Are We Having Fun Yet? Do you have fun when you're playing poker?

My wife and I relish the limited opportunities we get to play poker in a brick-and-mortar casino. When we do have the chance, we try to maximize our fun as well as profits. Recently, I had only a couple of free hours to play and sat down in the first available hold'em seat at the Borgata in Atlantic City. I said to everyone at the table, "What's a good hand in this game?" In this situation, some people start drooling while I get a variety of answers from others, including, "The winning hand," "I don't know," "Aces," "Big pairs," "Deuce seven," "Queen 10," "You can play high cards," "Any hand can win," "There's no such thing as a bad hand, just bad flops," "It depends," "Is this your first time playing?" "Watch what everybody else plays," "You're kidding, right?" "You should tell us," and so on. I was perplexed when a guy sitting next to me with the utmost seriousness said, "You can't fool me, I know you're a professional who plays here every day." I was very surprised by his answer, and I laughed so hard that I thought tears were going to come from my eyes. It's a shame, but this very serious amateur player was not having fun. I started playing, and a little later asked, "Are we having fun yet?"

A few years ago I was playing in a two-way rotation game at Foxwoods in Connecticut, and a gentleman sitting next to me proposed adding an additional game to the rotation. Everyone agreed except one guy at the other end of the table. The gentleman asked me what the guy's response was at the other end of the table, and I told him that the man didn't want to play the game. The guy who didn't want to add the additional game was in a bad mood, was down some money, misunderstood what I said, and asked me if I had a problem. After we had a few exchanges of, "I don't have a problem, do you have a problem?" I said that I was there just to have some fun. I was astonished to hear the guy say, "Well, this isn't really fun for me, it's more like work." I suggested that he find a new line of work. This very serious professional poker player was not having fun. This wasn't consistent with a great column by Daniel Negreanu, in which he discussed that a pro should make sure that everybody's having a good time and looking forward to playing again in the future. A little later, I asked, "Are we having fun yet?"

At the tournaments at Foxwoods last December, I heard a great story from Alan Miller, a very successful entrepreneur and poker player. About 10 years ago while he was waiting for a seat in a $10-$20 hold'em game at The Mirage, he decided to take a seat in a $3-$6 hold'em game. After sitting down in the game, he quickly realized that there was a solid player in the game who strongly resembled one of the wealthiest men in the world, Bill Gates. Alan went to the poker room manager and asked if in fact that was Bill Gates and why he was playing $3-$6 hold'em. The poker room manager confirmed that it indeed was the multibillionaire, who was in town for a Microsoft conference, and suggested that he ask him why he was playing in that game. Alan respectfully asked Bill Gates why he was playing in such a low-stakes game. No, his answer wasn't that he didn't bring enough money, or his credit line was tapped out! He told Alan that he liked playing with those people more than those in the higher-stakes games. It was just more fun for him to play in that game. What a novel idea! Bill Gates wanted to play a little poker just for fun.

The next time you sit down to play poker with your favorite multibillionaire, don't forget to ask, "Are we having fun yet?"

Robert is the 2002 World Series of Poker champion and the instructor on the WiseGuys on Texas Hold'em videos, starring some famous actors from the Sopranos. The videos are very informative, as well as entertaining, and are available at www.wiseguyson.com.