For a long time, I have been a fan of the idea of "learning by osmosis". I'm not sure if I heard that term somewhere or made it up myself, but I feel like the idea is a sound one. Basically, what I mean by that is that I feel I can gain knowledge of something by just having it around me. This is one of the reasons I like to have the TV on a science or history program while I am working on something else,because I can learn a little bit of something even if I am not really trying to do so.
In that spirit, I have decided to forgo listening to the radio while I am working, for the most part, in favor of watching YouTube training videos and other poker-related content. There's plenty of it out there, and more produced every day, so it's not like I am going to run out of videos to watch any time soon.
I have started with Jason Somervville's Run It Up series, and also delved into some of his other videos. Today, I watched one where he went over the hands of his first ever online final table, in 2007. I feel like I learned quite a bit about how the game has changed from then to now, as he kept talking about how he couldn't believe he played hands certain ways and would have done it differently today. From those specific hands, I compared to my play, and saw how I can play hands (and more specifically, situations) differently.
That was the new. Now for the old:
Inspired by actually seeing poker played in that video, I decided to log on to Full Tilt for the first time since August second. I had a step three ticket and decided to use that right off the bat.
Right away, I applied a lesson: keep the hammer down: I missed a flop, but c-bet the flop and turn and got three folds on a stone-cold bluff. That was good, as were a couple of pots where I actually hit a flop but could have lost to draws, but bet people out before showdown.
The bad: four-handed, I shoved with trip queens, got called with 8/9 off, and the guy hit a straight. A few hands later, I shoved with the king high flush draw, got called with two pair, and couldn't hit. I finished fourth and won another Step 3 ticket.
Not wanting to go out like that, I cashed in that ticket following a break for lunch. I lost some of my motivation (read: got distracted), and took a big hit when I gambled to take out a player and lost with AhQh to KK. After getting some back, I lost another chunk in a similar situation when I didn't hit an open-ender and lost to queens.
At this point I figured it just wasn't my tournament, but before I knew it, I was chip leader again. That lasted all of about 10 hands; soon I was short stacked again, shoved, and lost with K/Q off to Q/6 off when the turn was a 6. Oh well.
Playing: 1 hour online
Reading: I started the September issue off "Bluff" the other day, but only glanced. More to come later on that. I have been reading the articles that Mike Caro tweets out on an almost daily basis
Watching: So far, two of Jason Somerville's videos, a total of a shade over 1 hour
10k update: 84.25 online hours, 233.50 total hours
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