Why We Play

Hey Everyone,

I have often talked to my friends who play poker about our motivation to play. These conversations usually occur after a bad stretch of losing or a horrific beat received. We lament about our luck and why we even continue to play in the first place. Sometimes we critique our opponents play and other times we criticize our own. After moments like these I have to make sense of it all. Why am I here and what am I doing with this poker thing?

A person plays poker for a few core reasons. The first and most obvious is monetary gain. Gaining money using your wits alone is a very enticing objective indeed. For those of us who grind everyday at jobs that we sweat and toil at, sitting at a poker table and raking in a days worth pay in one hand is an idea we can't help but desire. Winning a sum of money that gives us permanent security is a worthy goal and a dream many of us strive for. In short, money may not equal happiness but it can give you peace of mind.

Speaking of peace of mind, what is more satisfying and secure than good company from great friends. Many of us play for those moments with the people we care about, where we can bring the personal connections we have as friends and family to the poker table. I can speak from experience that there is nothing more fulfilling than busting a family member or a buddy in a home game. No matter who we are outside of life, at the poker table we all get dealt the same amount of cards from the same deck, and connecting at a base level is an essential human need and an integral part of how the game of poker functions. You have to interact if you want to play the game.

Basic human interaction evolves when two or more people compete for a prize. The bigger the prize or the more worth given to what is being played for, the more intense the interaction can be. Winning can be a drug. A need to be the best can be the sole drive of a human being. Some people play to be the best. There is only one place for them, that's 1st. They study the game, compete against the best and constantly strive to achieve to be on top. The money is nice, friends to chat with are great, but the core of who they are is the person who longs to be is champion. They want the recognition first over all else, from themselves and others.

Most of us fall in the first two categories. They play for money or the social interaction that poker brings. They know they will never be the best. Their priorities are elsewhere and poker is just a game. It has a means and an end. It passes the time and the game gives them a thrill and then they move on. Like an amusement ride, when the ride stops they get off and look for the next ride to thrill them.

Then there are those of us who know there is something more to this game. It's shown on the surface with the million dollar payouts and the bracelets. It's more than that though, it's freedom. It's personal fulfillment and lifelong security. It is a dream that could become reality. You can be the best, have financial security and be able to enjoy the company of friends and loved ones without the interruptions of financial obligations that separate you. You could hold your wife in your arms and not worry about the rat race tomorrow, there no longer is one. One day you could wake up and realize that your dream is now a reality. Every time you sit down at a table you can sense it, and you begin the hunt. Will you stay true to who you are or one day give up and become one of the other two types of people? Only you truly know who you are and where you will end up.

Rough Around the Edges?

The smallest increases gained over time can become huge gains over a lifetime. Every percent on a loan over the course of thirty years equals thousands of more dollars you will spend than the cost of the original purchase. Each percent is another hour you work, another moment spent toiling instead of living life. These small percents make men rich and keep men poor. Life is all about the small edges you can gain over the next guy.

In poker these small edges are there but not always so evident to most. There are many aspects of equity of a pot. How many chips you have, your hand strength, how likely are they to fold, and so on and so forth, etc. etc. The size of the blinds and antes usually dictates what we are willing to risk. Will I risk my whole stack when I have 100 big blinds on a coin flip? Probably not. Will I risk my whole stack on a coin flip when I have 12 or less big blinds? Absolutely. Will I risk ten big blinds to move a spot up in the money without being at risk myself? Most of the time, yes. Will I jam k5 suited in the small blind when we both only have 14 big blinds? Yeah, I will.

For some of you this is obvious. For others they ask why? Why would you risk your whole tournament or stack on that spot where you only have a slight edge or you slightly have the worst of it? The answer is I will take any edge I can get. Over time those small advantages will turn into bigger ones and my bankroll will benefit from it. Over a lifetime I know those small gains will turn into giant ones. Without those edges I lose my advantage over most of you and I play a lot of break even poker. I don't want to look back on my poker career in thirty years and know I never made it because I only managed to keep my head above water.

If you played your entire lifetime and only managed to one percent return on investment, you would not end out great, but you would end out good enough to buy some things you never would of otherwise. If you increased that by five percent, you have found some security in your investment and got a sound return on your money. Once you get above ten percent on your investment you start to become free. Your money works for you and you move beyond security and start to experience freedom. In my opinion, freedom to live our lives is what every human being strives for in the first place.

