I'm on the plane to Bucharest to meet Niceiq2, Serkules, Wowkaa and Jacktheshipper. I am really excited to meet the 3 guys I have never met and to reunite with my very good friend Serkules the fish ><>.
I expect the guys to be very cool and down to earth from what I have heard from them, plus they are all so positive I think it would be hard not to get along with them. I am looking forward to hearing these other successful theories on poker and how they approach situations. I obviously am very confident and have worked very hard on my individual game. I think my game is pretty unique for the fact I have learned something and taken a little bit out of many successful players in my time, combining styles and taking the best aspects of each players game and adapting it into my own game has a lot to do with how successful I have become.
Seen as one of the reasons in meeting poker players is to exchange information and to get the brain working, I feel it's a good time to post my thoughts on poker and working on your game.
I hear a lot of talk about the games getting harder in online poker and that poker just isn't as profitable as it was a year or two ago. Well it is pretty clear that taking 'standard' lines has become less profitable because of so many people doing it so well especially in the high stakes games. I personally think poker has got a lot harder compared to 2 years ago when I started building my roll. I knew enough to make me good money back then and if you knew today's 'standard' things you were at very high level back then. It's where you go beyond standard is what will take u to from being a 'standard' player into being an 'incredible' player. I once read a quote, 'a poker player who stops working on his game and learning new things is like a man driving a car up a hill and taking his foot of the acceleration; the car will slow down pretty quickly and begin to slowly move back down the hill and gradually pick up speed until it comes crashing down at the bottom of the hill again.' This can definitely be seen in some of the big winners in poker from the last few years who have the attitude of, 'well this is how I made my money, why should I do anything different now?' errmmmm let me think, because the game has evolved and your not a big cut above the rest anymore. Not to be biast, I definitely have seen a rise in more players who play the game by feel oppose to playing the game solely on maths as if a lot of people learn the maths your edge will decrease on each other. But learning the basic maths as a fundamental and developing feel like skills based on instincts and adaptions there is no limit to what level you can be above an opponent. Being un-exploitable in poker doesn't mean your making money in poker, if your opponent is also playing un-exploitable then where is the money going to be? I do understand the fact of the matter is most recreational and regs out there are playing exploitable poker but the gap is closing on what people are learning with all the learning resources online. Realizing what your opponents level is and adapting to just one or more level above them is always what winning poker is going to come down too.
A quick thought into online resources.
I do want these resources to slow down the information they are giving people from a selfish point of view, but my real opinion is I am happy these resources existed when I needed them. If new people are going to come into the winning world of poker these sites need to exist. I owe a lot to the people who have made tutorial videos online and am glad I was part of it from the early stages. I feel the videos from in order: Beanmo, Jackal, Braminc, Brian Townsend, Caby Taylor, Daniel Benningfield, Pimpindonks (congrats on the bracelet btw), Fulltip, Azntracker, Tigerbalm, Croix, Xscwx, Skates, Hokiegreg, Primo, Rdcrsm, (a couple of other MTT regs I can't quite remember) were the foundation of my game and Mersenneary, Aejones, Lucky chewy and Nickachu helped put it all together to make more sense (sorry if I forgotten anyone I am sure I have). A range of different styles and different structures in poker is what it took for me, along with all the personal friends which I don't need to go into because their resources aren't available to the public, to come to where I am. The only way I felt myself going beyond what these videos thought me is taking it into my own hands and developing further as a poker player. This is a big reason why I like networking with different successful regs and seeing what works for them and questioning why does something so different seem to work so well and coming up with the answer. It's called NO LIMIT HOLDEM because there is NO LIMIT to what you can do in it, if you limit yourself then your poker life will become a lot harder a lot quicker.
Enough of the rant, my primary reasons to network with these poker players is to really meet like minded people, enjoy myself and to part some of my knowledge on to them to help them further themselves as players.
From Aug 16th I will be going to Vegas for 10days and from then onwards I will be relocating to Costa Rica initially but will be traveling around different parts of South America and around to the Eastern side of the World if it goes to plan. I will be doing it with fellow heads up grinder and very good friend Oopa11 but plan to meet up with other friends a long the way.
Talking of traveling, a friend who has been traveling quite a bit and just started a blog, it's pretty cool and sure it will come up with a lot of information on different countries as she continues to travel so check it out if your into traveling: sjourneys.blogspot.com
