In the poker world, we often talk about "the long run".  A good gambler understands that the decisions he makes don't produce the results he would like every time.  In fact, I'd say results-oriented thinking is the absolute toughest trait to beat out of a would-be-great poker player.  Need some examples of results-oriented thinking?

"Man if I would have quit an hour ago I would have won a rack instead of losing two!"

"That guy flops a set every time I have his pair dominated!  He's too lucky"

"I knew I should have checked behind on the river, he checkraised me and I didn't know what to do"

I could find a hundred more examples just by opening my ear in a poker room, or sadly, by reading a lot of posts on internet poker message boards.  It was out of this desire to distance ourselves from results-oriented thinking that The Great Session Swap Experiment was born.  A friend and I were chatting about live poker, and lamenting that you play so few hands in any given session, the results often seem to be based on luck more than skill.  Of course we both realize when you put those sessions next to each other for weeks, months, and certainly years the winning players win money and the losing players lose money, just as the poker gods intended, and expected value promises.  Why then do we feel so awful after a losing session, or play that one extra hour to get unstuck?  Because winning - no matter how arbitrary the criteria - feels better than losing, and the human mind will not be denied the simple pleasures.

You're a poker player, and you have an hourly win rate (or if you prefer online terms, a winrate per hundred hands).  If a fellow poker player has a similar winrate, than in "the long run" you both will win a similar amount of money.  At this point you realize I'm trapping you but deep down you're thinking "I know what he is saying is true, statistics tells me so" but do you really believe that?  Do you believe it deeply enough to abandon results-oriented thinking and let statistics guide you?

The Great Session Swap Experiment can be described thusly:  You and someone else who have a similar winrate play a session of similar length at the same limit and when you finish that session, you swap results.

Here are some potential pitfalls I've already considered for you:

1)      Trading smaller percentages of the results:  If, rather than swapping results completely, you would prefer to share the results of you and your friend's play you would effectively be reducing both of your variance.  But you would not be participating in The Great Session Swap Experiment because it is NOT designed to reduce your variance, it is ONLY designed to increase your results disassociation.

2)      Playing at the same table during a session swap:  Simply put, DO NOT DO THIS.  Basically, game theory would dictate that the proper strategy for both of you is to get in heads up pots against the other guy and find a way to lose as many chips as possible to him.  I think you can see why this would not be in the spirit of The Great Session Swap Experiment.

3)      Choosing a session swap partner:  First, it's important that you and you partner have a similar winrate in whatever game you choose to swap sessions in.  Second, it's important that you trust your partner completely, as NOBODY knows your true results except for you.  To swap session results with somebody you must be comfortable taking their word for the result, there is no decent way to verify it and trying to find one would defeat the purpose of The Great Session Swap Experiment anyway.

4)      Session length:  You and your partner should choose a session length before beginning that you are both comfortable with, and stick to it.  If one of you is used to playing 12 hour marathon sessions and the other one usually quits in 3 hours, you need to discuss this and determine a good session length beforehand that will allow both of you to play your best.  The only other advice I can give here is to make your session length firm, and when the designated end of your session comes, finish up your orbit and quit, results be damned.  Having thoughts like "I should play an extra half hour because I'm stuck a bit and I want to book a win for my friend" go against the purpose of The Great Session Swap Experiment.

Now that you understand how a session swap works, all that's left to do is abandon your results-oriented-ness and give it a try!  I've already completed my first one and you can read my partner's thoughts about the idea here:  BigBabyDougie's Session Swap Post (http://deathdonkey.com/?p=205).  Happy swapping!

© 07/2007 by Chris "DeathDonkey" Vitch