Poker Face

15 August 2024

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Didn’t we swear we wouldn’t write about this topic…poker?

ABBY: Kind of but as universalist gaming writers…

CINDY: Gambling writers.

ABBY: Gambling writers. We really should share our experiences playing poker. You don’t think that?

CINDY: It’s not a pretty sight, now, is it?

ABBY: Not for me. That’s for sure.

CINDY: You were only a little worse than me. You didn’t go to the top of the mountain either.

ABBY: What is the top of the mountain in poker? Seriously?

CINDY: Over some time being ahead of the game. Beating the other players consistently. I’d think that would be the top of the mountain for a serious player.

ABBY: Not winning millions?

CINDY” Not winning millions. No. Just consistently winning. Oh, and not all the time, just enough to feel successful. I couldn’t string together a string of victories. I could win a session and then lose several sessions, actually more than several sessions. As soon as I started I was behind and I stayed behind. I did win here and there but those wins were just a win here and there.

ABBY: I didn’t even have that! I sometimes would go look at a major poker tournament where players put up, oh, I don’t know, maybe 10 thousand dollars. All of them knew they would not win the big jackpot but they had enough confidence to go all in and take their chances. What I found particularly tough was trying to read my opponents. I really couldn’t tell, I couldn’t guess, what they had. I kept a log after awhile and I rarely knew what my opponent had.

CINDY: I found that difficult too but I figured some of my opponents out…at times.

ABBY: What did you think of the poker players. Really.

CINDY: Well, we were playing at low-limit tables mostly so a lot of them were new. Like us.

ABBY: Yeah, true, but a lot of them tried to put on poker faces; like they were seasoned veterans. Those people irritated me.

CINDY: What about the “old bats” the women that regularly played those tables? I mean they knew what they were doing that we were there to give them cash.

ABBY: Overall, I did like most of my opponents but some of them were just too ridiculous to take seriously. It is as if they watched all the poker movies and tried to imitate the actors playing those characters. I found them boring in a short period of time. I really did.

CINDY: I won on occasion but slowly over time I wound up a loser. They grinded me away I guess you could say.

ABBY: I got blasted away quickly. I put money aside to play but I took one beating after another. I kept adding to my playing pot until I realized the game wasn’t for me.

CINDY: I played longer than you but the same thing happened to me. I lost slowly and I could see that enough players were better than me that I could play with them but I would over time not win.

ABBY: And that is our experience with poker.