In poker, all players have their little habits.Whether they are pros or amateurs, we reveal their most shameful mania.
""""When the habit contracts, we can't do without it,"""" said Seneca 2,000 years ago.The universe of poker, with its precise rules and an ultra-codified ceremonial, is a ground conducive to the development of tics, rituals and other manias.Whether they are simple weekend players or accomplished champions, all players have their marottes.Superstition (however hated it is) often plays a role, but not only: the strength of habit can be a source of stability and serenity, and help the success of a session.From the pre-match protocols to the post-elimination ritual, we detail the thousand and one quirks of poker players.
Start of the session: we are pro or we are not...
That's it, it's decided: tonight, it's poker.So you have to put yourself in the mood, and for that, the players have all their little habits of their own, whether in live or online.For the pros in particular, playing on the internet is not done without a particular preparation:"""""I try to prepare my evening meal in advance,"""" begins our chief cook Adrien Delmas, who will therefore not waste timeThe food in two difficult hands.For his part, Ivan Deyra swears in the most zen atmosphere possible:"""""My ritual is to prepare my essential oil diffuser with preference eucalyptus perfume, in hammam smell mode, and a piano playlist of several hours historyto play in all relaxation.First of all that is preparation for a smoothie just to stall the midst of the session, without being too heavy either, just to have an energy booster.""""OK, let's be honest, we are not sure that all of this program is applied to each session.Pierre Calamusa insists on the importance of having slept well before a session.To feel at the top, many pros also make a little sporting training before starting to play, just to be woken up when it takes big decisions.Witness Léo Lombardozzi, from the time when he tirelessly grinded online tournaments:"""""Before a MTT session, I stretched myself to be very flexible on the hamstrings and very flex on the session.Basically it was a joke, which became a ritual before each MTT session loaded.""""Others prefer to remain motionless and practice a meditation session, very fashionable among poker players, like Davidi Kitai (remember the first episode of the last season of in the head of a pro).What to relax before I immerse yourself in the choice of tournaments, an obligatory passage which can quickly become anxiety -provoking:"""""I looked at the grid to see how much the evening was going to cost me, continues Léo.And I registered everything, in advance, while contemplating my bankroll melt like snow in the sun...""""
Si les joueurs online mettent donc en place leurs routines avant la session, c'est peut-être en live que se manifestent le plus souvent les superstitions propres à (presque) tous les gamblers :"""""Lors des WSOP à Las Vegas, je me gare toujours sur la même place de parking,"""" affirme ainsi Aladin Reskallah, qui explique qu'il est important de prendre certaines habitudes lorsqu'on voyage pour jouer des tournois live, histoire de rester focus :"""""Quand je deeprun en live, j'ai tendance à reproduire la même routine tous les jours tant que je suis dans le tournoi, confirme le double vainqueur Top Shark.It's a bit out of superstition but also to put myself in the match, to concentrate me.For example, if I crossed the day 1, I will go to lunch in the same restaurant the next day, eat the same thing, start from the hotel exactly at the same time, etc.. Il m'est déjà arrivé aussi de garder le même tee-shirt pendant trois jours !"""" Ne pas changer de vêtements tant qu'on est pas éliminé : voilà un grand classique chez les joueurs de tournoi live.The 2011 world champion Pius Heinz would have carried his famous boss jacket (photo opposite) during the 10 days that the Main Event lasted.We do not know if he had time to put her in the pressing, but the rumor said that the sales of the jacket in question had exploded after his victory.At some, this respect for the dress code can go as far as underwear and socks.To the disarray of their table neighbors...
The Winamax team also has its small special routine in Vegas: the avant-turn briefing in the car of coach Stéphane Matheu on the Rio road, as you have observed in many episodes of DLTDP (photo)."""""On fait un petit warm-up avant de jouer, explique Romain Lewis.We put a few guiding lines on the tournament objectives, on what focuses, and we motivate ourselves.It also works for an online session.""""Without forgetting the traditional glance at the Hendon Mob sheet of his opponents at the beginning of Day, just to know who we are dealing with and if we have chatted his table drawing.
But we are talking about the rituals observed by professional players, obsessed with performance.Among amateur players, preparation will often be at the antipodes..."""""Je ne pars jamais jouer sans mon jeton fétiche de Napoléon, explique Thomas, jamais le dernier à spew en partie privée.Otherwise, before disembarking at your friend who organizes the weekly home game, a small passage through the local supermarket is essential: whiskey, beer, wine, soda, pizza, cakes, candy (striking unnecessary mentions), it is recommendedto fill your basket with everything you need for a good evening with friends.What to reinvigorate: after a day of work or a difficult weekend, it is not easy to get in shape at the table...And above all, do not hesitate to send a few spikes to friends upstream, just to raise the sauce before slamming 7-2 in the face a few hours later.Besides, Home Games have their own rituals, especially with a few typical rules, such as this famous game of 7-2, precisely (the whole table must give money to the player who wins with).When will the same rule on big tournaments?
