Friday, July 01, 2005

I think I figured out why I'm bored with online poker. I've hit a wall. Sitting there grinding it out at $.50/1.00 or folding folding folding at a $25NL table does not work my poker brain. I am not trying on any new theories for size. Not falling into any relelationary moments.

I need to read some more.

Yup. That's it. I need to restock my brain with some more food for thought, and THEN go back to grinding so that I can hopefully pick up on some of the new ideas and angles I learned in my poker academic pursuits.

So, that is what I will do. I had started reading Sklansky's Theory of Poker (which I started reading after I started Hold'em for Advanced Players, which all too often references the Theory book. So I dumped the Hold'em book until I can finish reading the theory book!) I will go back to the Theory book and dive in.

I think there's a fine balance between learning time and practice time. I myself can only learn so much before things start sounding like the teacher's voice in the old Charlie Brown cartoons. Blah blah blah blah... if I don't get out there and practice what I'm learning, it all starts to get jumbled up in my head. But - as I'm discovering now - if I focus on practice and have too long of a drought from learning anything new, the practice becomes quite boring. So, I shall move forward, alternating the two. Learn some new stuff, then try it out and practice. Go learn some more, then practice some more. Rinse, lather, repeat.

I thought about playing something different for a while (I'm a big fan of Omaha - but purely recreationally. I haven't actually studied it). But I'm not ready to stop playing hold'em. I still love it. The way my brain works, I can't flip flop around to different games like some people can. My mind must be immersed in one game for anything to sink in and commit to memory. So I will continue with hold'em.

In other news... I just got myself a new Blackberry 7520 cell phone/PDA (Nextel). It kicks so much crazy major ass that I can't even begin to describe it. I love this thing - and I haven't even started playing with any of the cool Bluetooth or GPS stuff yet. The only nuisance is that I can only receive inbound text messages/SMS - I can't send outgoing ones. That's a bit annoying, even though the only person I ever text message is Randy. But, I like being able to text message when, for example, I want to tell him something but don't want to wake him up or bother him with the phone ringing. I suppose I will survive without it, especially now that I have real-time email and instant messaging right on my phone, and a thumb keypad that makes it so much easier to input messages than my old regular phone. Today I added a poker game and a blackjack game to its software - you know, to kill time when I have time to kill.... ahem. :) LOVE this Blackberry.

3 Comments:

  1. Irritable Male Syndrome said...
    Just wondering: have you read Small Stakes Hold Em by Ed Miller? I'm guessing you have...but I'm drunk and, well, I'm drunk.
    Human Head said...
    That Blackberry is doooope! (Jealous meter is high)
    Shelly said...
    I am in sick, unnatural love with this device.

    Chad - actually, no I haven't read SSHE. I'll have to pick it up! Thanks!

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