Talking Poker, Making Money and Drinking Beer While Watching Sports on T.V : Channel your inner Uncle Bob

Living in Vegas is a lot like Groundhog day every day you see the same thing over and over. A group flies into town all with various strategies about how make their Vega trip profitable. There is the intellectual, who studies the numbers and determines the games that give him the best edge. There is the disciplined money manager, who has set his budget and knows just how much he has to loose. He is followed closely by the Veteran. The guy who has been to this town many times and knows all the tricks about how to beat the games. And then you have Uncle Bob, Uncle Bob doesn’t know any of this shit. All he knows is that he has some money in his pocket and the courage that goes along with hours of comped drinks He’s not thinking about strategy, discipline or secret tactics he just wants action. Out of this quartet you know who comes out the winner time after time? Uncle Bob, he puts $10 in the machine and hits at 500 to 1.

About a month ago a friend of mine told me this analogy and it got us thinking about how this relates to poker, and we realized that sometimes Uncle Bob sits down at the poker table too. We all have seen the drunk at the table who gets his chips in the middle whenever he feels like it, often times in terrible situations. He has A-3 his opponent has Aces and Uncle Bob just solves that problem by flopping the wheel with the nut flush redraw. After hours of sitting and watching Uncle Bob pound the game it’s natural to feel frustrated and upset that such and inferior opponent can get so lucky. But before we can hate Bob we must first understand the reason’s why he seems to win so much. Those other guys that came to town spent so much time analyzing and figuring out ways to win that they lost site of why we play the game in the first place. Before we ever read a book about 4betting or semi bluffing most off us sat down at the table for one reason and one reason only…. To have fun. The game was all about kicking back having a few beers and playing some cards with friends of family. No one was sitting there criticizing our every decision, there weren’t a million house rules, and dealers? Hell we just dealt ourselves. The game was fun and as a result of this we played more loose and relaxed.

Maybe instead of being frustrated with Uncle Bob we need to learn how to embrace our inner Uncle Bob, I’m not saying we need to start shipping it with A-3 but we need to learn how to enjoy the game even if we aren’t winning. We all play poker for different reasons but the one thing that is certain is that it is a game of choice. No one has ever been forced to play poker, even tournament players who are in makeup with their backers have input about when they want to play. Sometimes the game beats us up so much that we forget about why we are really playing. The next time your stuck in a game and are going through a bad run of cards, instead of beating yourself up and becoming more and more frustrated by the fish to your left. Step back take a deep breath and ask yourself a simple question… What would Uncle Bob do?