Expensive lessons

Managing to "finish work" by the middle of the week for a change (my job job is a half-time affair, usually requiring my attention from Wednesday through Friday; but I enjoy a certain amount of autonomy, and this week I swapped it around), last night I allowed myself to be cajoled into attending a poker school. My American buddy, Big Chris, has been running a mid-week session for most of this year; and since he moved down from Wudaokou to my 'hood a few months ago, my excuses for non-attendance have been weakening.

I have always been fascinated by the psychology of gambling; and, to a lesser extent, by the mathematics of it, too (I loved Anthony Holden's 'Big Deal' and Thomas A. Bass's 'The Newtonian Casino'). And I've always had a special fondness for poker. I suppose it's the seedy glamour, the thrill of imminent danger attaching to it that we always see in the classic Westerns.

My brother taught me the basic rules when I was a very young kid. I played a bit in my final years at school, and at University. But not really played, you know - friendly games, penny stakes, nobody really knew what they were doing. And this was....... (cough, cough)...... A LONG TIME AGO. I've only played twice before in Beijing - and both times I was parted from my money rather easily.

Third time lucky?? Well, no. No, I got spanked again. There were some serious sharks in the pool, and it was very soon apparent that I would not be leaving the room any richer. I think I'll claim my buy-in against tax, as a charity donation.

It was a diverting evening, though. It was good to scrape the rust off my knowledge of the game, to start reviving instincts and intuitions long dormant. And I didn't completely disgrace myself. In fact, I probably could have done a lot better; but, having no confidence of final success in that kind of company, and not having the stamina for a late-night session, I was playing to lose, deliberately self-destructing for the last half hour or so. I saw off the other two novices at the table and one of the 'experienced' guys - which was, I think, a fair showing for my first attempt.

And I did have the rush of winning 4 or 5 quite big hands. My satisfaction, however, was somewhat undercut by the knowledge that on 2 of those wins I had got very lucky with the cards turned up. Although not as lucky as Big Chris, who later closed out the third-last survivor by pairing both his cards, a crappy 9-4..... the 4 on the river - bad beat! I just couldn't catch a break from the dealer all night, so was forced to go chasing dreams with bad hole cards.... and fared rather better than I deserved to. But a lucky win is still a win.

I found it particularly tough to gauge the strength of the betting here. We were playing Texas Hold 'Em in a tournament-style elimination format, with betting limits being successively raised at an increasing tempo. Even without this constant upping of the stakes, the betting patterns of the other players were pretty unfathomable to me. With a small table (only 8 players, 2 of whom didn't really have a clue what they were doing) and no serious money at stake, I think the core players were bluffing extravagantly, betting wildly (playing 'on tilt', as the poker expression goes) almost the whole time.

Whereas I was treating it more like a low-stakes casino game (the style of play I've read a fair bit about, briefly tried a few times during my sojourns in North America), playing very conservatively. My overactive imagination - and my overdeveloped reflex for thrift - kept prompting me to think of the chips as real money (when in fact we were given 3,000 of the little beauties for a mere 100 kuai), so I was rather too easily scared out of the running by a big early bet. Maybe next time I'll be a little more savvy about this. Maybe....

If there is a next time. I didn't find this particular group of sharks very congenial company (maybe if I get to know them better, I'll warm to them..... but a poker table isn't a particularly sociable environment unless you already know the people....). And the session is always on a Wednesday or Thursday night - which is always a work night, and usually a gig night. A weekend would suit me better. Perhaps I'll start looking around for another game.