My name is Jason Schlachter and I used to have the greatest job in the world until I was fired by the government 2 years ago.  I was an internet poker player.  Playing poker on the internet challenged me and pushed my limits.  Each day I woke up excited at the prospect of being the best I could be and through my hard work, I was one of the most successful internet players.  Not only was I successful in my job, but I took pride in the fact that I could provide for my family, and I loved the flexibility that allowed me to never miss spending time with them.  It has been 2 years since the government has prevented me, as well as my colleagues and other aficionados from playing poker on the internet.  Now, despite the fact that the law that was passed in 2006 making internet poker illegal has since been ruled NOT to apply to games of skill (like poker), and the proliferation of casinos everyplace in the US (including lottery and horse racing on the internet)the government continues to prevent internet poker sites from operating in the US and no longer allows me to pursue my chosen profession.

It took me a very long time to be able to admit to people that I played internet poker professionally, because some people did not understand the skill involved and therefore looked down on me, asked me when I was going to do something real with my life and called it gambling.  In reality, playing poker professionally is actually a bit like being a professional chess player and a bit like being a stock trader.  Like playing chess, it requires  thousands of hours of study to determine what the best moves are in different situations and when to use them.  You must be able to consider what your opponents are thinking and their thought processes as well as to remain in complete control of your emotions at all times.  As in stock trading, it is necessary to analyze situations in real time and to have the ability to make quick, calculated and rational decisions, often for a lot of money.  Despite what many people believe, it is in fact nothing like playing craps or the lottery.  You are competing against other players, not the casino, and your skill has a large effect on the outcome.  In fact, as someone who has played nearly 8 million hands in his lifetime, an amount which would take more than 300,000 hours in the casino, I can assure you, there is little gambling involved.

I began to take poker more seriously in 2003, when I was senior at the University of Pennsylvania.  I had played poker with friends on occasion and realized that there was a lot of skill and that I could get better by studying the mathematics of the game.  As a former runner and tennis player, I enjoyed the competition inherent in poker, was looking to improve and was willing to work at it.  I went to Atlantic City once or twice, but between taking 5 classes and writing my thesis, I did not have time to make the trip, so I decided to deposit a few dollars in an online poker site.  I began playing for pennies and soon I was trying to learn the best way to beat my online opponents too.  Often this required working out solutions away from the table and my geeky, math loving, solution based self loved it.  When I graduated, I moved back home and was looking for jobs during the day, and playing poker at night.  Before too long, I was making far more money playing poker then I could if I had gotten the jobs I was seeking, so I decided to continue.

In September of 2006, on the last day before Congress would break for the election, Bill Frist and John Kyl, two extremely conservative Republicans tacked on the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act(UIGEA) to The SAFE Port Act.  This bill made it a crime to process payments to online poker sites according to the 1961 Wire Act.  Despite the fact that no one on the Senate-House Committee had seen the final language in the UIGEA, it did not matter, because it was attached to The SAFE Port Act, which had to pass.  After this bill was passed, the European Union and Antigua filed lawsuits and won damages against the United States as a result of this law violating free trade agreements.

In 2009, New York and Illinois requested clarification of the UIGEA from the Department of Justice(DOJ).  In April of 2011, the DOJ took action to shut down the sites that were still operating in the US, ignoring the request for clarification over whether operating a site was actually illegal.  It was not until December 2011 when the DOJ finally admitted that the 1961 Wire Act did not apply to poker, which made their attempts to close the internet poker market in 2006 and 2011 wrong.

In fact, before the UIGEA, the internet poker market in the US was operating well and in the open.  Since 2006, poker has moved into a grey market and players who want to play have been forced to deal with disreputable companies, delays in payment and even the possibility of not getting paid.  When the US government shut down the poker sites in 2011, the reputable site that I played on, paid me, as well as everyone else immediately, but the players on Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were not so lucky.  The government has sold the company and has said that they will pay the players the money that is owed but to date has not done so and has shown no plans to.  This is very unfortunate for many people who needed these funds for living and working expenses, who were not only fired by the government, but have also had their money trapped by them.