Besides, the world championships are often the scene of more or less wacky rituals, both among the pros and among amateurs.For years, the star Phil Hellmuth observed a famous (and for some very annoying) ritual, treating his entry into stage during the Day 1 of the Main Event.We thus saw him in turn consumed disguised as a boxer, viking, racing pilot (after crashing his racing car in the Rio parking lot, if if) or even in Roman emperor brought to the entrance to the Rio byCarriers!All often surrounded by a female shock team...Until the 2018 edition, another sweet crazy series also used to snap its cymbals at the Shuffle Up and Deal of the Main Event for over 15 years, but it apparently remained calmer in 2019.Traditions are lost...- Rootsah
During the game: very superstitious
If the spell is impartial, if luck or develops can strike anyone at any time, not everyone has the same way to protect them.It is in play, while the cards have just been distributed, that the ritual can turn into superstition, beyond all reason, sometimes sweeping the most primary strategic principles of our game. À ce titre, quoi de plus irrationnel que la fameuse"""""main fétiche"""", celle que l'on est incapable de jeter préflop, avec laquelle on est prêt à payer n'importe quelle mise ou à placer un squeeze alors que tous les voyants sont au rouge."""""10-6 de cœur, c'est all-in automatique"""" nous a ainsi répondu @SorianoMillet sur Twitter au milieu des KJ suités, K9 (pour KB9, on vous laisse chercher) des musicaux K7 et J5 (les fameux Jackson 5) et autres 10-9 assortis (la préférée de votre serviteur, qui le confesse humblement). On trouve même des combinaisons plus élaborées et franchement pas évidentes à caser :"""""Un pote jouait systématiquement K6 de trèfle quand il était en small blind,"""" se souvient Aladin Reskallah."""""Quand j'ai commencé le poker live et que je jouais dans les casinos de province, embraye Guillaume Diaz, le rituel que je voyais le plus était les gens qui jouaient les cartes de leur département.I remember a friend who had come out by an opponent who had put everything preflop with 7-4 off. 'Vous comprenez, je suis de Haute-Savoie !'"""" On en connaît d'autres qui préfèrent 9 et 3...
For the rest, the habits and customs are necessarily more disparate.Once again, Aladarrrrrr."""""En live parfois, quand je suis UTG et short stack, si la première carte que je vois est un 2, je ne regarde pas l'autre.Conversely, if I owe Shove and the first is an ace, I don't need the next to send everything."""" Vous en voulez encore ?"""""Si je sais que le spot de 3-bet est bon, je fais semblant de regarder mes cartes avant de me lancer.And when I have to pay a carpet with a very strong hand, I snap call so as not to give the impression of slowroll. Je n'ai pas envie de me faire punir et de perdre le coup !"""" D'autres sont plus du genre à calibrer leurs mises online, comme @JeyPied qui va chercher à arrondir son stack affiché en blindes :"""""Si j'ai 34,6BB et que je veux bet mi-pot dans un pot de 9BB, je vais faire 4,6BB, pas 4,5 ! Ah oui et en live mes piles de jetons sont à la même distance les unes des autres."""" Une transition toute trouvée pour glisser un mot sur tous cesnitsjoueurs consciencieux qui aiment construire leurs piles de pions avec le souci du détail comme leur Saint-Patron Carlos Mortensen (photo).No doubt an opportunity to silence a more or less repressed compulsive disorder.
