Three Types of Players and How Young Grinders Live
There are basically three types of players that grind the 2/5 game in Vegas. They comprise:
1) Retired (60+) guys - they play like super-nits and make a few thousand a year to add to their social security. Either extremely nice or extremely cranky, depending on their life experience. Probably make up about 30% of player pool.
2) Guys like me (20-30 year olds) - Trying to make it into the bigger games but having moderate success at the midstakes level. Probably another 30% of players
3) Businessmen/Tourists - Play recreationally and are usually pretty solid but have a few leaks which are exploitable - 40% of player pool.
So anyway, I fall into the second category. Walking into one of the four big casinos (Wynn, Bellagio, Caesar’s Venetian), I usually recognize about 30% of the crowd (categories #1 and 2 don’t really play at the same time of day). I have been hanging out with some of the young guys and it is pretty interesting to see the lifestyle that they lead.
Almost all of them are successful players but have substantial life leaks. They started playing poker at a young age and it is my steadfast belief that playing too much poker, especially early on in life, has serious damaging effects on your life. Not only does the stress from poker slowly degrade and damage your brain (Brandon Adams’ words, not mine), but playing early on can erode social skills as well.
I went to Tryst (nightclub at the Wynn) with a group of these guys the other night. I am no ladies man (see my other non-poker blog for proof of this), but I can kind of hold my own in a place like a club. I made my way to the dance floor and started talking to some girls. I occasionally looked back at my friends, and all these guys were either standing awkwardly on the side of the club or downing drinks for like an hour at the bar.
One of my friends disappeared and came back an hour later dejected. We asked him what was wrong and he told us he had sneaked off to the pit and lost $3000 in an hour. This is the same guy who had won $1400 in blackjack in the hour before we were at the club. Two of the guys left in the next half-hour to go buy prostitutes. There are tons of them in the clubs, pretending to flirt with you one second and asking if you have a room/cash in the casino the next.
One guy asked me if I wanted to go to the Spearmint Rhino, and I politely declined. He shrugged and headed off by himself.
I hope I don’t turn out like this in a year.
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Comments
Hehehe… well at least your wedding day will have a happy ending!
Next time I am in Vegas I will take you out for drinks and we will try and find you a nice girl!
i’ve only played live about 3 times and every time i played the atmosphere creeped me out. to see degenerates in person is much more saddening then playing with graphical pictures of people online.
i just felt a lot of greed, addiction and pent up aggression in the air.
i just make believe that everyone online is just having a go for fun at poker for half an hour here or there and that the regulars are gentle nerds.
Great post about Orel Hershiser on your non-poker blog! I totally agree with what you are saying about kids that start serious poker (or any sort of gambling) at a young age… especially if they have experienced some success. I have a good friend that started out doing some sports betting during university. He met with a lot of success… so much so that he dropped out of school and sportsbet full time. He was rolling around in the cash and he did not understand the value of money, much less have any idea of how to save it or heaven forbid invest it.
For example, one day he decided he was going to buy a nice TV. So he went to the Sony store and asked for their best TV (at the time was about $7000), which of course they didn’t have them in stock… but that’s ok he would take the floor model. Then he decided we wanted to buy some DVD’s to watch on his new tv… so he bought 300 DVD’s (about $6000)… many of which still remain unopened today years later.
Having that much money at a young age causes you not only to lose your grip on reality, but also not to learn some of lifes valuable lessons. Ya, it might be easy to regularly visit the massage parlour for a happy ending… but is that going to help you meet your future wife?
What are you doing to avoid this trap?