How I Must Look to Phil Ivey

I played a home NLHE game last night for the first time in 4 months. During this time, I've been playing strictly online in NLHE SNGs.

I introduced NLHE to this group of guys 2-3 years ago, and we've been playing it exclusively ever since. We used to play 1-2 times a month until family responsiblities made this impossible.

I used to be the strongest player of the group, and was interested in seeing how much this gap had widened after playing online and spending time reading the two plus two forum.

I'm simply amazed at how much my understanding of the game has grown in these past few months. The guys I play against in my home game didn't even have a chance. I utterly destroyed them. It was so effortless that I almost felt bad about taking their money.

Rather than making me feel like a world beater, this experience clarified further just how much I don't understand about NLHE. If I can beat these guys so easily, how must I look to a world class player or even a professional grinder?

I don't know that this post has a point. I just thought it was an experience I should share. It was such a light bulb moment for me to experience the chasm that exists between serious players and guys who just like to watch WSOP and play some hands every now and then.

I'd always known this, of course, but to actually see it in action - to see the mistakes happening each and every hand and know exactly how to take advantage of them, well that's something altogether different than just understanding that poker pros "know stuff."

Has anyone else had that moment you realize suddenly that you've made a huge leap forward in your game? What was it and how did it make you feel?