Online, the choice of the background, the color of the carpet or the back of the cards can also be strategic.Recently, during his session in mid-stakes, we saw Adrien Delmas modify the arrangement of his tables according to the advance in the tournament.A good way to say when you play a large number of MTTs at the same time. De son côté, Aladin encore lui, a une autre façon de voir les choses :"""""Je surveille toujours le nombre de joueurs restants et, lorsque l'on passe de 100 à 99 left, j'ai d'un coup l'impression d'avoir toutes les chances d'aller loin ! Et quand j'arrive en finale avec le septième tapis sur sept, j'aime bien penser que je suis favori.""""But if there is one thing on which many would not compromise at the virtual tables, it is their seat.Unsurprisingly, it is the one at the bottom of the screen in the middle that prevails over others and we understand you.It is in live tournament that it gets complicated, where our place is attributed to us without being able to say anything about it. Alors si vous voulez garder un minimum de stabilité même au gré des changements de table incessants, faites comme @_Lyslero_ :"""""À chaque fois que j'ai changé de place, j'ai porté de table en table dans toute la salle la chaise sur laquelle j'ai commencé mon tournoi.""""From the chair to the cross that we wear in spite of ourselves, is it not ultimately the best image that we can give of all these unnecessary but perfectly essential little rites?- Flegmatic
The break: these few minutes that can change everything
Live as online, it has been known to MTT players since the creation of the format in the early 1970s.Expected as a deliverance by some, feared by others for fear of seeing their momentum stopped in full rush, forgotten by many online players taken in the frenzy of multitabling, the break is inseparable from the tournament poker.Despite this, it often remains neglected, taken as a non-event, barely sufficient to run to the toilet or darken in the kitchen to recover a packet of chips and a more or less alcoholic drink.However, some pros will tell you: you can do things during these six minutes (five if you only play elsewhere on Winamax), this quarter of an hour or half!Because yes, this is another peculiarity of the breaks: they do not always last the same period of time and we rarely pass them with the same people, without counting those that we undergo alone, facing oneself.But as long as rare moments of real rest in the middle of evenings or days that can be trying for the body and the nerves, they also deserve to be sacred and be attributed to them a small routine.
Pour la plupart des joueurs chevronnés, le rituel numéro 1 à mettre en place est aussi évident que potentiellement difficile à tenir :"""""décompresser, lâcher prise et penser à autre chose,"""" comme le dit si bien Ivan Deyra dans ce blog.A precept pushed to the extreme by this same Valuemerguez, who does not hesitate to leave his home during his online breaks and prick sprints in his street, just to exert himself a maximum and to evacuate any possible feeling of frustration.If you get used to the 72nd floor or fall from the strings outside, there is no doubt that a small series of simple physical exercises (pumps, squats, abs, burs, etc..) will do. À moins que vous ne préféreriez la méthode douce, toujours préconisée par le Girondin, sous la forme d'un"""""exercice de visualisation"""" à même de réduire son anxiété ou d'augmenter sa confiance et sa détermintion. De son côté, Romain Lewis en profite pour"""""se rappeler les objectifs mise en place durant le warm-up de pré tournoi/session"""" ou se lancer dans un exercice de respiration comme on peut en trouver des tas sur Internet ou via des applications dédiées.
Vous l'avez compris, l'idée est avant tout"""""de décrocher, pour citer Aladin Reskallah, car il est impossible de rester concentré au maximum de nos capacités pendant cinq, six ou sept heures d'affilée.You must reset your nervous system and your concentration faculty.I heard that European, one of the best Finnish online players, passed her breaks to look at a tree to think of nothing.""""Suffice to say that the Bad Beat Story launched to anyone who wants to hear it in the corridor in front of the tournament hall or the messages sent on the rise of Tilt on the Whatsapp/Messenger group of your players are definitely to proscribe. Puisque l'on est sur les mauvais exemples, poursuivons avec Léo Lombardozzi, dont le rituel immuable dans sa colocation est de"""""préparer le repas de la soirée entre 20h55 et 21h.Each time, we want to do things well...And in the end we never do anything.""""
The same thing is also worth live to dinner baskets (for those who are lucky enough to know what it looks like).What's worse, after having your gray matter fits for about two hours, only to have to make this decision so difficult as to choose where to eat?If everyone is not lucky enough to be able to enjoy their own pocket Stéphane Matheu, you do it in advance (for example during the previous break?) Will save you precious time and keep your energy.If you are missing WPO, you can also choose to eat liquid (at your own risk, however).Otherwise, imitate Davidi Kitai: In case of Deep Run in Vegas, Kitbul is always going to dine in the same place to order the same thing.Without forgetting of course to settle the bill for everyone.Karma question.Like what, even during a break, you can try to put all the chances on your side.- Flegmatic
All in and a call: the ultimate ritual
Is there a more codified moment, more ritualized than the one where we find ourselves at a carpet?Bringing all his tokens is the ultimate and inevitable ceremony of any poker game.A moment as brief as it is violent when we contemplate the chasm, and we find ourselves in the skin of an accused waiting for his sentence.Guilty or not guilty?Death or resurrected?Busto or Robusto?