You may see me make mistakes at the poker table. We all do. Mistakes can be costly. I try not to make many of them. Remember this everyone: The biggest mistake you can make as a poker player is not having the courage to get your money in the middle when you have the best of it. This is an absolute statement but won't yield you an absolute result. Sometimes you will lose when you had the best of it. Not every time you had the best of it will you be getting it in. Overall though, failure to play the small edges in poker will not only cost you money you will never see, but also security and freedom you will never experience, as well as dreams that never became reality. Just something to think about.

Be Well
BigJoeJones

Felt Fanatics Tournaments This Week

Hello Everyone,

I apologize for being a little late on the tournament announcements. I had a few busy days leading into my birthday yesterday and I could not quite catch up to all I had to do :P Raise your hand if you just love landscaping! Then raise your hand again if you love doing it for more than ten hours in a row, lol. So the lawn looks great and I'm sore and the wife is not scowling at me quite as much anymore... so that must mean that BigJoeJones has some spare time and some tournaments to announce!

We have a couple of good options this week to play here this week. I encourage you to play them all, especially Doyle's Room and PitBull Poker. We are affiliates for both and your involvement on those sites helps us out here at Felt Fanatics. If you are going to deposit, please click the banner on the side of the web page. Speaking of banners on the side of the web page, PitBull Poker is offering ten dollars free just to check them out! Yes just sign up for an account with PitBull Poker and they will give you ten dollars! If you like free money and you play poker and you want to play with us here at Felt Fanatics, you have no excuse now not to sign up! Just click the banner on the side of the web page that is advertising the ten free dollars for PitBull Poker.

I'm gonna list the tourneys below in a simple format for this week. The Doyle's and Pitbull pokers need a minimum number to continue or we won't be able to continue offering those tournaments. That means we really need your participation! Please come out and show some Felt Fanatic spirit!

We have two tournaments this Tuesday...

What: Fanatical Tuesdays
When: 16:00 @ FTP
Format: NLHE
Buyin: 1.50
Password: fanatical


Here's Doyle's room adding $25.00 to a Feltfanatics buy in tournament


when:tuesday june 9th at 8pm
where:Doyles
buy in:2.20 with 25 added
password:ffwin
good luck all...don't have a Doyles account?just use the banner on this site plus if i,m not mistaken i,m running a contest for depositors



Heres Pitbull Poker adding 25.00 to a Feltfanatics game


Type of Event: $1 Buy In with $25 Added

Name of Event: Feltfanatics June #1
Date: june 13th

Start Time: 8pm est

Password: ffrules

Min Players: 10



I hope to see you all there :D That's all for this week! Be well and be good to each other.

BigJoeJones

FF News

Hello Everyone,

My name is BigJoeJones. I am a newly appointed monitor for FeltFanatics and I am also the representative for all clans here on FeltFanatics. I'm very excited to be here and I wanted to take a moment and introduce myself to everyone and talk to you a little about what lies ahead for myself at the site and what lies ahead for the site itself. So away we go!

I intend to be a very active moderator and I value your feedback as members of this community. A lot of the things that lie ahead depend on member participation to succeed. I'm asking for your participation, feedback and your ideas because without you, FeltFanatics is just a forum. We want to grow into a large community! Without you, growth is not possible.

I will be coming up with a schedule of real money buyin tournaments for FeltFanatics for the month of June. We will play three times a week and will play assorted formats and they will be on Full Tilt Poker for the time being. Once we can achieve a sustainable following for them, I will start implementing a rankings system and we will look into prize options (That is not a guarantee of any kind, just a promise by me that we will look into it :D). I will have that schedule out and completed by June 7th and will post it on this blog and elsewhere on the forum. Everyone should have no problem obtaining information about our tournaments. As for the freerolls, I will include them in the schedule when we decide to hold them.

I will be holding two tournaments weekly for my clan. The first one is TPR Weekly Joust and it is every Wednesday at 19:00 at Full Tilt Poker. Buyin is $1.50 and format is NLHE. Password is bashem. The second one is The Kings Table and is every Thursday at 22:00 at Full Tilt Poker. Buyin is $1.50 and the format is HA (Pot Limit Omaha AND Pot Limit Holdem). Password is bigfeast. All members of FeltFanatics are cordially invited and I encourage you to attend. I wish to get to know some of you and what better place to do that than the place we all love, the poker table.

We plan to have a blog category on the forum in the near future. You will be able to write just about anything on a daily basis. I hope this area of the forum grows exponentially as it encourages dialogue, the exchange of information and the ability to express yourself intelligently in an informal setting. It will also give us all a better chance to communicate and know each other better through the blogs themselves and our comments on them. Keep your eyes peeled for blogs in the future!

