Some Help For the New Members

[Nikita]

Well, I guess this is as good a thread as any to introduce myself, especially since it's usually norm to state why you started/like poker.

Funny thing for me, I'm not really a gambler, or I didn't use to be. My husband (yes, I'm female ) is the one who played poker online all the time. But then I went on Maternity Leave from work and was bored sitting at home all day. He let me sign into his account and play a few rounds. That's all it took for me to fall in love with Hold'em. I think it also helps that I am very competive and love to win and I seemed to do fairly well for a beginner.

So, the "why do I do it" and the "what do I get out of it?" is that I can prove that I am better than the others out there.

My goals right now are just to win more often than not. It took me a while to learn that I can't win every hand I go into, or to win every tournament or SNG that I join. But as long as my win percentage is higher than my lose percentage, I'm happy. But then shouldn't that be everyone's goal? I'm sure people don't play poker just to lose money. Eventually, I'd love to make it to a WPT or WSOP, but that is definitely a long way off. I'm not even close to playing poker like a professional yet.

Right now, the majority of my play is online, since that is where I started to learn, that's where I play best. I'm sure I have huge tells and I need to lose those before I play too many live games. As well, I need to learn to read live tells, I haven't mastered that yet. Although, now that both my husband and I play, we've started hosting our own home games.

[melioris]

Why do I play and what do I get out of it? What are my short and long-term goals? The latter questions are easier to answer. After playing B&M games on and off for a long time, I started to play the online game with a clear gameplan and defined goals. In April I deposited $50 into an online account with a pledge that that was it. As soon as I doubled it, I took out $50. If my account ever reaches $0, I am done, with only time lost. My long-term goal is to build my bankroll to $40,000. Assumptions based on hours of observations of high-buy-in online NL games led me to believe that $40,000 is my magic bankroll number. When I hang up my working shoes and play online poker as my only source of income (don’t we all have this dream?). My short-term answer for my bankroll to hit $3,000 by the end of January.

Now for the harder questions. (this is kind of cheesy, but honesty was requested.) Like most, I like the competitive aspects of poker. I like winning money. But there is more to it (and this is where maybe it gets cheesy). I like the fact that, like the universe, poker is completely governed by math. I remind myself of this when my 95% favorite gets busted on the river. 95% chance does not make for a certain event. It is the uncertainty, and (when I am playing well) exploiting that uncertainty to my advantage, that I love. It makes me feel part of the larger universe on a much grander scale. Each time you sit down at a table and buy-in, you are beholden only to yourself. All success and failure is yours alone. Sure luck is involved, but this is where the math comes in. Luck will eventually be the same for all, and all long-term success or failure cannot be attributed to luck. Let me put it another way, I play because NL poker is an expression of freedom. Each person can buy in for the same amount, and you have complete freedom to do as you choose at the table. Freedom, real freedom, is a scary thing and a lot of people do not do well with that much responsibility over themselves. It makes me feel good about myself to excel in this type of an environment.

Sorry for the blah-blah nature of this post, but you got me thinking. As I reread it I think I sound like some right-wing freak. Really I am bleeding heart liberal. Kind of funny what poker does to you.

[Talking Poker]

You and Penguinfan are going to get along GREAT!

[melioris]

The great thing about being new is that I can just assume that this is a good thing.

[Talking Poker]

Ha!

In reality, I was being sarcastic. It's you and I who are going to get along great, because we believe in math. Some people - and I won't rename any names - put a lot more faith in the luck side of things and are strong believers that the best hand preflop should ALWAYS win. Not 80% of the time if it's a 4:1 favorite, not 60% of the time if it's ahead 3:2, but 100% of the time.