Few people, even among the pros, who know how to remain of marble in the face of this very stressful test.Some are trying to defuse tension with a ticking that is fun: remember Humberto Brenes and his drawn plastic shark when his tokens went in the middle.The Shark is coming!Giuseppe Zarbo, for his part, rarely plays without a pair of kitsch plastic glasses, with wolf that he flashes each time he leaves carpet.What disconcert the opponent thinking about a call-by the way, perhaps the maneuver has already allowed Franco-Italian to obtain a Fold, who knows?
Contemplating the chasm, a player will easily let himself go to superstition impulses.The most famous of these mystics?Jerry Yang, of course!In 2007, this amateur out of nowhere had gone to the end of the WSOP event thanks to an ultimate secret boot (finally, according to him): God.No more no less !Indeed: during each confrontation with carpet, the American recited a prayer in a loop, while carrying a religious medallion to his lips.Needless to say to you who Yang thanked first during his post-victory interview ... but we will allow ourselves to notice that this divine aid was accompanied by a date of expiration: it was the first and last perf 'of the career ofJerry Yang player.
Confession: after almost 20 years of poker online practiced in a recreational way, the author of these lines has still not managed to get rid of the tics that appeared during his beginnings.So, as soon as my tokens are bet, it is still almost impossible for me to look at the continuation of the blow: I hide the screen with my hands, waiting with anxiety to see in which direction the tokens will go!But I like to vary the pleasures (sic): so it is sometimes the cards of the opponent that I will hide. Une coutume de fish ? Pas que : lors d’une récente visite chez un joueur du Team Winamax plongé dans les tournois des Series, j’ai été surpris de constater qu’il faisait exactement la même chose ! Le tic de l'amateur Thomas n'est pas si éloigné :"""""Je rabats la capuche de mon hoodie quand je suis all-in, même quand je suis en train de jouer tout seul online !""""
Nos pros ont-ils des tics à eux au moment de tout risquer ? Romain Lewis ne rechigne pas à une petite dose de mysticisme :"""""Je me concentre au max sur la carte qui doit sortir, il faut croire dans ses pouvoirs magiques !"""" Ivan Deyra se montre un poil plus terre à terre :"""""A chaque all in important je fais des grandes inspirations/expirations pour relâcher totalement la pression, me mettre dans l'état d'esprit d'acceptation/lâcher prise/patience."""" Léo Lombardozzi évoque son colocataire, qui aime"""""faire tourner son index comme si le flop était en chargement."""" Il nous confie aussi pratiquer l’art du contre-pied :"""""Le ‘contre-whine’ est un move classique : quand tu es à tapis payé, tu dis ‘c’est bon, tant pis, c’est fini’… pour mieux crier ensuite si ça tient !"""" Même son de cloche chez Aladin Reskallah :"""""J’ai un pote qui appelle les cartes de mes adversaires quand je suis all-in.""""This technique has a well-known name of initiates: the counter jinx.In contrast to the Jinx, English term designating the fact of bringing misfortune to someone.
Call the cards: this is a figure imposed during any self -respecting final table.Most of the time, it is the supporters who take care of it from the stands.If their foal is favorite, it is generally a harmless 2 which will be called to great reinforcements of cries, but if the hero is in difficulty, you can count on his fans to loudly draw up an exhaustive list of all the cards that can save him.Obviously, the opposing camp does exactly the same thing!
On this subject, it should be noted: poker in its television version has greatly contributed to making the all-in ritual even more stressful and painful.In principle, a carpet blow is a quickly dispatched case: the dealer returns flop, turn and river as quickly as possible, partly to shorten the suffering of the player on the edge of elimination.This courtesy demonstration does not run during a part retransmitted in streaming.There, it is the producers who dictate the rhythm, and these executioners do not hesitate to stretch the duration of the carpet blows as much as possible, just to make the suspense last.A real torture for the player in danger!
Without being able to really explain why, a very specific gesture has gained popularity in recent years on live tournaments: the jacket blow.It is very simple to execute: once at paid carpet (especially in an unfavorable position), you just have to get up, and put on your coat without waiting for the board to be unrolled.As if you were already leaving!In short, this is a variant of the counter-jinx quoted above, and after having seen it successfully applied several times, some ended up convincing themselves that the method had its interest, and cannot nowMore to do all-in without applying it.We prefer to rely on the words of a certain André Jeanson:""I am not superstitious, that is bad!»»
When the carpet blow did not go as we wanted, what to do?It is necessary to derive his bow dignity and with a smile, even if it means pretending and hide his real emotions.Roman Lewis witness:""When I announce the famous" good game""to those who stay, it is rarely the most sincere" good luck""in the world!For years, the Californian pro Barry Greenstein systematically observed the most classy elimination ritual, offering his (excellent) book Ace on the river to his executioner, not without having dedicated it and noted in detail, the place,The date and cards of his last blow!Several pros of the Winamax team were able to go home with this great memory: special mention to Ludovic Lacay, who accumulated two copies of the book during his career.
