Infinite Stacks

limon

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.