BLOG – How to pretend to be Phil Ivey, what what?

BLOG – How to pretend to be Phil Ivey, what what?

Friday, 11 June 2010

Are you a gentleman? Or just a man? Can you stand before a charging water buffalo, light your pipe; wax your moustache AND drink a full glass of fine brandy before stopping the beast with a raise of your eyebrows? Can you shoehorn in semi-colons; the true punctuation of the chap, whenever you scribe?




Sorry, I was just really taken with the above advert for online casino Mr Green. I do love a bladdy refined gentleman sort, what what? Sorry, I’ll stop now. Anyway, I stumbled across this – let’s face it, incredible – advertisement for Mr Green and I’m sad to say I may be a victim of the consumerist society in which we reside.


Now, usually I don’t gamble. Obviously poker is gambling but it can easily be seen as... well, not. Of course if you go by the textbook definition of gambling ‘to wager money on the outcome of an event’ then poker is pure gamble. However I define gambling as having uncertain outcomes – in poker if you play well then you will win money. You can’t do that at roulette.


So while I’ve always approved of gambling being around, it’s never really interested me. I like it because if anything it brings more fish to the tables when they think “ooh, I won £500 at roulette so I’ll give that poker game a go.” Lovely. However, a combination of great advertising and a revelation bought me to my own little –EV gambling bankroll.


See, I realised something about gambling and poker. Whenever I play tournaments, which is rare, I find them really exciting. More so than cash games, though I by far prefer ring games to the appropriately-dubbed donkaments. I think it’s because that feels like gambling, whereas if you play for the long-term in cash games it’s just a slog through short-term results to a fairly guaranteed profit.


So I play tournaments not for the same reasons I play cash games, but for a gamble. I mean, I can play 3,000 hands in a day and grind out a small profit or put $11 in a tournament... who knows, eight hours later I might have a four figure prize. So there’s no reason why one shouldn’t play at online casinos like Mr Green – just be sensible.


Phil Ivey makes $100,000 bets on the craps table but that’s because he’s Phil Ivey. Personally I’m betting just a few bucks at a time – play responsibly and all that, readers. Bankroll management isn’t just for poker.



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