I would encourage of all you to spread the word about FeltFanatics. Invite people to join. Tell those you know online or in person about our forum. Our community is your community. We want to be filled with your friends, family, acquaintances and loved ones. Start a clan and then start recruiting members and invite them to the forum. Invite them to our tournaments and let them know what's going on here at FeltFanatics. A fire starts with one single spark. Everyone is important and everyone needs to be involved. This is your forum and I want it to be the greatest spot to play and exchange information on the net. I hope to see and hear from many of you soon.

Be safe and well this week.

BigJoeJones

Watching a Community Grow: An Introduction to Clans.

One could say that a community is a group of persons committed to a common goal or purpose. In my eyes, that is a pretty decent definition of what a community is to me. When I think of a community, I see people who want to be together, working together and growing together with a greater purpose in mind. Ideas and information are exchanged, each member has distinct responsibilities and functions to perform, accountability starts with the leadership and ends with each individual member. In short, a community is an idea that is personified through it's members and carried out through their actions.

We are starting a new community here at FeltFanatics. Our goal is to share information, grow as players and people, in membership, and make money individually and as a collective. We also come together as a community to play together and show our support of the site and the forum. It is that pride and sense of community and our need as human beings to come together in family sized groups that is the foundation for what is called a clan and what I believe will help grow our membership base for the future.

What is a clan? Simply put, a clan is a group of people who congregate within a community, as a community themselves. For instance, if you attend college and you are part a fraternity, a fraternity is similar to a clan. It functions within the collegiate community, yet has its own goals and structures. The backbone of most colleges are fraternities and they are a valuable asset to the communities they serve. They provide fellowship, entertainment, support and mentoring to their members. Many members enjoy fellowship and affiliation to their fraternities for their whole lives. The ranks of many successful communities are filled with these sub communities (clans). Look at the armed services, churches and civic groups and you will see respective clans in each organization. Clans are an essential part of how we socially function as human beings.

The reason why I am talking to you about this is that I am very happy to announce that clans are coming to FeltFanatics. The ownership has been very gracious and is going to embrace this concept and make it an integral part of this community. Clans will be another great benefit of membership here at FeltFanatics. Each clan will hold private tournaments, have their own sub forum, and offer their own sense of community and fellowship to their members. The clans as a whole will have their own collective sub forum as well. As the clans of FeltFanatics grow, we will compete against one another in seasonal competitions. Being in a clan will provide the community as a whole with rich options for tournament play, a valuable way to congregate with friends and enjoy their friendships.

Any member can join or form a clan. To join a clan all you have to do is notify the clan leader you wish to join and at that point you can discuss membership. You aren't guaranteed membership by asking, most clans have guidelines and policies they wish you to follow and if you can't abide by those guidelines, you probably won't be accepted for membership. That being said, most clans guidelines are common sense and most have some basic moral behaviors they wish you to follow, such as: treat others with respect, cheating is prohibited, don't beg for money etc etc. Most people have no problems abiding by those rules, so it isn't an issue. In addition, all clans strictly adhere to and abide by all the policies and terms of service of this forum.

If you are interested in forming your own clan you will need to contact me, BigJoeJones at FeltFanatics. I am the representative for all clans. You will need to tell me why you want to form a clan, what basic functions you will serve within the forum, your clan name and who will be your clan leaders. I will discuss with the ownership your desire to form a clan and within a few days you will know our decision. Again, we will use a common sense approach to forming clans and will always put priority on what is in the best interest of the forum.

I am proud to announce that The Poker Royals will be the inaugural clan here on FeltFanatics. I am the leader of the clan and would be happy to talk to any members of the forum about joining the clan. In the weeks to come more clans will form and your options will increase, so I encourage you to think it over before you make any decisions. The Poker Royals hold two weekly tourneys on FTP and talk exclusively on Yahoo messenger, my screen name is BigJoeJones there as well. I look forward to talking to many of you soon, those who wish to join the clan and those who wish to form their own, and am very excited for what the future holds.

Be Well,
BigJoeJones

Pathological Poker Player?

Pathological Poker

Is it fair to ask someone who plays primarily, or exclusively, poker whether he is a compulsive gambler?

Is poker even gambling? Does a person who plays day and night and wins, making a good living, have a gambling problem?

Of course, he might have a different problem. He might be a workaholic.

