An Acronym to Live By?

I recently had a very nice dinner with a good friend of mine who lives up in Mesquite, Nevada. I am home so seldom that it was a nice chance to catch up with a dear friend and fellow poker player who lives only an hour's drive from me. She is a middle-aged lady who plays low-limit poker, and I think she has some strange ideas about the game. However, she continues to prove me wrong with her results! She keeps meticulous records and was a winner again in 2003. It sort of goes to show that not everything in poker works the same for everyone.

Anyway, I can't convince her that some of her thoughts are very odd, but weird or not, they are interesting. And since they work for her, why should I try to teach her "the error of her ways"? I'd like to share one of them with you in this column. Please keep in mind that she has always been a "hit-and-run" expert. She never plays long – maybe as little as one orbit and as much as an hour, but that's about it for her session. The extremely short sessions are really for online play, and the "system" she uses is for just that. I'm telling you this so that you might understand why her system works for her, as she doesn't mind a very short session. Here is one of her rules for playing and staying in a game:

She coined an acronym, LORIL, for the way she now plays online and, to a lesser extent, in a brick-and-mortar casino. LORIL stands for "lose on river, I leave." She swears by it, and not only can't I talk her out of it, I won't even try anymore, as it works for her. And why spoil a good thing for someone? When she loses on the river after being in the lead for the entire hand, she racks up and cashes out. She has shown me her records and the hands she lost that resulted in her leaving games. Of course, I don't agree at all with this style of play, and believe she is missing many opportunities. How often do you flop top two pair or maybe a set, and bet and raise throughout the hand, only to be beaten on the river? You know, someone hits a one-outer or inside-straight draw to beat you. When that happens to me, I say, "Nice hand," and think to myself, "Deal me in, and please don't go broke." Not my friend – she leaves! She takes it as some sort of omen that she is running badly. I take it that I am in a juicy game and the chips will come my way. Perhaps she has found that it aggravates her just enough that she plays differently (worse) after it happens? I don't really know, but she believes in LORIL.

The main reason I hate this automatic play is because of the blinds. She might have just posted the blinds, and still will leave if she loses on the river. She has paid the price for the button position and all of the free hands that go along with it. I don't understand why someone would leave at this time. When I decide to leave a game, for whatever reason, I nearly always leave on my big blind. That just makes sense – well, to me, anyway! Also, she might be playing just her very first orbit when she gets drawn out on, and up she goes. Of course, if she is playing online at home, she can turn the TV back on or finish up that good book she was reading. If this happened to me in a brick-and-mortar casino, after going through the process of getting to the casino and parking, I just wouldn't have the discipline to get up so soon. Also, what if the game is great? Or, perhaps you haven't even been there long enough to know if it's great? Personally, I don't use results-oriented guidelines for determining when to leave a game. I leave when I want to leave, regardless of the size of my chip stack.

Players do many strange things. I know one player who walks around his chair three times after he loses with aces. Another one shouts something I can't print here when he wins with 7-2 offsuit. I have a friend in Minnesota (hi, Paul) who always wears a tie when he plays. Who knows about these idiosyncrasies? Perhaps these players are on to something.

On another topic, the next Oasis Open poker tournament is slated for May 21-25. We probably will add an early-bird tournament for those who would like to come up a day early, and we also plan to have some different events this time. Watch Card Player for the ads, and then "meet me at the Oasis." Class dismissed.

Please write to me with your poker- or cruise-related questions or comments. Also, please visit our website at www.cardplayercruises.com.