Poker vs Women - The Valentines Debate

February has been a fairly quiet month for me, with work and family commitments, I have not played as much as I would ideally like. That said I have managed to book my seat in the $600k tournament on April 2nd, win a few single table tournaments and highlight of the month so far, win a seat in the LOQ (Land-based Online Qualifier) final for this Saturday. I am very keen to book my seat for the World Series in July as soon as possible and winning this would do the job.

As it is Valentines week, I thought I would look at the similiarities between a winning poker strategy and a successful relationship. As I believe that the strategies for success are very similiar.

It intrigued me how many people would be playing in the £15k on Tuesday night. Usually there are around 300 people playing, this Tuesday there was 225. A 25% reduction.
Does that mean then that 75% people prefer poker to the opposite sex!

From these stats it would appear that winning at poker is easier or dare I say more enjoyable than trying to maintain a good relationship! It may be that the baby boom in poker has started and that most of the people playing online don't worry about these things as they are under 16 anyway!

The intriguing thing for me is whether there is a winning strategy for both poker that can also be applied to maintaining a healthy relationship.

Lets have a look.
Neglect. If you neglect your poker, your game suffers, you don't enjoy it and ultimately someone else ends up enjoying the benefits.
If you neglect your partner, your relationship suffers, you don't enjoy it and ultimately someone else ends up enjoying the benefits.

Playing Away. I am a loyal Littlewoods player, however a got offered a free roll from another site, which I played in, when I went back to Littlewoods my cards were awful for a week. I won't make that mistake again.

I am a married man, I can only imagine that is I was offered a free roll from another, things would be awful for more than a week.

Understanding. Sometimes in poker you can not understand why things are going wrong and no matter how much you ask the computer you don't get an answer.

Sometimes in a realtionship you can not understand why things are going wrong and no matter how much you ask your partner you don't get an answer.

Beer Goggles. Don't play drunk! suddendly Queen seven offsuit becomes pocket aces and you think you are on a winner. At the end of the game you realise it was just Queen Seven.

Need I make a comparison!!

Over reliance. Spend too much time with your computer, you lose your mates
Spend too much time with your partner, you lose your mates.

Bragging Rights - Both areas offer serious potential in this category.

Knowing when to end your relationship. You might have pocket aces, but sometimes they have to be discarded if things don't go right. Ultimately you can get very hurt.

Hot Stuff - At poker when your hot your hot, you win and keep on winning. When your cold, my god your awful
When you meet a lovely girl, everyone wants a piece of you. When you don't, nobody is interested!

Changing Tactics - Your poker game can get stale, you need to sometimes do things different, try playing different ways, playing from different postions.
In a relationship you need to keep you romance alive, doing things differently, again using different positions!

Menage a troi - Can this ever be a bad thing! How about introducing your partner to poker. There is something incredibly sexy about watching your two loves interact. All I can say is that when you want to join in - be careful who you give your attention too.

Overall being successful at poker and in a relationship boil down to patience, knowing when to make a move, knowing when you are beat and reading the signals that are being put out.

However there is always the unknown factor. Whether its poker or with women, you can approach something that is clearly out of your league - like 83 off suit or a beautiful woman and sometimes you just get lucky!

Be lucky
ClintonO