[mosch]

Poker is like golf for me.

I love golf and have loved it for years, and started getting serious about taking strokes off a few years ago. Now I'm the guy at the driving range who is almost never just hitting a driver. I spend an hour almost every day practicing the things that I had troubles with the last week. I'll take a large bucket of balls and try to hit them all 3 yards, or 5 yards, or to an imaginary target 10 yards out, but above my head. Some people think this must be awful and tedious, but I love practicing unsexy things like low punch irons, and five foot putts. It's not trouble for me, because I can envision what I would've done in previous games if I knew that shot well, back then.

This sort of practice has let me achieve my goal of being able to respectably play most any course, from any tee. I won't shoot par, and I may or may not win the bets, but I play well enough now to get the game. When I'm on a good golf course I revel in the little evils the course designer has prepared for me.

Poker is newer to me, but it's really the only other game that's left me with those same feelings of joy and that same desire to improve my game. I played badly for years, and it was a social thing for me... I think it stayed at that level because I just didn't "get" poker. I never really thought about the game, I paid more attention to the game on tv than the one on the table. Then I started reading about the game and thinking about the game and suddenly I realized how much subtlety there is, how deep this seemingly simple game is, and I became hooked. It wasn't just tossing chips at a pot anymore, it became a subtle balance of many skills.

Sure, the money part of it is nice, but I don't care about the money. I regularly play in games where I know I'm outmatched just because I want to be outmatched. When you play in a tough game you see things that you haven't seen before, both about yourself and others. I see players who have coherent and cohesive strategies for how to deal with each situation that faces them that are far beyond my skillset. It instantly elevates my game, just a little bit more, much like playing 18 holes with a top pro chops strokes off of your own round, because you see that beautiful swing, again and again, and you see the shots they choose, which make you rethink your own approach to the hole.

I hope someday to be able to join you at the 25-50, the 200-400 and the 4-8, possibly all in the same day.
It's great to read about somebody who still clearly has a love for the game that extends beyond how many BB/hr you're clearing, despite a long history of play.

In the meantime, I'll keep playing hands, posting embarassments and working the day job.