Nah Steve, I'm not gonna write how your dead wrong. I totally understand what you are Tony are saying about the videogame theory. They don't phsyically see the chips coming from their stacks to me. That definetely changes their play a bit. Also I'm not one to say when one should gamble and when one shouldn't...as well as where one should and where one shouldn't. Now I hate seeing my closest friends losing money (unless its to me...which makes it that much more sweeter, haha!) online with all these megalomaniacs so I'm going to put my 2 cents in. It won't be four pages but hopefully something to think about. And no its not going to criticize you or anyone else...but think of it a chance to see how I deal with them and perhaps...maybe, just maybe it will help you in the future.

IMHO, I don't think that there are such things as short term winners when it comes to playing cards. Perhaps you know of someone who has won short term. Yet the problem is that with the human brain as I understand it, learns through experience. Perhaps they won this money without playing a sound game...well the brain associates their bad play with good winnings. So they tend to play bad and ignore the fact that they might have been wrong. I think we can all take the pros advice when they say that there is a right way to play poker that will help you in the long run. Okay so where is this leading to...

Well I have been in slumps before (you are not even close to my swings) and had to tell my brain that what I was doing wrong even though I might have made some lucky draws with bad play...this is a different form of tilt, but still tilt because I myself associated winning some pots with bad play. This caused me to come to a standstill in terms of poker growth. I too thought as you did. Too many people call with shit, too many people play crazy that I can't win.

You said it that night filled with asparagus. No one in this society wants to blame themselves. It wasn't until after I analyzed my play did I start to win consistently again. This was still when Jonathan was in Berkley so it was a while ago...but so far it has suited me well online and live.

I'm not saying you didn't suffer bad beats. I'm sure there were bad beats. Everyone gets them. Yet you say that you suffered almost all bad beats. Over the past few days you have IMed me saying what beat got you crazy that night...I think I have said this before but...

Only the good players suffer bad/tough beats. This is pretty much poker law. If you play how you are supposed to play, optimize your pot, the odds are with you...there is no other beat than a bad beat. You get your money in when you have the best of it and you still lose. This is because your opponents have to outdraw YOU to win and that is the ONLY way they can win.

Over the past couple of nights I have actually played in the .50 cent and 1 dollar tables to see if there was something that I could give insight on...and the only thing I can say is that the averages at these games have sometimes reached higher than the 1-2 games back in the day. What does this tell you? Well you can be the one that says...

"Man, the pots are huge for this level becuase so many people stay in with stupid shit and will probably beat me."

OR

"Man, the pots are huge for this level because it has so many idiots staying in with long shots, but I don't mind because the positive expecation of each hand goes way up since I don't have to invest too much to begin with. The way I play I WANT calling stations."

Okay so no one talks like that...but I think you are starting to fear callers. I did for a while when I was in the slump. Why does no one give me respect? Well guess what. Calling stations are weak players in my mind. Give me weak players any day than 9 other people who respect my raises and let me win the blinds and only the blinds.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I don't even know poker well enough to consider myself to be good. Yet I constantly look at my hand histories to see if I was getting the odds, could I have played that better etc. To just play poker is not enough to be considered practice. It can be the complete opposite if you somehow trick your brain into bad play = winning.

You have a general understanding of poker. You are probably a step up over other a lot of other people, but the way you are looking at even the smallest stakes poker is costly. No matter what level, if you playing it right, you want callers and idiots. Without them, everyone would be playing poker perfectly and this would mean all of us would even out, more or less.

On the other hand you approach the game differently than me. I want to win in the long run...over the long session. My session has lasted 5 years now. I don't measure it by how many pots I drag in. I try to maximize my winnings over my losses. It seems your poker session will be short sessions on trips to Vegas and Vegas only. That's cool. Just remember that the shorter session you play, the long run, winning tactics don't come into play as much. Enjoy the game and never hit up the ATM! Haha!

Thanks for the picture comment..I like how this one turned out also.

I'll call you up when you get your check. You know you can't resist the urge...oh yeah and so Jonathan will read this...

YOU HAVE BEEN PLAYING ONLINE LATELY, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CRITIQUE WHAT I HAVE SAID. THERE ARE PROBABLY FLAWS IN THE WAY I THINK...LETS HELP THE POOKY TEAM WIN OVER THE MANIACS!