I have decided to extend the blog contest for another week, and hope this gives some of you who are interested more time to submit a blog. New Deadline will be Dec 15th @ midnight. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to take advantage of these training site memberships, where pros who have found significant success share all their advice, strategy and feedback. So once again here are the details:
*Post a blog regarding the following topic: Top 5 Things You Should be Doing to Improve your Poker Game. Are you doing these things yourself? Why or Why not?
I think it is important for serious poker players to not forget that we are always students of an evolving game. It is necessary to stop and ask ourselves what more can we be doing to improve. And so I want you to post a blog answering my question, which in turn will force you to take a look at your personal efforts and commitment to increasing your skillset, maturity and edge in a game that is getting more and more difficult each day.
The Blog MUST be posted on PokerCurious, so if you have not yet created a free account, then what are you waiting for? :)
You have until Dec 15th @ midnight (extended date), after which time I will post the winner of the contest, who I will choose based on honesty, introspection, creativity and content. You don't have to be a great writer to win this contest. I won't be turned off by poor grammar/spelling (though i do encourage proofreading:) I will also post my favorite excerpts from losing entries, same as I did last time.
THE PRIZE: One Free Month of Membership at PokerXFactor, valued at $145.00!! If you are already a member at PXF, then you can choose a free membership from Leggo or DragTheBar, both excellent training sites as well. PokerXFactor is one of the most advanced and longest running poker training sites on the web. It has a database of hundreds of videos from the top online pros teaching you their strategies with a rabbit cam view of their cards. It also offers a PXF Hand History Replayer (now with audio commentary and "hand search" features), Pro Blogs, Quizzes, and in-depth articles. PokerXFactor subscribers also have access to the active PXF community.
Lastly, make sure you put the word Top 5 or 'Rex55 BlogContest' in your title somewhere, even if it is in parenthesis, so I don't overlook any entries when I go to review them.
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I spent a few days in Atlantic City this past weekend taking advantage of the juicy cash games that always follow the circuit around. The Tournament Series kicked off at Harrah's this past Friday and the pokerroom was insane!! I played some 2/5 and 1/2 NL and really felt on top of my game.
The first night was really rough and I grinded for 11 hours just to get my money out of a game where it should have been easy to put up a nice number. There was a loud, boisterous donkey at the table, who had bought in for $200 and ran it up to over 4k playing any two cards, for any amount of preflop raise. It was unreal to watch him hit flop after flop, bad beating overpairs, sets, straights. I had AQ on a A 7 2 rainbow board. He had called a raise pre with K9ss and called my pot sized flop continuation bet, turned a spade and rivered another one to win with a flush. It was extremely frustrating, but I kept my cool. I have seen my share of players who run like 'god,' and I was just happy the player was not skillfully experienced. Because there is nothing worse than a great player running like 'god' at a table. I knew he would give it back eventually...dump it back into the poker abyss...maybe not that night, but over time. I was happy to have broken even after being stuck 2 buyins at 2/5nl over the course of the day.
Heading back to my room I reminded myself that in the short term, luck can overpower skill any day of the week. Luck can be so powerful, that it can defeat the world's greatest players who are playing their top A game. The greatest of luck can make the most advanced poker strategies crumble to a heap on the floor. Luck can single-handedly blow out an entire table of Phil Iveys and Tom Dwans.
However, in the long term...luck is no match for the genius minds. Luck falls victim to the sneaky plays, and fearless aggression. Over the long haul, luck disappears into the equation, and skill dominates. Over time, luck cannot withstand the repetitive force skilled players bring forth.
In the short term...Luck wins!
In the long term...luck means very little!SO if you are losing because you are getting unlucky...then rejoice!!!Because it sure as hell beats losing because you are getting outplayed!!!
Anyone can get lucky...you don't even have to know what you are doing, to get lucky. You can be the most clueless donk in the world, and run into luck. So therefore, Luck is blind. It doesn't gravitate to the pros any more than it gravitates to the donks. Luck comes and goes...it is the ebb and flow of poker's tumultuous ocean.
Skill is not so fickle.It is not random...It is not sporadic...It is not vulnerable to the ebb and flow.SKill just merely is...Once cultivated, it exists in its entirety...ready to be tapped into, regardless of situation.Skill can be controlled....nurtured...fostered...it can be learned.
So I have concluded that luck shies away to the dominion skill has over it.And that just because a great player is encountering a run of "bad luck," doesn't mean they are not still a great player.
Because at the end of your poker journey, it will be your personal skill that will have reaped you your success....not your random encounters with lady luck.
As I lay down to sleep that night, I felt great. I woke up the next day and had a solid, profitable day at the tables. I scoured the tables for the lucky donkey, but he was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he was passed out from a long night of cards, or maybe he was pressing his luck in another cardroom.
Or maybe.... just maybe he realized his impossible fortune, and decided to enjoy his winnings for a while longer, before he dumped them back into the poker shark pit..... where the rest of us swim...and wait.