Since 2011, I have been forced to travel to Atlantic City and Pennsylvania in order to support myself and my family.  Not only has my income been reduced substantially but my expenses have also risen. In addition, since I live in New York City, nearly a 2.5 hour drive from there, I cannot commute and must stay over and be away from my wife for extended periods of time.  While many of my colleagues opted to move out of the country to work playing internet poker, I did not feel as though this was a reasonable option for me.

The government has admitted that they have erred in this matter and have lost in the WTO regarding internet gambling.  I believe they are hypocrites for continuing to push the lottery, horse racing and for allowing casinos to be built everyplace, while denying people the ability to gamble in their own homes.  I am asking that the government finally do what is right and just and to restore internet poker to people who want to play.

Sincerely,

Jason Schlachter

1. Winning the Sunday Million on Pokerstars.
2. Being SuperNova Elite 2x.
3. Going to Monte Carlo for the European Poker Tour Championship.
4. My first big loss playing limit hold’em and what I learned about playing my A game always.
5. The first time I won a seat to the World Series Main Event.
6. Winning 33 consecutive days at 6-max no limit.
7. Playing 26 hours in a row of tournaments to get the most elite status on Empire Poker
8. Winning a 6 way allin pot for $26k at a private $10/$25 game.
9. Playing $5/$10 limit all night to earn a bonus and winning a ton of money in the process.  This was the first time I realized I could make it as a professional.
10. Black Friday and the UIGEA.
11. Playing $25/$50 vs. Prahlad Friedman, Freddy Deeb and Mike Matusow at Ultimate Bet when it was the biggest game around.
12. Capping every street vs. Michael Mizrahi with QQ at $100/$200 on J737q because he was a nut and getting there vs K7.
13. The NYC poker clubs where I played for a while.
14. Chatting with poker friends on Skype while multitabling on my way to Supernova elite.
15. My first coaching session ever with Barry Tannenbaum in Las Vegas.
16. Making a terrible fold in my first World Series with a straight after getting raised on the turn.
17. Playing $10/$20 on Empire Poker with my friend Mike as he was learning the game.
18. Playing poker between ballperson shifts at the US Open.

I am often asked if I have played or planning to play in the World Series of Poker, and when I respond that I don’t play many tournaments these days, people ask me why.  It is normally to tough to explain in a few sentences,  so here is the complete explanation:

The main reason I don’t play tournaments is because over time, I think I will make more money per hour playing cash games.  I know the rate that I can win at playing in cash games, and roughly the rate I can win at playing tournaments and I prefer to get paid more per hour and to reduce the variance inherent in tournaments.

Tournaments have an incredible amount of volatility build into their structure. The payouts are extremely top heavy, precisely at the time when stacks are shortest and the amount you can do is limited.  These factors lead to a lot THE MOST variance in the results compared to all other forms of poker.

For example, if you play in a $1000 buyin tournament with 1000 players, 1000 times(this would take you ~3 years if playing every single day) with a return on investment of 50%.   After 3 years of playing every day, you would expect to win $1.5 million($500,00 of which is profit).  Not bad, right?  Not exactly, and the problem is that your sample size is not nearly big enough.The total number of times you would be in the top 10, assuming you are 50% better than the field is 15, over the course of 3 years.  Considering prize payouts for the top 5 spots would be $220,000, $132,000, $80,000 $67,000, and $55,000, one time where you come in 5th instead of 1st costs you $165,000.  Now, if you are looking to make on average $167,667 a year($500,000/3 years) that loss of $165,000 really stings!  With a sample size of 15, if you are unlucky a few times in the wrong spots, you can not make any money for several years.  Note that that one 5th instead of a 1st in the tournament drops your return on investment by 1/3 from 50% to 34%.  If you want to know how easy it is to experience variance in a sample size of 15, try flipping a coin 15 times.  Essentially 3 years of playing every day can, and will, come down to how you do in a 15 time sample size where variance is high and playability is low.

