The First Day of Being More Serious

Some time ago, as you can see from the posts I have replicated below, I decided to track my "poker career" on my personal blog.  Like many of my writing endeavors, it quickly faded.  Not only did I lose interest in writing and summarily forget about it, there was also Black Friday, which ruined my online playing as it did for countless others.  Since I was already writing about the SFPT in its own place, I didn't feel the need to duplicate the same information in two spots.  (This became even more true when I started writing SFPT recaps in the first person.)

Since then, some things have remained the same: online poker is still forbidden, and I still write the same recaps.  But other things have changed.  Namely, I now feel like I could actually have a future in this game.  I've been playing for eight years, and though I have played in casinos a couple of times (one tournament, one cash session), I'm now, finally, at the point where I feel like would I not only not embarrass myself, I could actually be successful.

Part of my reason for saying this is tangible; I have had my most extended success on the SFPT this year with three wins (and with a couple of exceptions, I have played very intelligently).  I liken this to a college sport program which wants to move up from, say, Division III to Division I.  In my opinion, in order for this to be a smart move, they have to have proven they are consistently better than their current competition over a long period.  It's somewhat the same in my situation; I wouldn't say I'm BETTER than the rest of the field, but I have proven I can be consistently competitive.

However, I admit, part of it is intangible.  Maybe it's confidence because of my play, maybe it’s because of the clip viewing/reading/research I've been doing make me feel like I'm learning, but I feel as though I know a lot more about the game itself than I did even a few months ago.  Probably a little of both.  In any event, that confidence makes me feel like I'm ready to take it to the casinos and play against strangers.

With that in mind, I came back to the idea of tracking my progress, which lead me to the idea of a dedicated blog for the topic.  I'm hoping my poker playing family and friends can contribute their thoughts as well, so here we are.  My plan is to not only write about my progress, but also have a place to post my thoughts on everything poker-related.  This could be anything from happenings in the pro world, to ideas, to the past and future of the game.  So, I see it as an intellectual exercise at least as much as a home for recaps.

Trying to go back as far as possible, I copied the other posts I had done, which I wanted to be sure to do because 1) they contain some thoughts about the game itself which still hold true today, and 2) I can already see how my play has changed and the progress I've made in the last two years.  Hopefully, over the course of time, re-reading my past follies can educate for the future.

Do I think I'll ever be good enough to go pro?  Highly doubtful.  But any idiot can go on a heater, and the more knowledge and experience I have, the better the likelihood of that happening.