Apr

19

The Cooler, from Ken Drees

April 19, 2010 |

6 Comments so far

1. Trader Kevin on April 19, 2010 1:18 pm

   Your definition is way off. A cooler is where you have a strong hand and get beat by an even better hand. For instance, you have pocket Kings and get all in against a guy with pocket Aces.

   Moreover, a deuce on the Turn after a high-card flop doesn’t kill the action. The aggressive player(s) will continue to pound the pot, assuming (usually correctly) that the deuce didn’t help anyone.

   What kills action is scare cards. An example would be you have the nut flush and a fourth flush card hits. This is one of the worst possible cards, because you probably won’t get action from anyone without a flush. Even someone with a bad one-card flush is unlikely to pay much.

2. Ken Drees on April 19, 2010 3:32 pm

   You may be right. But from the link in the post for the word definition of “cooler” its seems like the jury is out on an exact definition. It seems to mean different shades at different times regarding various conditions.

   I take the “cooling” action of a different card that illicits action from a quieter player as a threat to the main action and dampening the obvious line of play’s chances of winning.

   If a quieter player who was checking the mainline action staying in the hand, suddenly bet the new “odd” card–threatening trips–then that threat is a cooler to the table and the aggressiveness would be subdued.

   I don’t think I elaborated enough on the poker definition as I understand it –I was focused on the market action today as it cooled my early opinion with an odd sort of start to the day–like a wet blanket on my theory of a snapback rally from Friday’s down. And interesting enough the cooling action was enough to dampen my enthusiasm as I see that the dow ended near its highs oil and gold too.

   So the action slowed the betting but the main line of play held out–maybe the bear bettor was called and his trip deuces were mucked.

3. Jeff Watson on April 19, 2010 3:52 pm

   I’ve heard both usages for the word. In different locations, the slang of gambling has subtle differences. In many areas of the South, vig is not used, and it’s replaced by “juice.” Looking at the link to the “Cooler’s” meaning, I saw many different authors with as many interpretations until I got to a passage with the word “Donk”(the use of this word is an indicator in itself) which was the buzzword of newbies in 2007, and I saw the date of the site was 2007.

   Personally, to me and the crowd I grew up with, a cooler is a guy the guy the casino sends in to end a players winning streak. The cooler in our sense of the word, can be a mechanic or a hoodoo of such epic proportion that he stops the game in it’s tracks. Either way, it’s an event that slowed down the action, which is the common thread in the definition that nobody on that chat site could articulate. In my humble opinion, we should revisit the words of the late great Louis Armstrong, when he sang, “Let’s call the Whole Thing Off.”.

4. Ken Drees on April 19, 2010 7:27 pm

   “You are the bouncers, I am the cooler.” Patrick Swayze from the movie Roadhouse–so the cooler would be the final hard enforcer–as Jeff intimates.

   Coincidentally, the bar in Roadhouse was called the “Double-Duece”.

5. Steve Leslie on April 20, 2010 2:14 am

   You guys kill me. You want to argue over a colloquial term such as cooler rather than give the proper weight to the analogy the author is trying to express. It reminds me of the joke of the two imbeciles who come across some tracks in the woods while hunting. "It looks like bear tracks" "No those are deer tracks" suddenly there is a huge noise and the two hunters are killed instantly. Seems they were standing on train tracks. Or recently on Poker after Dark when Esfandiari outplayed Hellmuth on an all-in, busted Hellmuth, and was admonished by the Poker Brat for misplaying the hand terribly. You know the difference between dogs and poker players? After a while the dogs stop whining. A cooler is a term for an unlucky person who kills the action at the table. See the movie with Alec Baldwin and William H. Macy by the same name. It is also a place for internment for prisoners for punishment. Sargent Schultz would use the term regularly in Hogan's Heroes. Steve Mcqueen as Virgil Hilts, was sent to the cooler every time he tried to escape in the Great Escape. A ccoler in poker as I understand it is the one card in the deck that can beat you. For example you have a made hand like a straight. Your opponent has one out and he hits it to bust you,by hitting the full house. A cooler is a guy in the bar, saloon, whose job it is to "cool the room" by getting the troublemaker outside as effortlessly as possible. I am sure there are more slang usages of cooler but this should satiate the collective. Or we could continue: did you hear about the hunter who came across the naked woman sitting on a tree stump in the woods. " Are you game?" "You betcha honey" so he shot her.

6. Steve Leslie on April 21, 2010 11:36 am

   I have learned that in poker, as in life it sucks to come in second place. In poker, the experience is always expensive and unpleasant.

   I have been beaten in poker every way possible. In tournaments, I have gone all in with high pair best kicker on the flop, e.g. pair of aces with the king, and got beat with a set. I have had a full house and been beaten on the river with a true "cooler" where my opponent gets quads. I got knocked out from the final table of a poker tournament where the first prize was $50,000 when I went in with A-10 and a moron called me with 3-2. the moron happened to be my best friend, and he matched his 2. In poker vernacular, "That's poker". In layman's parlance "S**t happens".

   One thing you need to learn quickly is that unless you have the absolute "nuts" there is a chance you can be beaten on every hand. Refusing to acknowledge this can result in premature insanity and financial ruin.

   In markets, similar things happen. You buy a stock on Monday, they report earnings on Tuesday above the street estimates and the stock drops 35%..You own a pharmaceutical stock for years and then a report surfaces that some schmoe dies in England of a rare brain disease. Your profits from years of patience wiped out in moments. Solution to the problem. Never overplay your hand. Never go "all-in" on one play. Read Ed Spec for more examples. This is what this website is all about. Statistics are what they are. They predict a likelihood of something happening. No guarantees. There are no victims in trading, just participants. Caveat Emptor. Sic transit gloria mundi.