#225: “Promises of Marshmallows”
He sits upright in an office chair, one leg jittering, eyes fixed on a cluttered computer screen, a puzzle-solver, a story-teller, a plate-spinner. Fold, fold, raise, fold, a glance at his HUD… call, most definitely a ‘fine’ defend…
In 1970, the Bing Nursery School at Stanford University played host to the first ‘Marshmallow Test’, whereby children aged four to six were given a marshmallow, told they could eat it now if they wished but also told that if they waited for 15 minutes without giving into temptation, they would be given two marshmallows instead of one. Out of over 600 children, only a third of them were willing to defer gratification, the rest either eating the marshmallow immediately or succumbing at some point within the 15 minutes. In follow-up studies, the psychologist Walter Mischel found that the kids who had resisted eating the marshmallow achieved higher SAT scores, went further in higher education, were less likely to be overweight and were more likely to be wealthy.
Most poker players, be they recreational, professional or somewhere betwixt, eat the marshmallow. They eat the marshmallow, thinking what a sucker that guy is for giving me a free marshmallow. That or ‘who the fuck does he think he is, telling me that if I wait, he’ll give me an extra one? That patronising prick ain’t the boss of me!’ Most like a bird in the hand and are inherently suspicious of bushes and their apparent contents. Most pay lip service to the ‘get it slowly’ approach but in reality, they want it all now. Most are not willing to defer gratification. Most, but not all.
Headphones on, a cacophony of progressive metal and beeps. Between clicks, he sips his tea, made hurriedly at the break. Click fold, slurp, click fold, slurp… a rhythm emerges, broken only to reach for a dog-eared copy of Kill Everyone, it’s back-pages more thumbed than a copy of Playboy in a boy’s boarding school. The book says shove but it’s bottom of the range. Wincing, he finds a fold. Unexploitable isn’t always optimal…
I first met Daragh Davey three years ago when Dara O’Kearney told me that he had started staking a young up and coming cash game pro who plied his trade in the Fitz. Daragh was already an expert playing deep but he was not as proficient at handling a short-stack. Dara was worried that these leaks would be costly in an online setting where most tournaments test your ability to ninja a stack of less than 20bbs. To this end, he asked me to do a coaching session with Daragh and I duly obliged.
Two long hand histories, several cups of coffee and a lively debate on the merits/demerits of shoving M of 7 Nash Equilibrium ranges later, it was clear that Daragh was a quick study and razor-sharp when it came to deconstructing a poker hand. He had, after all, been playing for three years, five or six nights a week, winning one pot at a time at €1/€2. He’d navigated that tricky first year – thankless, tankless work. He’d negotiated year two, befriending the likes of Scott Gray, Nick Newport and Will Molloy, opponents on the felt but also colleagues of a sort with whom he could discuss ranges and lines. By the end of year three, he had built up a modest bankroll but preferred the idea of being backed for the transition to an online grind. It was a wise decision as many live pros struggle at first with the rapid-fire and technical aspects of online multi-tabling. It was a wise decision, indicative of a man assured and in no hurry.
Hours pass. Disappointments abound. Bad beats proliferate and escalate. A screen once proud with chaos has withered to a manageable melange. He reaches for the book once more. Again, bottom of the range but now, two tables out in a turbo, it’s acceptable to take this small edge…
Unsurprisingly, the results followed as Daragh crushed both live and online. When he outgrew his staking deal, it made sense to, as Dara put it, ‘kick him upstairs’. Daragh became a junior and, later, an equal partner in The Firm, staking and coaching other up and coming players. 2012 was his biggest year, that is, until 2013, capped off by his 3rd place finish in the UKIPT Galway. By the time we got down to the business end of UKIPT Season 4, The Firm were well placed on both the online and live leaderboards. Dara cruised to victory online while I was lucky to chase down 3rd. Dara came 6th live while I managed to finish 4th. It was, however, Daragh who went to London with a real shot of becoming Player of the Season. Just days earlier, a live tournament cash-less streak of twenty-two hung portentously over him in the Isle of Man but victory in the PLO event had fostered new hope of catching Max Silver whose lead had been cut to the slenderest of margins.
One game remains, enlarged to engulf the entire screen. The long nine hour grind has boiled down to this final table. Patiently, he waits, using the time between hands to analyse his opponents’ stats. With steals and re-steals, he punishes imbalance. He chips up. He wins a flip. He ladders. He permits himself a wry smile when his KJo re-shove dogs AK for the chip-lead…
Last year, Daragh and I became flatmates and the livingroom of my apartment was transformed into a poker-cave over night. Me; lying on the couch, twiddling my hair, inexorably pummeling my laptop with a deluge of expletives. Daragh; quiet, zen, exuding a cool professionalism and calm. It was with that same professionalism and calm that Daragh went about the job of cashing every event he could in London. The outcome? He cashed 5 events in a week, leaving Max and the rest of us in his dust. The prize? A passport to every event of UKIPT Season 5. More deferred gratification. More promises of marshmallows.