NOTE: Sorry about spellings- this was a little rushed- I am at work!

Hi

I'm at (roughly) the same stage as you. I want to learn poker as quickly and efficiently as possible. That doens't mean I want to take short cuts, or not put the work in- but I just want to be sure that the time I am spending, is spent in the most efficient way.

.... Which (as I gather) is basically your approach.


However, I do believe that to be really good, you DO need to "make up your own sentances". The frustrating thing about poker is that when you watch a pro play, there is not much that you can pick up that tells you why he played each hand like he did.

If you could pick it up from the absorbing the patterns, I'm sure there would be MANY more excellent players than there are.

I beleive poker is far too "dynamic" to be simply modelled on hand patterns.

If you comapare it too language- I see language (ie a conversation) as a linear 2D process. One person strings some work together in a certain way and it means something. Consequently you can assimilate the meaning (outcome) with the words you heard. ie you have something tangible (the sounds made by the spoken word) which produces something intangible (the perceived meaning, in your mind).

With poker, it seems to be the other way round- the intangible (the thought processes that lead to a decision) result in a tangible reality- the cards you either play or fold, the chips you put in, etc.

I have studied NLP a little in the past and so I know the about the concept of "modelling" winning behaviour. But something about poker, makes me suspect it is not suited to this "bypassing" of the fundamentals.

Cheers,
Ian