How A Professional Writer Turned Herself Into A World Class Poker Player

Joe Weisenthal (0:11)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:16)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

Tracy, so you guys are going into hard lockdown again in Hong Kong, huh?

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

Yeah, we are. We're experiencing our third wave of coronavirus, and unfortunately, it's worse than the first and second wave. So yeah, we're going back into social distancing measures. People are being told to work from home. Bars are closed, and restaurants are implementing new restrictions, so yep.

Back to lockdown.

Joe Weisenthal (0:44)

So obviously, this is all getting pretty tiresome.

I think people are ready for real life to resume, but there's actually one, oh, there's a few aspects of lockdown life that I kind of prefer, but there's one thing in particular that I find to be better. You know what it is?

Tracy Alloway (1:02)

Yeah, I think I do. I think I've actually done it with you a couple months ago.

Joe Weisenthal (1:07)

Oh, yeah, yes. I find playing poker online with friends to be much better than playing poker in real life with friends. I'm not sure if poker is a better game online, period, but at least on a social version, I much prefer playing in a room with a Zoom chat going on than actually gathering around a table with friends and playing poker.

Tracy Alloway (1:33)

Wait, you're gonna have to explain that, because I thought poker, when people play on a casual level like that, it's supposed to be a social activity. You're not supposed to like doing it via Zoom chat.

Joe Weisenthal (1:44)

Well, I get that. And so I think that maybe it's because of a little bit antisocial or something like that. But normally when I've played poker among friends or casually, people start talking about sports and that slows down the dealing. And I don't really care about those conversations. Not sports. Or someone is like, oh, let's order a pizza. And they bring a pizza onto the table or chips.

And I'm like, come on, let's just deal. Or someone gets distracted and they start telling a story while they're dealing. That gets really annoying.

With the Zoom chat in the online poker room, you can have all that stuff. You can still have people having a name conversations or getting up for a snack, but it doesn't slow down the game at all. So if all you want to do is focus on the cards, I actually think it's a better experience.

Tracy Alloway (2:33)

Wait, I have a question. How much does doing poker via Zoom help when it comes to actual strategy and for instance, hiding your tells? Is that the reason you like it? Because maybe when you're playing in person, everyone knows what you're thinking. And when you're on Zoom, it's much easier to hide your motivations.

Joe Weisenthal (2:51)

Well, let's say I was playing with a friend who was wearing glasses, and I thought I could almost make out his whole cards in the reflection of his glasses, but I couldn't. And that'd be unethical.

But no, I do think that's the thing. And I've noticed myself on the videos, like when I'm like, oh, shoot, I'm really like leaning back at my chair here, or I'm really staring. I wonder if people can, you know, I'm giving it away. I haven't played enough to like figure out patterns, but if I were to play enough with Zoom calls, you know, you would probably start to notice.

Tracy Alloway (3:22)

I gotta say, so I don't think it's a secret to Odd Lots listeners that I am not a big poker fan or player, but when I do play, I find it much, much more enjoyable when it's with actual people. And I think it's much more interesting to try to look at the psychological aspect of it all versus just the cards and doing the maths, which feels like what Zoom is mostly about.

Joe Weisenthal (3:45)

Yeah, no, I hear that. And actually I think without the Zoom, it could get a little boring. And I think poker in general, even though I really enjoy it as a game or as a sport or whatever you wanna call it, it can be boring and you just have long stretches of doing nothing and the attempt to create action, to create excitement can often be very costly. So I certainly am sympathetic to the view that it's more enjoyable in real life with actual people.

Tracy Alloway (4:12)

Yeah, people definitely seem to do stupid things when they're playing the online games just to sort of, well, just because they can. But anyway, so I take it we are doing a poker episode.