Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Over the coming months I will be compiling a series of articles for All Aussie Poker on high-stakes poker both on the internet and in a live game setting. I will be looking at what makes a high-stakes poker player and specifically what it entails to play at a high level. Firstly there are an awful lot of misconceptions about high-stakes players and I will be looking to address those in this series.

One of the main misconceptions is that these players have built their way up from low stakes games as part of some overall structured and planned painstaking process. This has happened in the poker world but it is rarely the case. In nearly all cases players took massive leaps forward with regards the stakes that they were playing for and also took massive gambles with regards overplaying their bankroll as well.

 

Many high-stakes players fail to practice bankroll management and this is why so many of them have busted out at various stages of their careers. Although the counter argument to this is that the very big winners do in fact operate in a far different way to the rest of the poker world and many of them don’t operate out of a conventional bankroll in the same way that many of the lower professionals do and this is certainly the case with many live high-stakes players.

 

Some have financial backers and the big names or players with star status do not have a shortage of takers when it comes to people wanting a piece of their action. This is why a player can be “bust” on the Monday and be sitting behind a million dollar bankroll by the end of the week. This has simply been a triumph of negotiation and smooth talking but one thing is evidently clear, most high-stakes players will never go back down to low-stakes games and grind it back.

 

This is especially the case with players who have huge egos and simply do not ever want to be seen playing at those levels. Do you really want to go back down from driving a Ferrari to a Nissan? I have heard it said many times that any serious professional player should never go bust.

 

A combination of successful bankroll management and Kelly Criterion would ensure that no poker player would ever go bust. But it is wrong to assume that just because a high-stakes player has gone bust that they are a bad player who has no idea of money management principles. Many of them operate with their own hidden agendas. I think what a lot of players fail to take on board is that there is a world of difference between being a successful poker player and making a lot of money in poker.

 

The two don’t always go hand in hand. I know many high-stakes players who earn over a million dollars a year but yet don’t have the skills to beat NL200 online ($1-$2). This is especially the case with the older players who don’t have the inclination to use tracking software, HUDS and multi-tabling like many of the successful online players do.

 

If you have the persona and the image along with the necessary sales skills then you may be able to talk your way into a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal whilst a more successful player may be ignored. Having other peoples money behind you suddenly makes poker a whole lot easier and this is really when you can start to earn an awful lot of money.

 

Many high-stakes players will try and play in televised events just to increase their exposure and image and this alone will make them money because as long as they stay in the public eye then they simply cannot fail to make money. When it comes to playing tournaments then it can be an absolute mish mash of deals swapping places and most of the players are involved in some capacity with either staking other players or selling pieces of themselves.

 

If you thought for one minute that in a $5000 event with 400 players that each player bought in for $5000 of their own money or qualified via satellite then you would be mistaken. This may be the case with many of the players but the high-stakes regulars will have their own established network of contacts and backers lined up.

 

Poker these days is as much about business and deal making as it is about actually playing the game, if not more so. But I have extensive contacts in the world of high-stakes poker and especially the online scene so I am aware of what happens on the inside and in most cases what many of the big star players are really up to and not just the results that get reported.

 

But I am sure that you will appreciate and enjoy these articles and that they make you aware of what actually goes on in the world of big league poker. Each week I will be taking a different look at some aspect of the high-stakes poker world including the actual players, where they play and what they win and lose and how they got to be where they are. Take care and see you next week.

 

 

 

Carl “The Dean” Sampson is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at www.cakepoker.com/thedean