Table Of Content

About the Author I started going steady with Poker when I was 14 years old. I’d been crazy about her since we first met, back when I was seven. But she wouldn’t have anything to do with me back then. She told me to look her up when I had some money and then we would have some real fun. Well, when I turned 14, I was rolling in cash. I had it coming in from five directions. I was a paperboy, window washer, lawn-mower, snow-shoveler, and a soda jerk for two hours a night at a buck an hour. I knew Poker only wanted me for my money, but I didn’t care. I said okay Poker, I’m all grown up now. Take me I’m yours. And that’s when Poker and I got serious. That’s when we hooked up for real, for good. Poker and I spent a lot of time together during my high- school years. And then, when I turned 18, everything changed. I don’t know what happened, I don’t know what went wrong, but somehow I fell in love with another game. I had a long and ecstatic affair with Bridge. For the next five years I was either playing bridge, about to play bridge, or wishing I was about to play bridge. I still saw Poker once a week, but Poker wanted way more from me than that. My romance with Bridge ended abruptly when I accidentally became a full-time professional musician for eight years. My relationship with Poker stayed strong, even though I continued to split my affections. In my life, I have obsessed for years each at scrabble, and chess, and backgammon, and gin, and through it all, there was Poker, always Poker, ready to take me back. One by one, as they had come, the other games fell away. It’s just me and Poker now, as it was in the beginning. Copyright © 2007 Tommy Angelo Published by Tommy Angelo All rights reserved. To request permission to use any part of this book in any way, write to: [email protected] ISBN: 1-4196-8089-7 ISBN-13: 978-1-4196-8089-2 To order additional copies, visit www.tommyangelo.com Elements of Poker This page intentionally left blank I would like to dedicate this book to all the people who have told me that I should write a book. This page intentionally left blank Poker: a card game in which players bet on the value of their hands. Element: a component or constituent of a whole. This page intentionally left blank Contents About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Band and Crew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 My Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 I. Universal Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 1. A-Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2. B-Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3. C-Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 4. Lopping Off the C-Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 5. Quitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6. Sets, Sessions, and Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 7. Reciprocality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 8. Quitting Reciprocality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 9. Bankroll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 10. The Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 11. Keeping Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 12. Accounting for the Rake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 13. The Price of Poker Does Go Up . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 14. The Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 15. The Profit Premise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 16. How to Get Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 17. How to Give Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 18. Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 19. Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 20. Defining Mistake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 21. The Gray Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 22. Tilt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 23. Tilt Reciprocality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 24. Hard Tilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 25. Soft Tilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 26. Winning, Losing, and Breaking Even . . . . . . . . . 57 27. Betting Reciprocality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 28. On the Importance of Position . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 29. Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 30. Position Reciprocality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 31. Firstlessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 32. Suitedness and Connectedness. . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 33. Gobsmacked. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 34. Anticipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 35. The Rating Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 36. Seat Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68