The tests that have been developed to uncover gambling problems are pretty good. The most famous is the Gamblers Anonymous 20 Questions. These ask about things like gambling interfering with work and home life, feeling guilty, being unable to quit, breaking the law to get money to gamble, and thinking of suicide. Most compulsive gamblers answer yes to at least seven.

But these tests are not specifically designed for poker players. For example, number 14, "Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?" won’t work with home games. I have never heard of a social game where players did not go beyond the agreed upon end time, for "one last round."

Poker has gotten the attention of mental health professionals. But many of these do not play, or if they do, they may not appreciate how different poker can be. Someone who plays once a month in a social game is different from someone who plays every day as a professional. Games played in private homes are different from those played in hotel rooms, which are not the same as licensed card rooms.

And then there is the Internet. You can play for free, for micro-stakes of 1 and 2 cents, as well as for big money. A player who plays occasionally at one table online is not the same as one who plays four, or even eight, tables at a time, all the time.

To help poker players determine whether they might have a gambling problem, I have created my own test. I don't claim it is entirely scientific. But it is not made from scratch. I've looked at the literature and discussed this with professionals who treat compulsive gamblers.

I am interested to know what you think. Some of these questions may be way off. Let me know if any seem simply wrong, or don't tell us anything. Or if I left anything out.

I don't know how many you need to answer to be a compulsive gambler. My guess is that if you are answering yes a lot, you should call a gambling hot line, like 1-800-GAMBLER, to see if you have a problem.

Questions for Poker Players:

1. Do you play for stakes that you know are too high?

2. Do you sometimes feel you can't quit because you are behind?

3. Do you sometimes feel you can't quit because you are ahead?

4. When you lose, is it often because of bad beats rather than your own bad play?

5. Do you often get angry at other players at the table, for such things as slowing down the game?

6. Have you gone on tilt more than once?

7. When you are losing, do you increase your bets to try to get even?

8. Do you often stay in too many hands?

9. Do you drink a lot, sometimes going on binges?

10. Do you sometimes forget important social obligations, because you are playing?

11. Have you misled or lied to your family, friends or at work about how much poker you play?

12. Are you increasingly using the ATM?

13. Have you lied to get money to play poker?

14. Do you feel bad about things you have done because of poker?

15. Are you more interested in poker than sex?

Fighting the Good Fight

There has been a huge activity in the legal world of online gaming in the U.S.A. as of late.Barney Frank has introduced a new bill that is designed to freeze current UIGEA restrictions and give U.S. residents the right to play poker online.Barney Frank the current Massachussets representative is introducing a bill that will halt current UIGEA restrictions and give the Department of Treasury the licensing and regulating authority, and provides for the consumer, protections the gambling ban does not offer, including age and identification verification, responsible gaming systems, and measures against money laundering and cheating.Of course we knew all along as soon as the government could make a buck on it,we stood to see a change in the laws,and this bill also allows tax on winnings, players used to pocketing winnings on a regular basis without reporting them to Uncle Sam will now find their take a little lighter. Frank includes clauses that require the online gambling operator to set aside taxes against winnings before paying patrons.The bill will adress age verification issues and,and fair gaming practices along with measures against money laundering and cheating.Now as to the how n why outside countries should feel the need to be licensed and governed by an outside authority,remains to be seen...i imagine the the profits of allowing U.S. residents to gamble far outweighs the any hinderence to the casino,but will this further open a door where all countries will expect the same courtesy...this remains to be seen...to me it seems unfair that a land based casino in Monte Carlo{for instance}doesnt have to get any kind of licensing from the U.S. but if the same casino opens an online casino suddenly the U.S. expects to get revenue and have a say in licensing...whats next state and local licensing also?Though i agree we need strict regulations and fair practices in online gaming,i also feel the approach is narrow in its view of looking at it thru the eyes of only the U.S.,instead a consortium of countries needing to ban togather and form an alliance and create a world wide commission,that has a focus on gaming licensing and regulations on a global context.As for taxing...this i knew would soon poke its ugly head,but i,m wondering if they will do the right thing and allow us the right to also claim losses...if the governments wants part of the players winnings they should also take in to account the losses the player incrues in getting his wins,and since the amount could easily be tracked..i feel this should be a major concern,as its not like the untraceable amounts a player gets in placing his cash in a land based casino...on the contrary,this also shows through deposits exactly what the player wins and losses are. So the player should not be taxed on the winnings of say $1000.00 win,without being able to claim the losses he has incrued also....taxing winnings without being able to offset the overall investment made by the player is short sighted and out of date.....if your going to tax winnings then its only fair that a player be allowed to write off his losses,in my humble opinion.What do you think?