A philosophical question...

So, I have recently heard some very elaborate and emphatic arguments on the topic of the nature of the game of poker. Specifically, the argument being purported is that poker has not deviated from its raison d'etre, and remains solely valid as a method of gambing for personal gain, for specific "stakes", and therefore remains inherently not a game of fun but rooted solely in the unhealthy side of gambling.

I disagree, and I feel that I've got to say so somewhere (since I don't usually have the chance to directly counter the people who purport the opposite). I enjoy poker as a game in which the object is to amass the largest portion of the available chips as possible, but real gain beyond the internal context of the game is NOT necessary in order for me to enjoy it. I liken it to many other games, especially many board games, in which other tokens are being amassed, whether they be fake money in Monopoly and its cousins, or other racing games where distance along a trail is being amassed (a measurable progress for comparison, just like money or chips, and thus still the same game philosophy). I would equally like to get together with a group of friends to play a friendly game for no external stakes as heading to the casino...

...unfortunately, there is another side to this. While I take the game seriously enough to keep it strategically equitable and challenging, I have noticed that many other people do not if there are not stakes attached. The result is that many friendly games, and especially those available with strangers and the general public, are almost unplayable for the non-strategical risktaking of the other players. When there is another game waiting as soon as you lose and nothing to be won but the fun of the playing and the bragging rights of the win, the result is usually a large body of players who will go "all-in" with almost any two cards, fully prepared to shrug off the deserved loss when called and just start a new game, but also aware that people trying to play the game in its honest, strategic, intended manner are usually going to be unable or unwilling to call the all-in, even though they know it to be nothing but a blind and foolish bluff.

Since my friends are usually far too busy for a friendly game outside of the planned monthly tournaments, the only options for friendly play and practice are with strangers, and the only source of stranger competitors are casinos and online... and the only no-stakes games are rife with the nonsense described above. It's pretty frustrating.

Am I very unique and alone in my enjoyment of the game for the game's sake? Is it really the case that almost all other poker players out there are only playing for the external reward of personal gain beyond the context of the internal game? It is inarguably a depressing prospect...

A pattern emerges...

It has been a long time since the last post, for several reasons. Perhaps most central and important is that this school year has been a bit of a monster for me, with lots of moving parts (indeed, lots of highlights and successes resulted, but that doesn't change how busy and harrowing it was). The effect of all that is that I've played a lot less poker outside of the Frog Tournaments over the past year. I don't know that I've been to the casino to play since last year, when Pam and I stopped through to cash in some of my video poker winnings from the card to help us get through a rough financial time; similarly I've been spending most of my hobby-available time dealing with the peripheral needs of my regular committments and recovering from such in much more brain-free vegitative methods, so I haven't played many online tournaments at all this year (none at all in 2006 thus far). Very unfortunately, we're heading into a no-income summer after two expensive setbacks (the car accident requiring us to buy a new car and our ferret Taz contracting lymphoma and needing $1,000 surgery), so I'm not optimistic that I'll have much of a chance to play over the summer, either at the casino or online, either.

So, since last summer, it's been pretty much only the Frog Tournaments. As a result, I think my own play has been a bit more erratic, weak, and desperate in those tournaments, and it's shown. When I've got the knowledge to play well but not the composure to weather the whims of the cards in the long term, the result is that I can manage good finishes some of the time, but take bad beats and the associated early exits the other part of the time, rather than hanging on through the dry spells to remain at least in contention.

It's actually emerged as a bit of a pattern, fairly consistently alternating. Observe my collapse (any top 3 finish is cited as a win for the sake of this argument):

W June 2005 (1st)
W July 2005 (2nd)
W August 2005 (3rd)
W September 2005 (3rd)
L October 2005
W November 2005 (2nd)
X December 2005 (no tourney)
W January 2006 (1st)
L February 2006
W March 2006 (2nd)
L April 2006
X May 2006

I haven't had back-to-back months without a win until now (although I'll grant you it's because there is no tourney this month, not because I lost a tourney this month). The real challenge will be this... if the pattern continues, I'm due for a "win" in the last tourney of the season just like last year, but then a "loss" in the annual tournament on July 8th. Since weekends this summer don't look good for the likelyhood that I'll be available when the next tourneys are planned (especially since the pressure will be on to make an August tournament happen later in the month due to the run of the summer Shakespeare play Dustin is directing), it might be a poker-free summer after the annual tournament, so the pressure will really be on to not let the pattern keep it going and thwap me out with a disappointing finish in July. At the same time, of course, I need a win in two weeks in order to fend off Dustin's threat to pull ahead in the regular season standings at the last minute, and it needs to be a win in a higher place than Dustin (even a win one behind him would tie us in the standings).

Too bad I've neither the time nor the bucks to get any practice in!