at the Orleans and decided I was just going to play the next day for fun, not take it seriously, and let Donkella do all the playing for me, and see what happened.

Well, Donkella was a real luck box that day, any two cards she played (and she played most of them, cards I normally would never play), would hit.

She’d call, or raise with the worst cards possible, and end up with straights, boats, flushes and so forth.

Pretty soon she’d amassed a huge stack, but luck will only take your evil twin sibling so far.

It was down to 2 or 3 tables, and the event paid like 8 places, when Donkella’s luck ran out (at least with the cards (grin)).

Now, Donkella was announcing every hand she was going to go all every hand, as she wanted to leave, laughing all the time.

True to her word, Donkella started going all in every hand, and the table was getting tired of it.

Meanwhile, I was enjoying myself, watching Donkella from the outskirts of my mind, driving the table crazy.

Donkella doubled up this one guy on the short stack, at least 3 times, so much that the 3rd time, if he won, he would became the chip leader. He was so ecstatic, that he said, thanks so much, if I win this one (the 3rd time) I will kiss you for that!

Well, he won, and at that point, I stepped in and said … pay up and he did! I got the kiss! To bad though, it turned out afterwards, that the guy was married (boo!).

It was still the BEST time ever, of when Donkella was in control!


So, what kind of trouble has your evil twin gotten YOU into, or what stories do you have to share about him/her, hmm?

Perhaps another title might be ...

Was there a better way I could of handled this?

Okay, here goes ...

I was in Vegas back the end of June, first part of July, trying to win my way into the WSOP events, including I'd hoped the one on June 30th at noon (no, I didn't play after all, in part for reasons you'll see below (I didn't get my goal of making more money for the buy in)).

I decided to build my bankroll which isn't what I'd hoped it would be by playing in the Binions Classic event on June 29th, at 2pm, the buy in was $150 bucks, with no rebuys.

We had about 500 players, and I was doing pretty good, the table was nice, and actually quite chatty for a mostly male table (I was the only woman there), we are only 40 off from the money, and I am in the big blind.

Previous to this hand, the player to my right had been knocked out.

The blinds are 1600 and 800, ante is 200, and the UGT opens up the pot for 5k which is over half his stack, and I have about 13k left (he has 9k left).

When it comes to me I look down and see pocket 10's, and I go all in.

UTG (who is a nice kid), thinks for a moment, and says he callls.

He turns over pocket jacks, and I know I'm in deep dodo, and I'm right, as I get no help on the flop, river or turn.

Now, towards the end of this, this jerk of a young kid (I'd say he was about 21 or 22 yrs of age) from Aussie land comes over with his stack and as we soon find out, he is very drunk.

(Think of that kid on last years (the 2006) WSOP that was drunk, being a pain, and times it by four, and you got a picture of this kid).

He's loud and obnoxious and zero's in on me, starts poking at my chips and says in a loud voice, I'm gunna take you out, you don't belong here, then slugs the last of the drink he brings to the table with him, and starts yelling Cocktails (like he really needs more)!

He then turns his attention back to me and starts barraging me, I try to ignore him, but the more I try the louder and more obnoxious he gets.

The next hand comes and I'm in the Small blind, he announces to me and the rest of the table that he's gunna keep raising until he can rid the table of me.

Sure enough he does raise, but I have nothing, so I fold.

Next hand after that, he makes a small raise, again I have nothing, but a person after that does, raises, and another goes all in.

Dummy from Australia and the other player calls. During the hand the Aussie keeps telling the other guy, just check it down so we can get this other guy out, at each turn, dummy says it again loudly.

After the hand is over, I point out to him (as he's getting on my last nerve here) that while many players do this, to say it out loud is considered collusion, and that he shouldn't be doing that.

In the end, the all in player survives, and dummy starts in again with me. He then shoves his drink holder into my space, my chips go flying, and I tell him, to move it. He then takes it and puts it over in a guy I've come to know as Andy, space (a really nice guy as well), who is to this loudmouth Aussie's right, and starts yelling for the cocktail waitress again.

I can see on Andy's face he is stunned and doesn't know how to handle it. For me this is even more truly amazing, the shocked look on Andy's face, as I've been trying for hours to get a read on him, and his face has been like stone. For Andy's face to show that much emotion, well, I know that he's stunned as well.

I have had enough, I call the floor, and complain, tell them what has happened thus far, including how the Aussie was telling the other guy what to do in the middle of a hand with an allin player in.

The floor (a guy by the name of Alan who is the on duty floor) gives him a warning, tells him he'll have to forgo a round of play if someone complains again.

Next hand, it comes around to me, and I'm very short stacked, and I look down and see Ace/10, it's not the best hand in the world, but for someone who is short stacked, it's an okay hand IMO, and I'm only a few places off from the button.

It goes around and besides the blinds, we get 1 other caller, big mouth decides to fold, and I go all in.

He then starts in again, saying oh I should of called, I wanted to be the one to take you out.

In the mean time it's going fold fold fold, and I'm hoping everyone will fold their hand and I can pick up the blinds and antes.

It gets to the player who limped in preflop, and loudmouth starts telling him, call her, you know you want to call her!

The guy thinks about it, starts to move his cards again to the muck, and then the Aussie starts in again and says, come on buddy, do it for the table, get rid of this woman! The guy thinks again, and says, Okay I will call her.

Now I'm really ticked off, he's doing it again, and worst of all, it is affecting me! Only reason I didn't call the floor in the middle of this exchange, is that I didn't want to give away the strength of my hand.

I turn over my A/10 o/s, and the guys turns over Q/J o/S.

Flop comes 10/king, 8, rainbow.

Now the dummy loudmouth Aussie (who's not even in the hand) starts chanting, give us an ace, give us an ace, we want to get this woman out of here!

Turn is a blank for both of us, but on the river, comes a 9, giving the other guy a queen high straight, and I'm out 30 spaces from the money.

(BTW, I had established myself as a good, tight player, so when I went all in or raised the table pretty much folded until this jerk came along)

dummy loudmouth starts cheering, saying that's the way to do it, we now have no more women at the table! yeah!

I'm furious now, and I call over the floor, tell them what happened, and they make him sit out a round. I also tell them they need to cut him off since that is what I suspect is driving this fool (they tell me that they can't cut off a player for any reason).

I've never had this happen this badly before, ever since I first started playing poker 4 years ago, where I was at a table with someone who had such hatred for women, and especially not by someone this young.

Normally if something started, all it took at most is one call to the floor to get it to stop.

Is there anything I could of done differently, and what can be done about obnoxious drunks who zero in on you just because you're the only woman at the table?

In addition, I later came across this similar attitude over at the Orleans event, by someone who was also an Aussie, who seemed to resent my being there at the table as him.

Is there something in the Aussie Culture where they don't think women belong at the poker table, or what?

Comments anyone?