Every Thursday is an off day from the Tables for me as I work a night shift riding as an EMT so I usually take the time to try to read, review HH's or in general advance my knowledge of the game. Last night was again a study night and I was reading Easy Game Volume 1 by BalugaWhale (available on Daily Variance.com with a host of other very interesting reads, all focused at cash games) and one of the early chapters had a really interesting discussion in it. The crux of the chapter was a discussion on understanding "why?". To know what your motivations are for particular actions and plans and then understanding if your motivations are proper for the given context is what leads us to superior play. This concept and the ability to ask why and to re-evaluate leads me to a big distinction I have been making with myself and how I see my play. This may be a semantic argument to some, but I take it very seriously. I am NOT a grinder. I am learning. Grinding implies that you sit down, load tables and just robotically go about your business in an effort to garner some reasonable hourly rate and make money. Learning however makes no such distinction. When you are learning you are actively trying to understand the game, how people are playing it, how the game is flowing, are you making the most use of the current dynamics ,etc… Winning is a great side effect of learning, but it is not the primary output, knowledge is. Knowledge can always be leveraged, reapplied and put to use. Grinding cannot. Grinding is a static product of knowledge. It works for a time, then it fails because the market moves on. So my advice to those who read, stop grinding. Lets start to ask the tough questions, examine the game, lets focus on the learning, then we can crush the grinders! This is the Gman signing out, getting ready for another day and another learning experience. Gl!
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swet1
Good blog!