Dead Poker Money
The term ‘dead money’ in poker refers to players who are inexperienced or ill-equipped enough that the chips they bring to the table are almost verifiably inevitable to end up in another poker player’s hand. Dead money has become a prevalent term specifically with the quick rise of poker in recent years from the ESPN World Series broadcasts, which have brought a flood of new and less experienced players into the game.
Dead money refers also to the term ‘drawing dead,’ in which a player gets his money into a pot with literally no cards he can catch to win the hands. For instance, he is holding a straight with one card to come and his opponent has a flush, and he has no outs to draw to a higher flush. Dead money, then, is referred to in that they likely have no chance of winning a large scale tournament such as the WSOP, in which they have dodge thousands of other players to take the title.
One of the great things about poker, though, is that even dead money can end up coming out ahead, which is another reason that poker has ballooned to such an extent. Chris Moneymaker was famously referred to as ‘dead money’ early in the 2003 broadcast of the World Series, which he ended up going on to win.
