On the first day…
Poker, not so long ago was a mystery…
I know it had something to do with smoke filled rooms and cheesy western shootouts, but like many, I’ve had my view of it changed dramatically. Armed only with my limited knowlegde of the hand rankings, I decided to commit myself to learning, and perhaps, mastering this game of skill. Inspiration came from an old school buddy who readers know as Skelm, a poker proffessional I had known since I was about 15. I must have put him under the illusion that there was intelligence present somewhere in my big head, as he decided to go out on a limb and offer to teach me the ways of the game with the ultimate goal of being a poker proffessional myself.
The first step was basic knowledge of hold’em, I was shown how the cards were dealt, how the blinds work, the betting structure, and other crude tools to forge myself a seat in a game. Then, a myriad of books, online texts, videos, sites, and forums were bestowed upon me, with clear instuction to choose a game and stick with it, as even the slightest variation causes drastic changes in the way everything is played, and the way everything should be perceived. My chosen poison: No Limit Full ring Hold’em.
For a living, I work as a Linesman, I work on powerlines across the state of NSW in Australia, this made it pretty easy to add poker study into my daily regime, as we usually drive for 2-4 hours each day, and my workmate who shares the truck with me prefers to drive. So breezing through books on company time just works, the books that were reccommended to me to begin my training are: David Sklansky’s Theory of Poker and The Poker Mindset by Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger.
Once I got home, I was instructed to watch at least one stoxpoker.com video a day, and check the forums on 2+2 relevant to the micros. All of this was required in addition to playing for a while each night. As I was assisted in signing up for a rakebreak account, Skelm asked me if I could think of a fitting screenname for myself…
That night, the padawan was born. (dramatic much?)
