More talk about sunglasses in poker

PokerNews writer Chad Holloway recently penned an editorial regarding people wearing sunglasses at poker tables. Shockingly, with all of his reasons for wearing them Holloway failed to mention the only legitimate reason in my opinion: to cut down on the glare from bright lights in the card-room. Instead he focuses on hiding information, and being able to look at things anonymously.

The whole debate stems from a blog entry by Daniel Negreanu where he talks about the PokerStars.net Big Game not allowing sunglasses at the table, and how players won’t be able to hide like a chicken at the poker tables. Negreanu also lists a litany of other issues he has with sunglasses including how they ruin poker on television by ‘hiding’ the players, and how they are a slippery slope that has led to players donning masks, hoodies, scarfs, and all manner of concealing garb.

Personally, I’ve never worn sunglasses in a poker game, and find it silly that other people do. Seriously, if you think your eyes are giving away something than it’s highly likely your hands, and other gestures, are giving away even more. And Negreanu is spot on with his chicken comments: Frankly, if you are not confident enough to stare down an opponent or look for tells without sunglasses than poker is probably not right for you to begin with.

As far as the cheating aspect, I’m sure it happens, anyone who is around the game long enough knows there are plenty of unsavory characters who will do virtually anything to get a leg up on their opponent -even going so far as to buy shades that allow you see grease marks more clearly.

But in my estimation this is just a boogeyman for the real issue with players wearing sunglasses; it slows down the game, and the last thing a live game needs more of is down-time!

For whatever reason players wearing sunglasses tend to be overly deliberate and spend an awful lot of time just staring out from behind their protective shell. They want to be the players they see on TV deliberation over a hand; the only problem is they really have no idea what they are supposed to deliberating!

As someone who made a living playing poker the one thing I learned is that speed matters, and every wasted second is wasted money -especially if you’re playing live poker.

I think the whole discussion of sunglasses in poker boils down to this: Does it promote the game in any way? I really can’t come up with one instance where wearing sunglasses helps poker in any way. Sure, it helps individual poker players, but as far as the game as a whole is concerned it does not further the cause of poker.

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