Some rituals have been lost over time.Online, the""NH" and other""GG" which were the norm in the 2000s only rarely appeared in the cat window.Live, the pause of the Winamax Poker Tour has put one of our favorite traditions: the salvo of applause with each elimination, including during the first levels.Finally, we do not know if the handshake distributed to the whole table will survive the time of the covid, but it has been a while since you hear it behind the scenes: the tradition of the tip is less and less respected by the players eliminatedin money.Not cool for the poker shadow army, often poorly paid despite the long nights spent distributing the cards and counting the pots.A wish for the next world (if it comes one day): the guys, put the TIP in fashion!- Benjo
After-match: not easy to drop out...
You spent your evening at a poker table (or maybe a few minutes, but you don't wish you): it's time to move on.Easier to say than to do, because it is not always easy to resume a normal activity: even when all their online tables are closed, some grinders some immediately want to know if the variance was on their side, in aworld or the king takes the place of justice of the peace."""""Dès la fin de session, je check ma 'redline'"""", dévoile ainsi Léo Lombardozzi.This means that he looks at his EV curve (Esperance of Gains) on his tracker, to see if the cards were or not in his favor during the session, which is not easy to apprehend in full multitabling. Tout en sachant que l'info reçue n'a guère d'importance :"""""Ça n'a pas d'intérêt sur 1 000, 2 000 ou même 10 000 mains jouées !""""
Une fois la dernière table fermée, certains pros se remettent directement à bosser, en revenant sur des coups clés de leurs parties :"""""En cash game après chaque session, je review tous mes spots avec PIO Solver et je montre quelques mains à mon coloc pour avoir un second regard"""", détaille Léo."""""Moi, je fais le bilan de la session, avec mes ressentis, émotions vécues, choses apprises, et la programmation du lendemain afin de pouvoir dormir l'esprit clair et serein"""", propose Ivan Deyra.Finally, it does not necessarily work in the event of a perf ': who has never called his poker friends to have a foam just at the exit of the game circle or after the last hand of his online tournament?Well, sometimes we don't always have an answer in the middle of the night, so it's the club's physiognomist that holds the candle while you are waiting for your taxi.Because if taxi there is, this is often the sign that you have won: in case of loss, some punish themselves and return home on foot (hoping that they are not completely broke), the taxi being reserved forwinners (and essential if you have pockets full of tickets).
But if you have rather made misery to your friends in home game, they will certainly not let you escape like that."""""À la fin d'un gros home game, celui qui a gagné paye le McDo à tous les autres"""", se souvient Vincent.It's tradition."""""""""Oui, le McDo, ça marche à tous les coups, rigole Ya 2 ecoles. Si c'est une soirée cagoule, il y a le McDo du « détilt » et si on a perfé, le Mcdo de la perf !"""" Une chose est sûre, s'offrir un casse-dalle est une envie récurrente après de longues heures passées à jouer :"""""À Las Vegas, mon coloc' Romain Nussmann (ancien vainqueur de Main Event Wina Series) me tiltait, raconte Aladin Reskallah. Quand il était éliminé d'un tournoi, il voulait que je le dépose au 7/11, un genre de supérette du coin, pour acheter des glaces dégueulasses Ben & Jerry's [NDLR : tu exagères Aladar, elles sont pas si mal ces glaces du Vermont].The worst part is that he is morality to respect healthy life of life, and that in the end he puts on ice when he busts a tournament!And as much to say that it often happens in Vegas, since we are eliminated almost daily when we only play..."""""
A ritual that perhaps allowed Romain to start a digestion phase, which often makes you want to prick a rush.A good thing, because it is complicated to sleep after a live or online part (thank you the blue light of the computers), unless you are really exhausted."""""Après la partie, je me dis souvent que j’aimerai bien ne pas me lever à 15h le lendemain, que je vais mater un épisode de ma série du moment et après dodo. Résultat, à 6 heures du mat', je suis toujours devant l'ordi,"""" déplore Léo Lombardozzi.To remedy this, Adrien Delmas says he loves Cooldown by reading a few pages before sleeping (he even wrote a blog on the subject).Before perhaps sinking into another world also made cards and tokens there, because poker players often tell the dream of their favorite game...Even if sometimes that will not be enough to fall asleep."""""Oh et puis merde, si je rouvrais quelques tables ?""""- Rootsah
Photo credits: clubpoker (jacket blow), pokergo (hellmuth)
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