General Ramblings

Frank Miller : God you guys make me sick. What is this, a fucking feel good convention?
Shannon Bell : Listen, we have a long journey ahead of us. Its important we all get along. Now, you're hurting people's feelings. Your gunna have to find a more constructive way to express your anger.
Frank Miller : Okay. Well, fuck you! How's that for constructive?
Shannon Bell : That's great, now go to time out Mister.

"Cannibal - The Musical"

Not a single hand of poker to speak of since last post, mainly due to the release of Halo 2. My one sentence review is it seems harder to pick up than Halo 1, but I guess I'll get used to it. Oh, and I wish they didn't change Blood Gulch at all. On poker, I have been doing some hardcore reading lately, many many new blogs to explore, cherish and forget about. Hopefully the first two more than the last.

I must point out these two blogs in Big Slick Poker and Skitch-o-rama. I have become a regular reader on both and my life is now better for it.

I have to say, while my blog does not get the sheer number of visitors that others do, or 100 comments per post every comment I have got so far has been helpful. From the constant string of wisdom from SirFWALMan and DuggleBogey, to the advice of "Anonymous" a few times, I have no doubt that my play and attitude towards the game is better because of this blog. I learn far more from my own blog than I do from reading many others, thanks to these all-too-infrequent comments. I suppose my style of blogging (purely stream of consciousness on play, hardly any theory) doesn't lend itself towards discussion, but when a reader throws in a comment they have been pure gold. And believe me, when you are trying to turn $0 into a feature film while really only playing on weekends, you need all the help you can get.

Which brings me to something else about poker theory. I read all about the different stages of your game, how to adapt and what to look out for, all the common traps new players fall into and so on. I really think you need to walk the mile yourself to learn these lessons. Sure, I don't need to go loose $10K to learn THAT lesson, but in general terms you need to see for yourself, for example, the risk/excitement/change/danger/benefit/humiliated of jumping up a level. There is nothing better than walking that mile yourself - and besides, it might just make for a good story when you are done.

Reading another article about some dude playing in his first "live" tournament, and how intimidated he felt and considered himself "dead money", I felt a kinship. I mean, at one stage I felt intimidated in free rolls - like I didn't belong there, out of my league. Now I know that anybody with an IQ high enough to maintain a pulse is probably over qualified for these games, but it was fun finding out. Slowly I am gaining in confidence that I am good enough to be at this table, damn it. It really is a big thing trying to "bluff" yourself into this belief, if you will. And believe me, at the start it was pure bluff. Like I said in a few posts ago, when I went back to the old tables I used to play on (all those months ago) I felt like I owned those games, as few as I played. I had, shock as it may seem, too much confidence that I could just run over these micro limit tables that used to intimidate me. My my, how we have grown. No longer intimidated by a 10 cent buy in - yep, I'm a player now!

End ramble here.

On a quick note, still waiting after 3 weeks for Neteller to send my cash out check, and also still waiting for the ring to come from the jeweller. Why am I always waiting on others? As someone wiser than me would say, "Oh the humanity"!