CF POKER

The poker playing pecking order is kept under tight control by the gospel of E.V. EV means expected value and due to the high variance of this game expected value must be realized over many thousands of hands. In other words, what may take years in the live tournament arena, can take hours when played at multiple tables online. This is one of the reasons why young guns are picking up the world of the poker player and shaking it by the scruff of the neck.

If you think of EV from this angle – the variance factor is often mitigated by a run of bad luck and a player with less ability will eventually get ground under, even after having a shot at the big time. This is not happening however and players such as Daniel Cates, Viktor Blom, Tom Dwan and quite a few others are getting on hot streaks and staying there. In terms of Cates for example, what makes his performance so noticeable is the fact that most of the money he has won has been in heads-up confrontations with multi-millionaire, skilled celebrity, professional poker players. He was the top online earner for 2010 and he is only 21 years old; this fact is getting people’s attention!

Men with names such as Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Ilari Sahamies, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, and even young top gun – Tom “Durrr” Dwan are top-flight pros. They are the players who have turned poker into a celebrity enterprise worth millions and millions of dollars. But players such as Daniel Cates and Viktor Blom are challenging the whole concept of EV, which is how success in this game, over extended periods of time is measured. They are coming in fast and aggressively, risking millions and playing against poker royalty; leaving the game with hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of celebrity money.

Cates must have played with all 20 of the top ranked names in the game for example and Blom is, and has been doing much the same. The recipe for their success is not playing in massive prize game televised poker events which is where Ivey, Negreanu, Lederer, Siedel and so on have made their names and their money.

The proposition for young poker players is this – there are so many players online so the chances of winning are a long shot. Every players’ actions are as unpredictable as the cards, and the chances of winning are about the same as winning a small lottery. However online poker players such as Cates and also Blom have pressed the advantage, by grinding and this is a term used to describe playing and winning over an extended period of time. In the case of these youngsters the reward is no longer something in which patience plays a role. Thousands of hands played over multi-tables teaches them as much in months as the older guard learns in years. They also have the benefit of an early training in computer games which develops a predatory interest as well as lightening fast reflexes; so EV is theirs in no time at all.