The Joys of Poker

What did you just say? The JOYS of poker yea ok! Poker is a stupid game and I quit!

No but seriously, poker is a game that will test you like no other job if you are playing on a somewhat serious level. I guess you could kinda of compare it to a professional sport. Because you get in slumps sometimes and you have to turn your brain back on to play right. When I say that I mean you have to take a step back and ask yourself, what am I doing wrong and where are my flaws? Most of the time you can pin point them, turn you game around, and get back on track. But I really dont think anything could prepare you for the swings in your money when you are first starting out.

I compare poker to competive sports I guess because I played hockey at a fairly competitive level for quite awhile growing up and loved it with a passion. Poker is a competitive game but not too many people think of it as a sport, but believe it or not they have quite a bit in common. I guess its the competitiveness of the game along with some other traits that makes them similar. I really try to utilize a lot of the stuff I learned playing hockey and transfer it to my poker game. So far its proved to work pretty good, especially when it comes time to improve your game.

I played hockey for about 12 years and was at a point where when I played the game no matter what situation I was in I could make a split decision to do something and it would be the right decision 90% of the time. I find myself having to have to make the same split decisions in poker, but I have only been playing poker seriously for about 3 years or so. You just cant make those split decisions correctly 90% of the time with 3 years of experience like you can with 12 years experience. And in poker there are alot more varibles then in any sport.

I have learned quite a bit since I started playing more seriously over the past 6 months or so. I've learned more in 6 months playing live then I did in the past 2 years playing online and the occasional home game. Six months ago I decided to take my game to the next level and I did. Did I do well you ask? I guess thats all on how you look at it. I made some money, lost some money, paid the bills and had fun. But most of all I improved my game and I think thats the biggest profit of all. I'm looking to do this poker thing for awhile which means I'll never stop learning the game and I'll always be looking to take it to the next level.

I guess the whole reason for this post was because I found myself in somewhat of a slump, if you want to call it that. But a slump isn't really a slump, its not playing the way you know how and not preventing things that could be prevented. Just as in any competitive sport you play when you are not winning theres a reason. Its not bad luck, its not because everyone ones better then you, its not because the game is rigged.....lol, its because you are not staying on top of your game. Which I have not been doing lately. I went on a nice little winning streak for about a month and got real sloppy the past couple weeks. So its time to take a short break analyze my mistakes and step my game up a bit.

It looks like I've only been updating the good old blog about once a month or so. I've been slacking on my blogging duities. So I've made some improvements to the ol' blog and I'm going to stay on top of this thing for you faithful readers, all 2-3 of you. I cant loose the 2 or 3 people that read this thing that would just be gay!