Friday, December 16, 2005
POKER aficionado...
It's been 2 wks. since I've started playing poker tourneys at Cascade's and Roxy's, and yeah...didn't think it'd be this fruitful this quick. 13 tourneys all in all so far, w/ 9 final table finishes, and 7 "in the scrilla." At 1st I anticipated these initial wks. to be the "tuition" juncture, so I suppose it's been a bonus thus far that I've been able to attend for free, and amazingly even have something to show for on top of that. Sounds eerily reminiscent of my time in college, lol. Anyhow, I'm glad to have this foundation under my belt and hopefully I'll be able to keep building on it, continuing to refine my game, maintaining mental clarity and staying disciplined. And that's one word I've gleaned that's definitely key in having success in this game, that word being discipline. It encapsulates a lot of factors such as staying focused, and knowing when your big hands are sitting in the ominous shadows of bigger hands and having the ability to suck it up by folding 'em. In addition, not unnecessarily "chasing" after cards, and staying within the tenets of certain texts that have made the pros who they are, and not deviating from them despite isolated results that have you itching to do otherwise. In my case, that main text happens to be David Sklansky's "Hold 'Em Poker for Advanced Players." Did a lot of research online on poker texts before deciding to play these tourneys, and it all pointed to this book as being the quintessential guide in building up your poker IQ. I've read it about 5-6 times already, and it's probably been the main reason for the results I've had so far, coupled w/ all those play money tourneys at "pokerstars.net" along w/ poring through all those other books that the pros have written and have supposedly read in helping them achieve expert status. Hopefully I'll be able to eventually synthesize it all, and get it to the point where the analysis and decisions I make are all natural and 2nd nature, where I don't have to necessarily sit there at times and "think" about it so much. And that may take anywhere fr. a few months to a few years to even knock on the door of playing at that stage. But I'm determined to get there, and in the meantime I'm gonna keep striving to hone my game knowing that it can always improve, all the while enjoying the journey. Yep, gotta have fun w/ it since it is a game after all...
And yeah, I've come to realize that poker's definitely a very tough game that's all about filling in the blanks, one that's both simultaneously a science and an artform that's deceptively simple on the surface. So much more to it beneath that shiny, glossy veneer. And I can't help but tremble with anticipation and excitement as I continue to explore its teeming depths...
It's been 2 wks. since I've started playing poker tourneys at Cascade's and Roxy's, and yeah...didn't think it'd be this fruitful this quick. 13 tourneys all in all so far, w/ 9 final table finishes, and 7 "in the scrilla." At 1st I anticipated these initial wks. to be the "tuition" juncture, so I suppose it's been a bonus thus far that I've been able to attend for free, and amazingly even have something to show for on top of that. Sounds eerily reminiscent of my time in college, lol. Anyhow, I'm glad to have this foundation under my belt and hopefully I'll be able to keep building on it, continuing to refine my game, maintaining mental clarity and staying disciplined. And that's one word I've gleaned that's definitely key in having success in this game, that word being discipline. It encapsulates a lot of factors such as staying focused, and knowing when your big hands are sitting in the ominous shadows of bigger hands and having the ability to suck it up by folding 'em. In addition, not unnecessarily "chasing" after cards, and staying within the tenets of certain texts that have made the pros who they are, and not deviating from them despite isolated results that have you itching to do otherwise. In my case, that main text happens to be David Sklansky's "Hold 'Em Poker for Advanced Players." Did a lot of research online on poker texts before deciding to play these tourneys, and it all pointed to this book as being the quintessential guide in building up your poker IQ. I've read it about 5-6 times already, and it's probably been the main reason for the results I've had so far, coupled w/ all those play money tourneys at "pokerstars.net" along w/ poring through all those other books that the pros have written and have supposedly read in helping them achieve expert status. Hopefully I'll be able to eventually synthesize it all, and get it to the point where the analysis and decisions I make are all natural and 2nd nature, where I don't have to necessarily sit there at times and "think" about it so much. And that may take anywhere fr. a few months to a few years to even knock on the door of playing at that stage. But I'm determined to get there, and in the meantime I'm gonna keep striving to hone my game knowing that it can always improve, all the while enjoying the journey. Yep, gotta have fun w/ it since it is a game after all...
And yeah, I've come to realize that poker's definitely a very tough game that's all about filling in the blanks, one that's both simultaneously a science and an artform that's deceptively simple on the surface. So much more to it beneath that shiny, glossy veneer. And I can't help but tremble with anticipation and excitement as I continue to explore its teeming depths...
