Brick & mortar poker and online poker are two completely different games, therefore we have decided should have different names. As the term “poker” has been well-established for centuries as the the live game it shall remain in that context. Decree: “Poker” has been grandfathered in, and shall not have to change its name. The Chronicle has now deemed on-line poker as ‘Cozen‘. This shall now be so for the rest of the world. So says the Chronicle.
When a player relays that they play poker for a living, most people don’t give much thought to what that really means. Non-poker-world folk envision one of two things: smokey back rooms with cigars, guns and stacks of bills, or a million+ dollar WSOP main event win. Cozen also conjures up visions of two things for the layman: faceb**k freebie app or banks of monitors with multi-tabling & HUDS. Both poker and cozen have their pros and cons. They have a few similarities. Mostly, they are completely different logistically and strategically.
Common game denominators: 52 cards (unless one is playing short-deck, also not real poker). Hand rankings. Blinds/structure. Order of play. He who has the most chips wins.
Cozen unique: It’s a team sport~ more people on your team to surround and drown the individual the better. Volume & math are king ~ bad runouts can be offset by multi-tabling. HUDs ~ taking away the need to ‘remember’ information about your opponents. Bots or addons ~ to autoplay optimally. The skill and strategy involved statistics, math and the ability to multi-task. Finally: hackers.
Poker unique: 1 table at a time. Slow as snails if transitioning from Cozen. Human interaction and tells are involved. No program or other human to help you make a decision. Collusion between 2 or 3 people at most. Math is less likely to be successful than with Cozen. The skill and strategy involves reading people and Super System (or pick your book). Finally: cheaters.
Each of these games has their problems.
The number of times the hackers have been brought to light by Cozen companies likely pales in comparison to the reality of the situation. It is no secret that collusion runs rampant. The casual player has a distinct disadvantage unless playing specific $ level games, and known opponents.
The number of times cheaters have been brought to light by poker also likely pales when comparing to reality. The difference lies in the frequency and opportunity, as well as the ability to catch and punish them. There are fewer victims, less damage. Cameras and on-site management deal with the issue immediately.
Since Cozen is outlawed here in the fine (sarcasm) state of WA, the Chronicle is banned from playing it anyway. This does not break our hearts, as Cozens is not our game of choice. Don’t think because we don’t don’t play regularly, we don’t know the nuts and bolts, however. We have dabbled while in other locations and before the ban. We have also read up in depth on the Cozen situation, mostly through Twitter and PokerNews. What does break our hearts is that we can’t play Cozen for fake money on PokerStars here in WA. We can play on other dorkey sites which don’t even resemble real cards, but they are so dumb as to not be worth our time.
The Chronicle as been following the creation and start-up of Phil Galfond’s site with interest. As fan-birds&otters of him from days of old (sorry, you are not ‘old’ , Phil), it has been interesting to watch him attempt to create a cozen site which is more equitable to the individual player and less of a team sport. We miss watching him live, observing his thought process, and cheering him on. The Chronicle would very much like to get his respected opinion of the playing differences between the two games. We have garnered that the site is still experiencing some signicfiant adjustments, and we really hope it is successful and clean.
We have also been following the demise of brick & mortar poker rooms. Smaller rooms continue to close, the bigger rooms continue to downsize. This makes us sad, as playing poker is both our hobby and challenge of choice. Man vs man, soul reading, and all that. We continue to play, but the time and fuel spent getting to the games begin to take a toll on opportunity here in the PNW.
GL Cozen players! Poker players, keep your fingers crossed and your run-outs pure.
Fin
Flynn
Interesting, yet confusing a bit for a poker dork