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Recently
a friend asked if I would be up for teaching some No
Limit Hold’em poker (thinking that it would be
a weekend job at most) and I replied (via email) with
the following story about a student wanting to learn.
IT GOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS:
Student: “Phil, will you teach
me No Limit Hold’em poker?”
Phil: “Sure, here... read this
book.” (Theory of Poker)
Student: “OK, now what...?
Can we play...?”
Phil: “No, not yet, here...read
this other book.” (Harrington’s first book)
Student: “OK, now what...?”
Phil: “Read the first book
again... It’s important stuff.”
Student: “Phil, this is frustrating...
I want the fun lessons... and I want to play.”
Phil: “The fun in poker is seeing
all slowness and preciseness as fun... and being hungry
for little kernels of stuff that have not sunk in yet...
and the more you learn, the harder it is to learn more...
and you are useless overall as a poker player till you
go thru many revisions of thought on the game... and
ultimately no one can teach you; they can merely guide
you... the learning will always be on you... and the
learning will often be difficult... but there will be
that moment... that one fateful moment where it isn’t
a struggle to learn... but just the opposite....(by
the way... if you are lucky it will start this way and
never end)...you will eventually see it as all a fun
puzzle to make some sense of.... and when it morphs
into the fun puzzle... then you have snatched the stones
from the palm (Kung Fu movie reference) and will be
ready for bending with the future... tasting the truth...
seeing the opponents’ hole cards without seeing
them... and all the good stuff that comes with winning.
BUT FIRST YOU MUST LOSE....
…LOSING IS IMPORTANT.
Losing is woven into the probability matrix that is
poker... there is no escape... be comfortable with loss...
loss is merely a point on the curve... no more, no less.”
Student: “OK, Phil… I
see... Should I read the Harrington book again?”
Phil: “No, he has a new book...
now you can read new stuff.”
Student: “Cool” (…and
after some time, the student resigns herself to not
playing… but only reading… ah... resigned
to only reading and not playing... ok... good... now
we introduce student to the micro-limits on online poker…)
Student: “Cool...but I want
to go to the casino and play with people for real money...not
50 cent max buy in online games... I want the real thing!”
Phil: “This is the real thing...First
make a profit there... then we will see.”
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