Waiting: Airports not so different from poker rooms

By Mark Lasser

Playing poker all over the country requires a certain amount of travel. So, today, like many other poker players, I find myself waiting in an airport. It’s sort of like being at a poker table. “Huh?” you’re thinking. How is waiting in an airport like sitting at a poker table? Well, there are some things about dealing with travel that are in your control and some things that aren’t. Granted, I never get patted down by guys in smurf blue shirts in the card rooms.

In both scenarios, things often don’t go as planned and one has to adapt. In the airport, a flight gets delayed, gates change and connections are missed. As a traveler, I need to anticipate problems, have alternatives planned, and try to be one step ahead of every other passenger trying to accomplish the same thing I am; to get home or get to my next destination. At the poker table, everyone’s trying to go home a winner and take each other’s chips. Players come into and leave games changing the nature of the tables and one has to adapt to new playing styles and chip styles all the time.

The poker table has more similar challenges. For example, there are issues about having control and ceding control. I can’t control the cards I’m dealt, but I can decide whether or not to play them. I can make decisions about checking and betting and about how much to bet and yet I still have to react to what everyone else at the table is doing as well. At the airport I can chose flights with higher percentages of on-time arrivals and with better luggage-handling capabilities, but weather and mechanical problems may come up despite my best efforts to avoid them.

And of course, a major skill needed to succeed/survive both airports and poker is patience. A lack of patience and the need to be in every hand is maybe the most common and severe weakness in many players games. When playing online, I used to hunt for players with very high percentages in terms of the number of pots they played. Sure, the loose player will hit more flops since they’re playing more flops. This means there’s more volatility in their game than in mine.

It also means that when I have strength pre-flop I’m likely to be facing weak cards by them. If I make a flush, it will probably be better than their flush. If I make a straight, it will probably be higher than their straight. If they chase and catch, they may not be paid off correct odds, but I will.

How many times have you or another player been in an aggressive hand with good but not powerful cards only to lose a pot and then on the very next hand be dealt Aces or Kings? I’m not saying you have to wait for only the super premium hands and be all nitty. I am saying that playing K4 suited or J8 off-suit may be a bad idea against two raisers, especially when you consider the benefits of just waiting a little longer for something to play. I love it when I muck or fold marginal cards and then get dealt the real goods.

I used to worry about not getting action if I played too tight. Now I realize, half the players don’t pay any attention and most who do will call you anyway because they either want the action or somehow always think I’m bluffing. Well, they’re boarding my flight so I gotta go. See you at the tables.

- Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can hear him talk about gambling and casinos every Friday at 5 PM on KEZW AM 1430. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.