Blah, $X. Blah blah, $Y. Kind words, priceless.

Sitting at breakfast, talking to my parents who are visiting, when I checked my email on my iPhone, and saw not one but THREE comments about the previous post. And while I only have a few, I must get a couple of thoughts down.

OhCaptain:

I love the suggestion, and despite the fact that I can and do suggest that to other people in the same situation, I hadn't thought to turn it around to myself. So, I've started a bit on two fronts. One, I have been perusing all my books, and am figuring out which one is a good read for now. I'm definitely looking for something that really gets the spirit of poker, online or not. EoP is a great example.

As for the comment, if you have ANY inkling to say ANYTHING, please put it in a comment. This goes for the lot of you. Nothing about this blog is sacred or streamlined or anything. Any comment > no comment.

Shrike:

PirateLawyer, I look forward to your post. Before we started really chatting, I was tooling along, just playing poker in whatever capacity got put in front of me. And while I was comfortably successful at that, I have much enjoyed the upgrade into poker theory, poker psychology, and other advanced topics. Stuff that is integral to upgrading the poker in general.

So, despite the fact that I have recently become "lost in the shadows" a bit, we all know that truly great things come from the fires of chaos. Burn, baby, burn.

Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo:

Hoy, where to start. Honestly, I probably know every bank teller at Wells Fargo better than I know you, but I always appreciate how you just ignore that and pipe up like we're best buds.

As for your comment, you're spot on. Like OhCaptain said too, poker isn't about streaks, or short-term results. It can't be, or it's the wrong version of "poker". Yet as humans, we just love to group things together, so that we can analyze, react, feel joy/pain, make future plans, all of that. And, don't get me wrong, these skills are essential to improving as a player and a person.

But streaks are as tangible and useful as circumstantial evidence is in court. If you make any choices/changes based on that alone, you are stabbing in the dark. So, while it may take some real listening, it's imperative to use a streak/run as a possible indicator about my play, and not evidence of my play itself. Sometimes, it just happens that people turn over a wheel and a steel wheel twice in the same hour, the same two times I have 6432AA and a 45678. Using that as "evidence" to make any changes would be confusing and counterproductive, at best.

So, my Zen decree for today:

I have my strength to see what I am doing right, and my wisdom to observe what I can do better.

My reading for today:

Emptyman's HORSE primers
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (T. Harv Eker)
Poker book #1?? (suggestions appreciated)