"Playing Poker": Theory and Practice

[bigalt]

Aside from the pace differences between considering hands on the forums and while playing online, the format and settings are entirely different as well.

I personally think that posting hands and responding to hands on here can only take you so far. The threads that have really helped me are the ones which turn into an argument where people attack the situation from many sides and eventually zone in on a fundamental issue. But for a lot of the hands we see go through, we're training ourselves to "see" the situation in words on the screen, looking at the entire picture at once-- "let's see, the conveniently identified villain open limped in MP and then called the flop and check raised the turn, so..." i.e. the information is expressed very differently than in the game.

Which leads to my biggest problem when trying to truly focus playing on the table. I just don't know when to pay attention. Even on hands that I'm involved in, it's not until something interesting happens that I start to pay attention-- "oh crap, i just got check-raised on the turn. now what exactly happened leading up to that...?" You really have to work to remember the sequence of events, and though you probably can recall it, it's just that-- a sequence, rather than one big picture. Much different to read, IMO.

Man I'm tired, and I have no idea what I just typed. This is the sports betting forum right?