New Years Resolution

I have decided to create this blog as an attempt to improve myself as a poker player. I know its not new years yet, but that’s ok I'm going to make a new years resolution for myself a bit early. I don’t have any specific uses or specific lengths that I am going to required myself to make. I’ll probably end up using it for mostly reflection on my sessions (not necessarily all of them) but I'm also going to write about how poker effects other aspects of my life. I had a conversation with Aaron W. last night basically asking him how he goes about studying poker. I highly respect his perspective on poker and love the posts he writes on 2+2, so naturally I was curious. Rather than telling me specifically what he does he gave me this link:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3812872&an=0&page=0#Post3812872

When I first started reading this I grew kind of irritated because I felt that he didn’t understand that “I was WAY past that beginning stage of thinking ” (HA!). On the other hand though, I do feel that I understand that I'm not going to get rich quick or anything, but that’s not the point. At the bottom of this article it refers to study and hard work. Now, up until last night I “thought” I had been working hard… if one considers working hard playing and reading 2+2 at the SAME TIME then ok I was working hard. I did read poker books usually daily but didn’t as much as I should. I asked Aaron about playing/reading and he said that in his opinion you would learn very little because you aren’t focusing much on either (oops, that’s another thing I need to change). Anyway, last night I had a revelation. That revelation was that I need to work harder! So that is exactly what I am going to do. Here is a list of goals that I will do the best of my ability:

1) I will only play 100 hands at each session.
2) I will review every hand, in as much detail as I am able by using SSHE, TOP, and other sources such as 2+2 to verify I am correct.
3) For every 100 hands I play, in addition to the reading I have done reviewing them, I will read either one chapter of a viable poker book or if I'm feeling motivated, more than that.
4) In addition to step three I will spend one hour reading/posting on 2+2 for every 100 hands.

I'm going to pause here to quote Aaron:

“Reading books gives you mental categories for understanding what’s going on at the table. Experience fills those categories with specific hands to help you better understand them better. Posting forces you to abstract those specific hands to create a stronger understanding”

When he wrote this I was somewhat stunned. I just thought I would share it because it has given me a better perspective on the studying process. Back to the list….
(note: the rest of the things on this list include my studying effort with others)

5) There is a 2+2er that I will be consistently exchanging hand histories with. I will also be studying/discussing SSHE with this person. We have set up a “plan” for going through it but I'm not going to discuss the details of the plan. We both decided that we are going to do this with most of the books we read, so I'm going to stay in regular contact with this person.
6) There is another person with whom I am currently doing the 2+2 hand history exchange. We have discussed keeping in touch in order to keep helping each other study. Most likely we are going to exchange hand history’s every now and then as well.
7) I regularly talk to a few people on AIM about poker and we rail each other etc. The most notable would be bloomer and wade. Bloomer is a MTT player who is very knowledgeable about the games he plays. If it weren’t for him I wouldn’t be playing poker seriously. I met him at a $5 SNG (pshh SNGs!) and after checking sharkscope I was shocked by the success he has had. He ended up giving me his email and our relationship “Bloomed” ; ) from there. Eventually (after he realized how serious I was) he introduced me to wade. Wade was a former limit hold’em player whom made his income from poker. At the time I met him he had switched from limit to SNGs and MTTs. Most recently he has decided to return to limit yet, continue to play MTTs. As of now wade and I will be “study partners”. He more than anyone will probably be my go to guy.

These are just a few of the things I plan on doing. By no means are the first four going to be a long-term goal. When I feel I am ready I will spend less time studying and more time playing. Albeit, I will continue to study to some extent as long as I play poker.

Anyway, I hope this post is a reflection of my NEW approach to poker. Id also like to thank everyone who has gotten me to this point!

-David