I was an invited call-in on Monday’s premiere livecast of Abe Limon’s rebooted #POKERSESH, now streaming through Poker Talk Live (which is also home to Live at the Bike). He’s heaped a lot of praise on my articles here and elsewhere, which I’m more than happy to suck up despite my tendency to self-deprecation (one of my email sigs cites a quote from “The Making of the President 1972” about George McGovern: “a humble, self-effacing, egomaniac”). If you’re a subscriber to the site (or you sign up for a free month with the code: pokersesh) you can catch my few minutes on the air at 15:40 in the archived show. Lots of thanks to Limon and co-host Marie Lizette for having me on.
What stood out to me in the show, though, was Limon’s elucidation on his “Infinite Stacks” concept. I knew about it already and understood what he was getting at, but this “self-loathing tournament player” (as Limon described me) has enough self-awareness to appreciate this exchange between the hosts and Kevin Hoff, who called in at 42:30.
LIMON: Kevin Hoff is the administrator for Infinite Stacks.
MARIE LIZETTE: I see. So that’s a real thing?
LIMON: Infinite Stacks is a real thing. In one way or another.
MARIE: I figured that was just made-up.
LIMON: Well, I mean, it’s…it’s…you know…
MARIE: I just assumed it was a Twitter account you created to double troll people.
LIMON: Well, in a way. But you know…
MARIE: I figured it was your troll “strudle.”
LIMON: I invented Infinite Stacks on one of the very first old Poker Sessions, right Kevin?
KEVIN HOFF: That’s right, absolutely.
LIMON: It was like, show number 2 or 3, and I said, I told everybody, hey, ‘cuz what it was was a take on “Monster Stacks” and “Colossal Stacks”…
MARIE: Oh, okay.
LIMON: …and everybody, the way that everybody is nowdays…
MARIE: “Quantum Reload” all that stuff, “Infinite Stacks” of starting….
LIMON: …all these morons—these fucking tournament morons—what they are really trying to do is, they’re trying to create a cash game with no cash game pros. So, they want bigger stacks…
MARIE: Right.
LIMON: …longer levels…
MARIE: Right.
LIMON: …all this nonsense. So basically they’re like: “Oh, what if I could be in a cash game with no cash game pros so I could actually win and not have my ass handed to me every day?” Right?
MARIE: Right, right, right.
LIMON: So what they’re trying to do is create this little world away from the cash game floor, where they mimic a cash game but they get to keep all the guppies to themselves, right?
MARIE: That’s…. Which sucks! They’re killing the cash game! I mean, they’re killing the cash game!
LIMON: So what I did, I said: “Uh, there’s a new tournament at the casino! It’s called ‘Infinite Stacks’, it’s held where the cash games used to be.” Right?
MARIE: Exactly! Exactly!
LIMON: “And it’s the greatest tournament structure in the world.”
MARIE: You can buy in for any amount.
LIMON: Any amount.
MARIE: There’s no cap.
LIMON: No cap.
MARIE: Unlimited rebuys.
LIMON: Go to the bathroom when you want. Cash out when you want. Yeah. So that was my whole thing. It was a joke, but it was also sort of like a commentary on how tournament structures are going, where every year it’s bigger. Deep stacks! Monster stacks! Colossal stacks! Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…..
I’m still a tournament player. There’s something about the pressure of the increasing blinds that makes it more of an interesting game to me, as a game player. As someone trying to make a long-term profit from poker, however, I think Limon has the goods here.