After several hundred hours of playing cash games, it is easy to know how I stand relative to the other players skill wise and am able to narrow down my hourly rate to a reasonable confidence interval.  In the above paragraph I showed that after 3 years of playing tournaments, you would still not have any idea of your return on investment. Noah Stephens-Davidowitz has done some excellent using different return on investment and variance among tournament players. http://www.nsdpoker.com/2011/01/mtt-pros/.

The other reason I don’t play tournaments is because of the inflexibility.  I must be at the casino ready to play at the time designated, whether I feel like it or not.  I am going by someone else’s schedule, and the ability to not do that is one of the reasons I enjoy my job so much.  I cannot chose when I stop and start playing which is an important edge that separates me from the competition.  I often play a long time when I am winning and am feared at the table, and stop when I am not doing well and my image is poor.  Most players play a long time when losing and stop quickly when winning, which is the exact opposite of what you want to do.  I play in games when I am feeling well against opponents who generally play worse than I do which is a good recipe for success.

Tournaments do not allow me to apply some of the other skills at which I excel.  In tournaments, your seat and table are assigned and cannot be changed. I cannot leave if my game is not good or move to a more profitable seat or a more profitable table. The ability to change tables and sit in good position relative to bad players is very important to long term profitability and can be a big advantage in cash games if done correctly.

While there are small adjustments that you can make deep into a tournament, many actions, especially when your stack is small, are automatic.  As Tommy Angelo has much more eloquently stated in his discussion of reciprocality, the difference between what you do and what your opponents do is what allows you to make money, and if situations become automatic and there is less room for your skills to become applicable.

I have played single table tournaments, multitable tournaments(like on ESPN) as well as many forms of cash games throughout my poker career and I have determined that the benefits of playing cash games (mostly no limit hold’em, pot limit omaha and omaha eight or better) outweigh that of tournaments.  I still do play tournaments from time to time, either because I have a yearning to play or because one piques my interest.  I think the decision to concentrate on cash games is fairly clear cut for me at the moment but I am always evaluating my options.

It is easy to get frustrated when playing poker in person,  you are dealt only about 30 hands per hour, which means you are rarely dealt a premium hand.  There is little to do between hands but think about the hands you have played and how you are doing, evaluate the other players, and make small talk.   Since the solution to each hand requires a complete analysis of a new set of variables., the best outcome for me is one that I can look a back on away from the table and be happy with the result.  If you are not doing well during a session, frustration can build and can close off your mind to certain possibilites.  Things like “I never flop a set” or “I always lose with pocket kings” can be at the forefront of your mind and crowd out the optimal way to play each hand.  Your can begin to believe that actions you take at the poker table, which you know are incorrect in a vacuum are correct.  The most well known of these is known as tilt, where you get frustrated and play sub optimally to the point of giving away money.  I often remind myself at the table that I am capable of anything at any time and to open my mind up to figuring out the best answer, even if I have never done it before.

Often a hand can come up where you are planning to do something, but then the action in front of you changes your perspective.  This is one reason is why it is important not to look at your cards until the action is on you.  That way you are able to independently evaluate what is happening without being clouded by your hand.  If you look at your hand before you have seen the action in front of you, you are more reliant on your heuristics and are more locked into your solution set.  For example, if there is a raise and you look down and see K9o, you might decide that it is not worthy of calling a raise and decide to fold.  You might miss the fact that there are 5 callers and it has now become a profitable squeeze opportunity.

In addition, looking at your hand before the action gets to you makes you become more vested in the outcome.  For example, if you look down and see JJ, you might get excited that you have a great hand.  Then when there is a raise and a reraise in front of you, you will be frustrated that you have a good hand and cannot play.  Instead, if you saw the raise and reraise in front of you, you know that you will only be able to play QQ or better.  Thus, you see JJ and fold with the same feelings as if you had 72o, keeping your emotional balance.

