There it is... Me playing 8 tables of 3/6. When I first started playing 4 tables my brother said it was going to make him sick watching. How about now Nathan?
It gets pretty hectic sometimes, but my creation, mouseless poker, keeps me on top of things.

In case my description of Eston started to make you believe he was actually good looking...

Here's Eston showing off the best hand in hold 'em. Take that Ken Warren!

By the way, Eston has gotten more air time on my blog than I've had on his (and more than he deserves), so you won't be reading more about his ass any time soon.

Since this is a blog, I suppose I should occasionally talk about recent occurances in my poker career instead of just posting rambles about "the life."
This past week I've been extremely motivated to get better at poker and play a lot. Someone I respect asked me "You need motivation to play poker?"

Here's the answer: I don't need motivation to play poker - if there's a game to play, and I'm free, I'll play, and I'll probably make money - but sometimes I'm not motivated to stay at the top of my game in the heat of the competition, work on improving my game away from the table, or put in the online hours.
When I'm playing a lot of live poker, I occasionally slip into auto-pilot mode. I make standard plays, and I rarely venture out of the comfort zone. Because of my experience, knowledge, and discipline, my auto-pilot mode is profitable against my opposition. In fact, you could take five members of a subset of my opposition, force them to pay attention to everything going on at the table and come to a consensus before making every decision and my auto-pilot mode would still be profitable.
The problem is, that's not good enough. One obvious issue is that playing at the top of my game is MORE profitable that staying in auto-pilot. Another issue is auto-pilot doesn't allow me to improve my game nearly as much as paying attention and thinking through things. When I'm completely focused, every one of my thoughts (except the occasional "I have to take a leak") improves the way I'll play in the future. When I'm in a hand my estimates, calculations, and decisions are more precise. When I'm out of a hand, I'm watching the others play. This has the obvious effect of giving me useful information about them, but if I'm thinking about ways I would have played the hand differently, I increase the amount of experience I'm getting per hour.

Away from the table, I'm often not motivated to read books or the two plus two forums. Plenty of people will tell you experience and playing by "feel" is more important than reading a book. Most of these people just don't have the motivation in them to actually page through a book and learn from it. I'm not going to continue the debate between understanding the game theoretically, or understanding it through some mystic power called "feel," but I know that studying the game improves MY results.

Finally, I sometimes need motivation to play online. There have been month long stretches where I play a great deal of poker, but spend very little time online. I've said in my last post that I definately make more money with smaller variance (a technical term for the amount of swinginess in results) online. Another benefit is that I primarily play Limit Hold'em online, and only No Limit Hold'em live, so playing online is my only avenue for improving my Limit game.

Well recently, I've been focused at my live games, spent a lot of time studying the game, and have logged more online hands than any period of time in my career. This is all in addition to returning to a three-meal-per-day schedule, eating healthier, improving my posture, beginning a work-out routine, improving the way I dress, and spending a majority of my waking hours while the sun is up. This motivation is refreshing and it's given me confidence and made my mind feel sharp. Mark (the profound online pro who asked me why I needed motivation to play poker) told me he played more poker once he started working a full-time job then he did in the months before that, explaining "productivity breeds productivity." I'm starting to buy in to that concept, believing motivation is a full package, and I'm starting to witness the results.

Dilemma's in my life: sleep vs cleaning, fast food vs cooking, cooking vs a ninth trip to an Asian food restaurant with Eston of the week, sleep vs poker, poker vs job, and poker vs school. But no other dilemma has had me second guessing myself over the past year as online poker vs live poker.
A lot of people out there would explain that the choice should be an easy one, but half of those people vote online poker while the other would vote live poker.
The fact is, I can make more money and see smaller fluctuations online by playing smaller stakes against much worse competition and multiplying that profit by a ton more hands per hour.
So why, when I'm recieving one of a handful of calls soliciting my presence at a live no limit game, do I often pass up that opportunity to make more money in the comfort of my apartment where I can blast the recently released White Stripes album or watch Pulp Fiction and reply "I'll head over soon"?
Well, I still haven't solved this dilemma so I don't have the answer to that question, but one of the key factors is the group of characters I've met at the poker table.

One of the most important friendships I've established over the past year has been with Eston Brown (whose highly entertaining blog, where you can read more about the interesting dynamics of live, underground, Austin poker, can be found at eston.blogspot.com).
You'd imagine the world of full time poker playing can be filled with kill or be killed politics. Sometimes I feel that that's true: poker is a game of zero-sum competition that puts emphasis on deception and keeps score with money, something most people consider extremely important and some people put at the top of their priority list. Additionally, the Austin poker community isn't too big; there is a small amount of people who play a lot of poker. When I show up to a game, I expect to know nine out of ten of the players. There seems to be a few people out there that take that emphasis on deception and competition and knowledge that they will play plenty more hours with most of their opponents and assume that means they are in constant competition away from the table. In isolated times, I've felt betrayed and decieved by people I considered friends. When a serious poker player is friendly to me, it is not out of the question that his friendliness has been coldly calculated as a profitable play.

My friendship with Eston has definately been a profitable play for both of us. We have a very similar view of the game and our knowledge of it approaches equality. When we drive to games together, watch the Spurs crush their competition, or enjoy ANOTHER sushi meal we discuss hands and theory. I've been playing for about two and a half years. During that time, I've spent a lot of time reading books, reviewing hands, and thinking about theory, but I've improved more over the past few months than any other period time span of equal length, and I can attribute that improvement to the time I've spent with Eston. I'll say with confidence that he's improved greatly during this period of time as well. Doyle Brunson says that one of the main reasons he became a legendary poker player is that after a Texas road game, Sailor Roberts, Amarillo Slim, and he (all World Series of Poker Champions) would spend hours in their motel discussing hands played. Howard Lederer worked his way towards poker greatness by playing among future greats Eric Seidel, Dan Harrington, and others at the Mayfair gaming club in Manhattan and arguing over optimal lines at a bar afterwards. Perhaps some day people will say "Did you know Eston Brown and Mike Kovner used to play together at underground clubs in Austin and improved their games by shooting the breeze at Kerbey Lane, Starseeds and Mi Madre's afterwards?"

Perhaps as important as Eston's positive influence on my wallet is his positive influence on my psyche. Having an ally in dog-eat-dog war has definately made it much more fun. But this business relationship has evolved into something more: we now discuss sports, life, and everything in between.

Originally I had planned on writing about a few of the characters I know, but I went long on the community in general and Eston, so you'll have to wait to learn about some of the other schmoes I've taken five hundred dollar pots off of.

Hello and welcome to my poker blog.

If you have happened by luck upon this blog you are probably wondering "Who is this Mike Kovner? What is so special about his poker career that I'd want to visit this blog over the dozens of other poker blogs whose writers are more succesful, more proficient with the English language, and better looking?"
To answer the first question: I am student at the University of Texas. For the past 10 months or so, poker has been the way I've earned my spending money (and for the summer, the way I pay the bills).
Why should you read my blog? The plan is to not post updates filled with tournaments reports, analysis of hands, or bankroll status. Instead, I plan to write about the issues surrounding poker as a source of income. Everyone has read stories of the top pros touring the country and visiting casinos and of internet pros grinding out twelve tables of 5/10, but I bring a different perspective. While I do play poker online, I also spend a lot of time at some of the underground poker clubs in Austin. I have met numerous interesting characters and I have plenty of entertaining stories.
So, if you are not bored yet, keep coming back and reading my posts, and I'll try to keep you interested.