Third Ball

Posted by

Posted by posted in Poker Journals

Third Ball

This is my third shot at a poker journal on RIO, hence the post title. It's also the title of a jazz piece I like by Trio Toykeat.

I'll keep it short this time because, well, just because. I guess I just want to make every word count.

A few years ago when I was still in school, I challenged myself to move up to $5/10 and started a journal here. I got lazy and the journal got timid, but I eventually achieved that goal. And because I got lazy and burnt out, I don't really recall how long it took or how I got there, although it was neither simple nor easy.

But I don't really want to look back at it and pat myself on the back. I think I have done that enough already. Rather, I want to focus on the present and keep moving forward. After all, bygones are just bygones.

These days I am mostly playing $5/10 and $10/20 PLO. I think I have improved a lot and still am beating the game, but that doesn't really mean much. I know I need to keep working harder and harder everyday to stay afloat, and I also realise, many times a day, how terrible I am at understanding poker. I'm not trying to be overly humble at all -- John von Neumann once said he understands about 28% of modern mathematics, and I don't think I understand poker any better than he understood modern math.

But I still want to understand poker better, and I would not for my poker career give up on this goal.

Granted, I am a full time poker player and making a living off poker is important, but that's not enough. I chose poker for a reason -- I wanted to do something I really enjoy. If I merely wanted to make a decent, stable living, I could have taken a few different routes. But I chose poker over them, and I enjoy my improvement as much as the freedom it brings me. So, I should keep working on it day in and day out; otherwise I would be doing something totally meaningless to me. And I want to make every word count, so..

Well, here it goes again. I will update my progress and share some thoughts in this journal. I'm mostly doing this for myself, but I also want to interact with other poker players whose feedback is important and helpful to me. I probably won't post lots of poker strategy because I am studying poker pretty much everyday anyway and I don't feel the necessity to turn this journal into a study note. But occasionally I might post some hands and ramble a bit about them.

Since this is my journal and I can write whatever I want, I would like to thank four people in particular: Phil, Lance, Chae, and Sungil. These people have basically shaped me as a poker player and helped me greatly whenever I needed them, yet I haven't had the chance to thank them properly, nor to return the slightest bit of this favour. I hope one day I can do something in return, and that's a big extra motivation for me to keep working hard. Thanks so much, guys.

There are more people to whom I am indebted, but I'll reserve this for later when I am much closer to who I want to be. Of course, this is yet another motivation for me to keep working hard :)

So, without further ado, I'll throw the third ball and get started.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to you all.

Feb 19th 2017
midori

Loading 37 Comments...

Be the first to add a comment

You must upgrade your account to leave a comment.

This thread has been locked. No further comments can be added.

Runitonce.com uses cookies to give you the best experience. Learn more about our Cookie Policy