This makes paying attention to every hand extremely critical.  You never know when something you see will allow you to win a big pot because you can now act on the information you have discovered.  What this means is that every action a player takes has to be analyzed.  Did he bet, call or raise?  Did he show a hand down on the river?  Did he call or bet?  These are just a few of the many questions that need to be asked and answered about every hand played, categorized and then analyzed for use in future hands. It may seem like tedious work, but I look at each unique situation as a problem to solve and it’s a game to see if I can get it right.  It’s really fun to be right, and the bonus is that you win money when you are!

Here is a hand where the above came into play:

Someone limps, I limp behind with AQo and the cutoff raises to $40m, which he had been doing frequently and with a lot of hands, the button calls, the BB calls, the other limper calls, and I call.  So it’s 5 way to the flop for $40.  Earlier in the session the big blind turned trips and checked it from out of position on the turn hoping that someone would bet so that he could checkraise.  I had seen him do this and filed it away for later.

The flop comes KhKc4d and everyone checks the flop.

The turn is the 7s and the BB now leads $60. Using the information that I had gleaned earlier, I thought that he was likely to check trip kings on the turn.  Plus his bet looked like he was trying to win the pot cheaply with a weak hand.  So I raised to $180 and he folded.  Note that it cost me $180 to win $260 so it doesn’t have to work all that often to be correct.   He sighed and showed me 8h8c and folded saying “looks like you have a king.” I didn’t reply, but filed away “makes weak bet with weak hand in multiway pots on paired boards, and will fold to a raise” to his folder in my head for later use.

The kid on my right was very friendly, knew a bunch about the game and was trying to play well.  He probably played ok, but made a massive error that showed some of his inexperience.  The hand goes like this:

There was a raise to $60 and 4 callers and he calls out of the big blind with 88.  There is $300 in the pot and everyone has about $3000 on the table.

The flop comes 8h7h6c.  The kid leads out $300, 3 players call and the small blind shoves for about $3000.  He was not a very good player and would often have the nuts(best possible hand) there, T9 or another straight, but there was also the possibility he was overvaluing something.

If we assume his opponent always has the straight there is $1800 in the pot and it costs him $2700 to call.  He needs to have 37.5% equity to make a call correct, and PokerStove says that he has 35% equity so if he “knows” the guy has the straight, a call costs him about $180.  The kid assumed he always has the straight and folded.

The problem is that his opponent doesn’t always have a straight there, and if he doesn’t our   equity(share of the pot) ranges from 95% to 60%, making a fold horrible.  If another person calls, then a fold is also very bad since he is getting better odds to draw to a full house.

The kid folded and two other players went allin.  Another player had 9h6h and someone had T9, and the original raiser also had T9.  That leaves him with 31% equity in a $12,000 pot where he needed 22% to break even, so it cost him 9% of $12,000 or ~$1000.

The kid and I were talking and he was telling me that he made a good fold and asked if I agreed and I didn’t say anything.  The way the situation unfolded was rare but it was an expensive mistake, and one that showed a need to understand some of the more complicated math of the game.

Newspaper editor: …And to protect Mother Earth, each copy contains a certain percentage of recycled paper.

Lisa: And what percent is that?

Newspaper editor: Zero.(Lisa frowns)  

Newspaper editor: Zero’s a percent.

I often feel like Lisa sitting at the poker table.  Over the past year or so, newer poker terminology, that was mainly used on the internet to describe better play has permeated all the way to the amateur player.  Terms like “pot committed,” “having equity,” and “against his range” regularly fly out of my opponents mouths and are used to justify their play in a hand.  Unfortunately for them, many players have not learned the true definition of those terms and how to apply them.  They are merely window dressing, much like the editor who spoke to Lisa, and are merely making the same plays they always have with fancier new names.

It is really important to get to thoroughly understand an idea and its application, and to know specifics.  It’s not enough to say “he is bluffing some percentage of the time there,”  without having a good idea of what that percentage is.  Often times, that percentage is zero, and when doing calculations, need to include it as such, and not an unknown.

I am in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker and will try to blog regularly while I am here with interesting thoughts and hands.