Playing with the Fishes

I was in Aruba for the Aruba Classic Poker Championships some years back, I think it was 2005.

I remember because I flew there directly after the Monte Carlo Millions tournament in which I final tabled along with tournament greats John Juanda and Phil Ivey, the eventual winner.

After playing with those sharks I decided to look for clearer waters. I was invited onto a charter flight to Aruba with Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilley, Gavin Smith and a ton of other well known pros who were obviously thinking the same thing. The weather in Monte Carlo was cold, overcast and rainy. What better excuse then to head to a tropical island with plenty of fish!

I forget the production company's name, but they were shooting some show called "Extreme Poker" and the premise was to play poker in all these intense situations and environments. 30,000 feet in the air, skydiving, underwater scuba diving, etc. which made sense because at the time the general public couldn't get enough of poker and it seemed to be on multiple channels every night of the week. Anyway, once we were in Aruba, a few of us were invited to strap on some air tanks and head to the bottom of the Caribbean for a game of poker for this show. A special water proof deck of cards, a weighted down poker table, special chips, etc. were all put into play. 

Ironically, we were playing in an area where there were a lot of beautifully colored fish. And the locals warned us that the fish liked to nip at your hair. Especially if you had blonde hair. Turns out fish aren't that different then a lot of guys I know. In a nice twist of fate it was the fish eating at and playing with the poker pros instead of the other way around. And as long as you let them have their way, they would have their nibble and go about their way. 

If memory recalls, I think Phil Laak won that underwater tournament, but I could be wrong. Either way, he was on his way to collecting a lot of clams. It was so much fun, playing poker with the fishes. And the donkey's! We often laughed at ourselves and called ourselves donkey's for some of the plays we'd make and the things we did. I remember playing in a pretty big mix game, maybe 100-200 or 200-400 with Phil Hellmuth, Layne Flack and a bunch of the other regulars. Phil was steaming as he usually did back then at his unlucky plight as everybody poked fun at his tirades. I remember one game in particular I played with Mike Matusaw and Miami John in which they laughed at me and called me a donkey for not knowing even what I had in one particular hand. We all laughed so hard. That one even made t.v. 

In those days calling each other donkey's or fishes was fun because it was amongst peers and we all understood that from time to time, we are all donkey's or we were all fishes at one time or other. Today, however, it seems the tone is quite different. The game has taken on such a serious tone. The players a rank of stated superiority over others less skilled. The ego's inflated to the degree that some denigrate and put down publicly the unsuspecting new or novice player. The players who do this seem to have never learned one of the basic principles in playing with the fishes. "Don't tap the glass!" When you do it scares the fish and they swim away. 

I don't have much patience for so called "good players," who demean other players at the table and openly question their play just because they got lucky and won a hand or sucked out on them. It happened the other night in a game I was playing. The unsuspecting tourist who was buried in the game and he was looking at his hand to figure out what he had exactly. Another player in the game, who was not in that particular hand exclaimed "if you got a club in your hand you got a flush," something he obviously shouldn't have said, but neither player was very schooled at the game, in etiquette or the rules. The tourist then turned over his hand, in fact showing a club (probably a deuce lol) and won the pot. The so called "good player" started chastising the weaker players for not playing right and before you know it, the game that was good became bad as they both got up and left and a short time later the game broke. 

When a weak or novice player comes into a game, makes mistakes, or gets lucky, please encourage them don't ridicule or demean them. Realize that without fish, our poker game will be like our planet, dying. Not only for the sake and growth of the game, but also because it is the right thing to do. Remember when you came into the game and someone took a moment to help or show you something you didn't know or understand that improved your game. Think of those times as your debt, in which you should now pay it forward.

I'm not saying you have to coach and help others to beat you. Just be kind and understanding in that your fellow competitor is also on a journey you were once on. Be compassionate to someone who is learning the game and don't treat them as if they were a rag doll for you to beat up on and throw around for your own amusement. Sure it hurts to lose, but if you don't know how to lose or can't see the forest through the trees, then in the long run you'll have no chance anyway. For poker, like life, is naturally full of loss. Deal with it. For those that are too young or too narrow minded or near sighted to see this, then they are themselves the fish or the donkey that they claim to despise. Projecting out what they reject within. 

So, as you swim out to your next poker game, before you take a deep breath and dive beneath the surface, please remember; There will be some beautiful fish down there that may nibble at your head. Let them be and have their way with you and in so doing you'll enjoy the game a lot more. You may just come up to the surface like my friend Phil Laak, a winner with many more clams then you can carry.

Enjoy the waves,

Kenna