Why I Blog?

Hello,

I read a post by RecessRampage concerning poker bloggers and figured I'd throw in my personal views on the subject. I am new to the poker blogging community and decided to start blogging to share some of my poker knowledge with beginning poker players. Then is dawned on me that I would greatly benefit from putting myself out there and letting those who are better than me (and yes, there are many who are) critique my play. Another reason I have for blogging was to keep myself honest with my play. If I post a hand that I played and I played it incorrectly, I can count on other bloggers to tell me so.

For me, poker is a hobby. Some people bird watch, some people collect toy trains. I play poker. Thankfully, I have been able to consistently make money from poker, not necessarily because I am so good, but because the majority of those playing are just so bad. Again, I have many flaws in my game but one thing at which I am good is knowing when I am the fish at the table. I have often left a table when I realized that either every player at the table was a shark (even if I too was a playing the role of a shark at the time) or there were no fish (as there is no point in playing without a fish or two). In truth, if I lost a small amount of money each month playing poker I would continue to play anyway. Most hobbies cost money and poker is no different. The fact that I happen to make money from my hobby is icing on the cake.

Like any hobby, if you are going to have one it pays to do it right. I have poker tracking software and hand analyzers and I use them. I go over my hand histories on the regular basis, win or lose. Why? For two reasons. Firstly, I wish to get better. And secondly, like any good hobbyist I take it seriously. Why have a hobby if you are not going to do it right? So the blog adds to the enjoyment of my hobby. It is another tool in the hobbyists' arsenal.

I have been trying to post my hand histories more frequently so that I can have people let me know what I did wrong or right in the hand. It is difficult to analyze, play and post so I choose the important pieces, in this case analyzing and playing. I have a folder full of hands ready to be posted for critique. Often, as I am about to post a hand it becomes obvious to me where I went wrong (or right). At that point I usually decide not to waste everyone's time, although I should probably post it anyway with my conclusions and have those analyzed as well.

I recently joined CardRunners along with The Poker Grind and a few others and have watched a few of their videos. While it is a wonderful way to better study poker, I personally feel I get just as much from reading various bloggers and other poker related articles. The hand analyses of Fuel55 are usually spot on (at least from my perspective) and it's hard to argue with his cash game results. I have railed his sessions more times than I care to admit and have learned a great deal. So again, it goes back to the issue of hobby. If Fuel55 was an expert on all things bird and I was a bird watcher I would certainly yield to his expertise in that area (interestingly enough we have recently been discussing art and he is trying to turn me into an expressionist).

I find that one of the best ways to learn how to play better poker is being honest with yourself. Was that hand really a bad beat? Could I have minimized my losses when the deck had gone cold? Should I have called all-in with one pair when I thought he had a draw? Did I bet too much? Did I bet too little? Did that guy really make a bad call? When looking over hand histories after that fact and when you are in a better state of mind, if you are honest with yourself it is often easy to answer these questions. Sometimes the answers aren't so simply. The other day, a regular in the nightly razz tournaments called me down drawing to a 9-8 low and I missed a huge draw with three low upcards after two betting on third (I think I ended up with a three pair or something like that). He commented that he had made an amazing call and was talking about how great a player he is for calling me down. I initially thought was that he had made a terrible call down. Then I changed my mind after thinking about it a bit more. Later that night I read and reread the hand history and I can say without a doubt that he made a terrible call. He had had a jack-9 low drawing to a 9-8 low while I had a potentially better hand already or at worst, had about half the deck to beat him. There was no way to know he was good as he had stated nor was there any way he could have known that I had missed. He called it instinct. I doubt that highly since I historically play less than 16% of my razz hands (and that is based on a huge sample). So to call that instinct to me means that he called down hoping his hand was best, obviously not paying attention to the fact that I had literally not played a single hand until that one.

The point of that story is that I am competent enough to know with absolute certainty (and that's hard to say) that I played the hand correctly. He just, for whatever reason, didn't want to let go of a bad hand. It happens. So do I need to post the hand to solicit everyone's opinion? Perhaps it would make for a nice discussion. But I don't want to waste my time posting the hand so that I can end up with the same conclusion. If I was in the slightest bit unsure I would post it. But my time is better spent playing poker and analyzing my hand histories. I'll spend my time posting hands with which I need help. Even if the hand above could be interpreted in other ways (and I'm sure it could), I believe my time posting hands is better served posting hands in which I am unsure of my play. Hands for which I have at least reasonably analyzed to my satisfaction need not be posted.

So, do I care if a blogger (or any other player for that matter) is good or bad? Do I care if someone made a terrible call in a blogger tournament to bust me? Do I care if I made a terrible call in a blogger tourney to bust someone else? Not really. When I play them I play them for fun, as I do with all poker. I don't expect much from these tournaments except to have fun. I hope that there can be some good natured ribbing and some interesting conversation. I don't usually over analyze hands from those tournaments since I know that people are there for fun. The way I may have played the hand in a blogger tourney might be different from a regular tournament for some reason.

So I blog as a hobby which is the same reason I play poker. I hope to become a better player than I am much in the same way a bird watcher hopes to see that rare bird. I do not have aspirations to be a great player or a famous player. I don't really care if people think I am good, bad or otherwise. I don't mean that in a negative way as there are those whose opinions I value, however I am not here as a professional. I am here as a hobbyist and no more. So if someone thinks I made a donk play that either won or lost me the pot then so be it. There is nothing I can do about that. I managed to eek out a second place finish in the Skills Series stud 8/b but the fact that I went deep was good enough for me. I got my money's worth, my entertainment value if you will. And that's all I really ever want, whether it's a blogger tournament or any tournament. I want some bang for my buck.

See you on the felt,