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.
Such a cold, calculating post about our friendship Mike. What about all the nights I've held you close, wiped away your fretful tears, told you everything was going to be okay? If this is all I am to you, then you can't stay at my place when Sarah inevitably kicks your degenerate ass out next year.
When I first met Mike, he came to me and told me, "Eston, you gotta help me with my life, there are these three things I'm just TERRIBLE at. I can't fuck to save my life, I get picked on all the time because I'm so skinny, and I just keep donating to all these guys at the local cardroom. Can you help me?" Judging by this post, I guess I only helped Mike improve on one of these things...although I did give him some hard lessons in man-man butt love, but I guess this is just a straight up poker blog huh Mike?
