Poker Aquarium
Tetra ColorFusion Starter aquarium Kit 3 Gallons, Half-Moon Shape, With Bubbler And Color-Changing Light Disc 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,940 $27.33 $ 27. 33 $39.99 $39.99. Placement: Mount the Poker Star Montipora coral using IC gel glue, or putty, on an exposed rock or ledge in the aquarium where it will receive direct flow and light. Poker Star Montipora coral will encrust the rock and makes a great accent coral.
I looked up “tapping the glass” online and the first two definitions I saw were both good. From Pokerdictionary.net:
- Position is key in poker but it's quite a tricky concept to grasp when you're starting off. So here are the basics; look out for people who consistently limp in under the gun and then call a raise only to check and fold to any bet on the flop. And look out for people who don't use the button to bet and steal the blinds.
- Simply, fish are poker players who don't know how to play poker very well. Even at established sites, bad players are everywhere, losing pots and slowly going broke. Online poker fish consistently make bad decisions pre-flop, open with too wide a range of hands, and play the wrong hands out of position.
“In poker, the saying ‘Tap the glass’ refers to telling weaker players at the table about their bad play, to vent, and to educate them in the process.”
And from Flopturnriver.com: “Tapping the Glass is a common term for telling the fish at your table how bad they’re playing.”
Both sites immediately stated in strong terms that tapping the glass is bad for business and in poor taste. What I want to talk about is the view from the other side of the aquarium. The inside.
You’re minding your own business, swimming around in your tank, checking out the rocks and plants, when some instigator comes along, and for no reason that’s helpful to anyone, he starts flicking his finger on the glass. Flick flick flick. Tap, tap, tap. So annoying.
“Keep playing like that, go ahead, just keep playing like that and I’ll have all your money before the night’s over.” That’s a typical glass tapper comment. “How could you make such a terrible call?” is another.
Some people cannot walk by an aquarium without tapping on the glass, and some poker players cannot play poker without berating their opponents. And sometimes that opponent is you. Or, as in my case, me. I have been berated thousands of times. But to be fair, for my first ten years of poker, I didn’t just tap on the glass, I pounded on it. And I played bad. So yeah, I took my share of heat.
Turns out that getting my game in line and going pro didn’t provide any shielding. I think that’s because sometimes I make really good plays that look really bad, and sometimes I still make plays that are just plain bad, but mostly it’s because losing sucks and people bitch about it.
I used to enjoy replying to comments that were intended to belittle my play, and over time I developed a small repertoire of retorts.
GLASS TAPPER: “Keep playing like that, ::: snort snort, huff puff :::”
ME: “Would you be happier if I played better?”
GLASS TAPPER: “How could you make such a terrible call?”
ME: “I’m double parked.”
Glass tapping does have some art to it, and I’m an artist appreciator. I have derived much pleasure from listening to clever insults crafted by master tappers, even when they are aimed at me…
THE SETTING: The Bellagio poker room, 1998, before the no-limit boom. Back then, the main games in casinos were limit hold’em and seven-card stud. Few players played both games, and both camps believed their game was the superior test of skill.
THE GAME: $30/60 limit hold’em.
THE ACTION: I won a pot by playing a bad hand poorly and getting lucky as hell. Then I did it again. And then came the question…
Poker Aquarium Supplies
“What do you do for a living?”
My inquisitor was an obvious pro, and his tone and timing left no doubt as to his meaning, which was, “What could an idiot like you possibly do for a living that pays so well that you can afford to play so bad?”
“I play stud,” I said.
But those days are long gone. The days of stupid answers to insipid questions. Don’t get me wrong. I still make loopy-looking plays. And I still draw fire for making them. But now the words and expressions I hear and see are harmless sounds and movements, like wind through the trees.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but needles never hurt me.
I achieved this feat by training myself in the ways of shamelessness. And stillness. And non-competition. And not looking players in the eye. Unless of course I am using my Jedi powers to control their thoughts.
Here’s the thing. Until they take the pain out of poker, until they do away with all the disappointment and frustration, there will always be berated fish, and berated experts. So it doesn’t matter where you land on the scale between novice and ninja. Someone will tap your glass. The only question I have is: Will it annoy you? Will it cause you to perform sub-optimally?
Okay. That was two questions.
And here’s another.
Why are glass tappers annoying?
