Recently I heard about the firing of a certain NFL head coach. The
particular coach that got fired had led another team in another city to a
Super Bowl win a few years ago. He subsequently quit, and was then
hired by a different team in a different city. When it was first announced
that he had been hired as the new coach, the whole city bristled with
excitement. Everyone was certain that the new coach would resurrect his
new team. He was going to be the savior. Well, you can probably guess
what happened. The team proceeded to have 3 or 4 disastrous
seasons. The make-up of his new team was much different than his
Super Bowl winning team. He basically did not have the personnel to win
with.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt empathy for the coach. One
of the reasons I felt sorry for the newly fired coach was because I
realized that there seemed to be so many parallels between the life of
an NFL coach, and that of a professional tournament poker player.
I thought of some streaks I have had in the tournament poker world
where I just couldn't win. It seemed like my cards were vastly inferior to
what other players were receiving. I understood that the coach probably
had been dealing with the same type thing but instead of inferior cards,
he had been dealing with inferior players. I thought maybe the coach
actually had a little advantage over me, from the standpoint that it might
be easier to justify why he had been losing. Everyone could see his
personnel was inferior, whereas we poker player sometimes hold inferior
cards, and unfortunately we're the only people who see them.
I wonder how many fired coaches over the years have had the same
feeling I have, that is when they're playing or coaching their butts off,
and they aren't winning. Knowing deep down in their hearts that given
better players or cards, they could get the job done. Let's face it--
sometimes your players, or cards, just stink.
The more I thought about it, even more parallels popped into my mind. It
occurred to me that some coaches are very offensive minded. They seem
to stock their teams with a lot of good offensive players, and their teams
win their games by scoring a lot of points. They are not that concerned
with defense. Some good tournament poker players also are offensive
minded. We call them "rammer-jammers". They get there with a minimum
amount of defense and a maximum amount of offense. If these poker
players were NFL coaches, they would be throwing the long bomb on
every down.
On the other hand, other successful coaches stress defense. They have
the defensive players and their teams win those low scoring battles. You
know the ones that sort of "bore you to tears". Once again, the parallel
in poker is there. There are some good tournament players who are
defense minded. Their motto is "a saved bet is a won bet". They just
seem to stick around and stick around and next thing you know they're
chopping the prize money. If these defense-minded players were NFL
coaches, they would give the other team the ball the entire game and
win, by running back fumble recoveries.
By this time, I had satisfied myself enough to realize that there were
many similarities between the two occupations. I decided that in the
future, I would use this as the analogy, when I try to explain to people
who want to understand the life of a tournament poker player.
I'm sure all the players who have participated for any length of time in
poker tournaments have, like me, been asked many times some of the
following questions. "Oh, you play poker tournaments? What's it like?
How much of it is luck? Do you win all the time?"
Now, I think I will have the answer. I'll start out by just saying, "Playing
poker tournaments is like coaching in the NFL." Then I'll go through all
the things I talked about above and conclude by saying, "The big
difference is we don't make as much money as the coaches do; but then
on the other hand, nobody can fire us."
For what it's worth …
particular coach that got fired had led another team in another city to a
Super Bowl win a few years ago. He subsequently quit, and was then
hired by a different team in a different city. When it was first announced
that he had been hired as the new coach, the whole city bristled with
excitement. Everyone was certain that the new coach would resurrect his
new team. He was going to be the savior. Well, you can probably guess
what happened. The team proceeded to have 3 or 4 disastrous
seasons. The make-up of his new team was much different than his
Super Bowl winning team. He basically did not have the personnel to win
with.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt empathy for the coach. One
of the reasons I felt sorry for the newly fired coach was because I
realized that there seemed to be so many parallels between the life of
an NFL coach, and that of a professional tournament poker player.
I thought of some streaks I have had in the tournament poker world
where I just couldn't win. It seemed like my cards were vastly inferior to
what other players were receiving. I understood that the coach probably
had been dealing with the same type thing but instead of inferior cards,
he had been dealing with inferior players. I thought maybe the coach
actually had a little advantage over me, from the standpoint that it might
be easier to justify why he had been losing. Everyone could see his
personnel was inferior, whereas we poker player sometimes hold inferior
cards, and unfortunately we're the only people who see them.
I wonder how many fired coaches over the years have had the same
feeling I have, that is when they're playing or coaching their butts off,
and they aren't winning. Knowing deep down in their hearts that given
better players or cards, they could get the job done. Let's face it--
sometimes your players, or cards, just stink.
The more I thought about it, even more parallels popped into my mind. It
occurred to me that some coaches are very offensive minded. They seem
to stock their teams with a lot of good offensive players, and their teams
win their games by scoring a lot of points. They are not that concerned
with defense. Some good tournament poker players also are offensive
minded. We call them "rammer-jammers". They get there with a minimum
amount of defense and a maximum amount of offense. If these poker
players were NFL coaches, they would be throwing the long bomb on
every down.
On the other hand, other successful coaches stress defense. They have
the defensive players and their teams win those low scoring battles. You
know the ones that sort of "bore you to tears". Once again, the parallel
in poker is there. There are some good tournament players who are
defense minded. Their motto is "a saved bet is a won bet". They just
seem to stick around and stick around and next thing you know they're
chopping the prize money. If these defense-minded players were NFL
coaches, they would give the other team the ball the entire game and
win, by running back fumble recoveries.
By this time, I had satisfied myself enough to realize that there were
many similarities between the two occupations. I decided that in the
future, I would use this as the analogy, when I try to explain to people
who want to understand the life of a tournament poker player.
I'm sure all the players who have participated for any length of time in
poker tournaments have, like me, been asked many times some of the
following questions. "Oh, you play poker tournaments? What's it like?
How much of it is luck? Do you win all the time?"
Now, I think I will have the answer. I'll start out by just saying, "Playing
poker tournaments is like coaching in the NFL." Then I'll go through all
the things I talked about above and conclude by saying, "The big
difference is we don't make as much money as the coaches do; but then
on the other hand, nobody can fire us."
For what it's worth …
Fire the Coach
By Vince Burgio
By Vince Burgio
