The title this morning is a little non-descript, but powerful nonetheless. I am asking you, the TPE nation a very very important question, and I hope you have the answers. Why? When you do anything at the poker table, do you know why. This was a huge breakthrough for me and I didn't really understand why Wein hounded me on it for so long, but it finally started to make sense. If your mind is sharp and you are really understanding the players at your table and the action going on and how everything fits together, then you can answer "Why?". Not only can you answer it, you can put together a cohesive, sisinct response to it and everyone listening can understand and learn something about the situation. Now I don't doubt that some people play by feel and when you ask them they respond with "because i knew he had nothing". Intuition and feel are an important part of the game, but if your decision making system is based solely on them, you are doomed before you start. The game is going to change around you and is your feel really going to keep up? Can you really adjust when your perception gets dented and you can't trust your feelings anymore? Wein's article from the WSOP this morning got me thinking and he really touched on something hugely important, albeit very subtly. He is seeing a change in the game, and he understands why. With this understanding he is adjusting and transforming his game to keep up with it. It is a huge deal. Understand Why. It is something I am still very focused on and continue to develop. Knowing why you are doing things puts you in command of your actions, it combats tilt, it keeps you in control of your game and the situations you put yourself into. Poker is an easy game when you are making good decisions, it is the worst place to be when you are not and if being an engineer has tought me anything the best way to get yourself into a mess is to guess. Stay out of that mess. I know people aren't going to be enthusiastic to sit down and read me talking about how much I think you should be alert and thinking at the table. Keeping your analytical skills sharp and focusing on as much information as possible, but hey this is me. It is a formula that has been successful for me. When I deviate I get punished, when I come back I get rewarded. Good decisions make money and the root of good decisions is understanding the why behind all situations and executing on it. So there is my soap box for the day. Think about it. Look back at your HEM, how many hands do you have where you watch it and think to yourself "what the hell was I doing?". You shouldn't be confused by yourself. If you are aware, thinking and analyzing those unknown situations should be pretty rare. You should be able to reconstruct your thought process pretty effectively. Watch the HH replays by the pro's. They are doing it right in front of your eyes. They can tell you what is going to happen and why all the way though hands. Sometimes other actors are not rational or do something unexpected, but the plan (and why) changes accordingly. Something to think about.
On another front we are getting closer to my 100th blog entry, so I guess I am self obligated to do something interesting for it. Shoot me some suggestions, I'm feeling creative so I'd like to try something (plus I'm curious if anyone actually reads this or if it is really just me talking to myself!) Anyhow looking forward to hearing from someone…anyone 🙂 This is the Gman signing out!