four years and most players would agree that, all-in-all, we should be
happy that they have occurred. Some of the changes I have noticed
have been in the terminology that is used in the industry and, I must
admit, if many of these new terms were not annoying to me, I probably
wouldn’t have taken the time to write a column concerning them.
Let me start with terminology that really doesn’t bother me that much
but is more of a gentle lead in to the point I will be trying to make
throughout the writing.
Having lived in Southern California for the last thirty years, I played poker
while I was running my construction business. I frequently played in
places like the Normandie Club, Bicycle Club, Commerce Club and others
that have gone, and still others that have come into existence. They
were, as you notice, “clubs,” and if someone would ask you where you
were going, if you had a favorite place like the Bicycle Club, you would
just say, “I’m going to the Club.”
Then, a few years ago, these clubs all changed and became “casinos.”
The change was so subtle that I don’t even remember noticing that it
had changed. My guess is, as a marketing tool, it was a good decision
and it probably brought in some extra people. After all, would you rather
go to a club or a casino?
Now, they are still named and called casinos except, and here is my
annoyance, if you are talking with Internet people or talking about places
to play poker in general, then these former clubs (which became casinos)
are now referred to as, get this, “brick and mortar” poker places. Now, I
was in the masonry construction business for twenty years and, let me
tell you, I don’t know any of these places that are brick and mortar.
Most lathe and plaster or block and mortar. Besides, I think the Internet
companies started the whole thing by giving everyplace to play poker
that wasn’t on the Internet an ugly name, like “brick and mortar.” Who
the hell wants to play amongst brick and mortar?
Another example of terminology that has either changed or crept into the
poker jargon is the word “cut-off.” I remember cut-offs were when you
had worn your jeans several years and they were beginning to look
raggedy, you would cut them off and make shorts out of them. The first
time I heard the term in poker was when one of the new pro’s was
talking about a hand where he was in the cut-off position and everyone
passed, and he continued the story “…only problem was, he had left me
back at the cut-off position.”
I’ve been playing poker longer than I care to admit, and professionally,
off and on for a long, long while, and I had never heard the term “cut-
off.” Later, after the new pro left, I asked the other remaining player
and he explained the cut-off position was the player (or seat) one off the
button. So, I guess if someone says there they were one seat off the
cut-off, it’s like back in the olden days you would have been two seats
from the button.
Next, let me mention another poker term that crept into poker lexicon,
that is, the word “domination.” It is used when comparing hands such
as when one player has A, K and the other A, Q. The A, K has the player
with A, Q “dominated.” In years gone by, we had different terms for the
same concept. Back then was a time when almost all the players were
males and there were no penalties for inappropriate language and now
having one player dominated was then having that player “by the you-
know-what’s.” I actually prefer the new word usage, dominated over
having him by the you-know-what’s. It is more titillating, not so direct
and to the point.
Now here is a change in terminology in the business that has annoyed
and confounded me. It was brought to mind a several ago months ago
when my daughter started playing poker. She got started by going to
the Ladies Only tournaments at the Bicycle with my wife and then
opened an account on one of the Internet sites and started playing—first
with play money and free-roll tournaments, and then gradually playing
small tournaments and in small limit games.
One day I asked her how her poker playing on the Internet was going
and she said good. She went on to explain she really liked the sit-and-
go’s. “Oh,” I said, “must be something new. What’s it called again?”
She said “Sit-and-go’s.” “How do they work?” I asked. She explained
how they worked. “Gee,” I thought, amazingly similar to a one-table
satellite that pays three spots in cash. I was satisfied with the whole
thing, except I began to see that it was not quite as clear cut as I had
thought.
In the following weeks, while attending poker tournaments, I sometimes
drifted into the satellite area, where I noticed that they too were
conducting satellites or sit-and-go’s. The more I listened and watched,
the more I got confused. I heard one place announce, “One-table
satellites paying three spots. Another poker room announced sit-and-go’
s, the winner receiving a buy-in to that day’s tournament. I asked my
wife about the difference, as she plays some small or freeroll sit-and-go’s
on the Internet. She explains, some sit-and-go’s are only for points into
other tournaments and have just one winner, others pay two or three
spots.
The more confused I got, the more I wanted to make some sense of the
whole thing. I wondered why they changed from using the word
satellite of different kinds to sit-and-go’s. I decided to ask people who
were running the satellites or sit-and-go’s. So, for the next few
tournaments I attended, I headed for the satellite or sit-and-go area.
First of all, for some of the tournaments I attended, it was my first time
being in that particular casino so I usually stopped the first poker player
that I recognized and asked where the sit-and-go area was. Most of the
players looked at me like I was crazy. They usually would say, “you
mean the satellite area?” “Oh,” I would reply, “Yeah the satellite area.”
Finally, when I got there I searched out the person who ran the
satellites or sit-and go’s. I just wanted to know what significance the
term sit-and-go had. I was way past trying to get an exact definition of
what a sit-and-go and a satellite was, I just wanted to know what sit-
and-go meant.
Some satellite directors said the name sit-and-go came from the fact that
players start taking their seats in these satellites, oops, sorry, these sit-
and-go’s, and then, when all eight, nine or ten players are seated (or
maybe more aptly put, when all sit), they go. Others contend that when
all have sat (or sit) they commence play and when someone loses all
their chips, they go.
My solution, go back to calling them all one-table satellites. Just pause
after saying one-table satellite and explain the payout.
My daughter also said she liked the $2 and $4 “fixed” games on the
Internet. That was another annoying changed the Internet sites
started. They couldn’t just have $2 and $4 games or $2 and $4 no-limit
games, they had to make sure everyone knew the limit was “fixed.”
So, in case your Rip VanWinkle and you’ve been away for poker for the
last four or five years and now you have decided to return to play, Let
me tell you that you’re not in the twilight zone or losing your mind, it’s
just that we have just changed the way we say the same old things.
For what it’s worth ...