It’s because you care. It’s because you care about what people think about you and your poker. It’s because you have opinions. Opinions about what’s right and what isn’t. In other words, annoyances annoy you because you’re a normal human bean.
But what if you wanted to make yourself abnormal? What if you wanted to stop caring so much about what other people do and think? What could you do to make yourself content, inside the aquarium, while it’s being tapped?
Two things: apply bandaids, and apply mindfulness.
Band-aids are things like taking a break to cool off, and realizing that the guy isn’t really pestering you, because if it wasn’t you it would be someone else. Another Band-Aid would be to listen to music you love on headphones while being grateful for something in your life that doesn’t suck.
Thoughts and actions like that go a long way, but I’d feel like I was short-changing you if I didn’t mention mindfulness as an additional form of thought and action that also ends annoyances and dissatisfactions, sometimes for one second, and sometimes forever.
To define that term, let’s turn to Merriam Webster:
“Mindfulness is the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.”
Mindfulness can work like an anesthetic. It can ease the pain. Bad beat pain, or glass tapper pain. And it can bring all sorts of other welcomed improvements. Don’t take my word on it. Do a web search for Mindfulness and Creativity, or Mindfulness and The Brain, or Mindfulness and Wall Street, or Mindfulness and Focus.
But don’t bother searching for Mindfulness and Glass Tapping. There’s nothing on the web about that. Until now!
Right next to the bar and parking. Only thing I don't like is the bathrooms are a decent walk away. There is a half wall surrounding the room so there are always onlookers checking out the games. The chairs are comfortable enough to sit for hours and there is ample elbow/leg room as well. There is a deli not too far away serving food as well as Lucky's Cafe which is 24 hour. I have only had to wait longer than 5 minutes or so for a seat one time when a tournament was running and there weren't enough dealers to form a cash game. There doesn't seem to be a steady number of players every week. Some Wednesdays the 9am tourney has 60 players and one time it only had 22. Same thing with the cash games. 2-4 limit and 1-2 no limit seem to be the only games really going. I have only seen 3-6 limit once and 2-5 no limit once.
Most of the players are so bad they are good. Don't plan on having consistent sessions here, even playing good poker. I have made over $300 in one session playing 2/4 and I have also lost $300 in one session. However, if you can get through the bad beats, you will end up on top in the long run and make money easy. The problem is there are so many players who will play everything to the river that if there is a backdoor possibility, someone probably hit it. Many players make fundamental errors as well, such as not raising with the nuts. The no limit table is a joke. Everyone plays any two cards and overplays them horribly. Often there is way too much money on the table for the stakes. I have seen a $1400 heads up pot in 1-2 when the max buyin is $200 that's how agressive and how often players at the table have rebought. Overall, if you play mathematically sound poker and have the discipline to endure the bad beats and fold your monsters when your beat, you will make a lot of money here.
Most of the dealers started green, but the majority of them have it together. The dealers were locked in to their tables one time due to a staff shortage and Derek dealt our table for 4 hours straight and didn't make a single mistake. On the other hand, there is another dealer who had lost the dealer button on his table: someone put it in their pocket and walked away with it. The majority of the dealer mistakes occur when players try to do the dealers job and get in the way, which is unfortunate.
Were the cocktail waitresses attractive? Most of them are knockouts. I do not understand how anyone can get bad beverage service here. Personally, I rarely tip only $1 since the drinks are free anyways. I usually tip $2-4 per drink and never have to wait. If you order your first drink and tip well right after you order, they will take care of you and you'll be the first one to get your drink when she comes from the bar. I have been to the poker room many times and I'd say half the time I will ask for another drink and they already have one on the tray for me because 'they thought I may be ready for another already.' Also, if the waitress hasn't been around in a while you can ask the dealer for cocktail service and they will hook it up.
The poker room has recently undergone new management as of the beginning of November so I can't really rate them fairly. The 'lower level' floor managers who are still there are always helpful. The wait list is kept on the computer and put on the flat screen.
Poker Aquarium Game
$1/hr in comps if you have the card. It is not yet computerized, so I don't even bother with it. There are two huge stacks of papers for comps that need to be entered into a computer eventually when they have the technology which drags the rating down. However, the jackpots are excellent. $1 is raked from every hand and added towards the jackpots. They range from $20-$599 and keep building until someone hits them. Hands eligible are quads and straight/royal flushes which brings this rating upto average. I've seen quite a few jackpots hit for big money. There are no bad beat jackpots.