Do you think

[matt674]

just be thankful you at least had a sell by date!!

[Trace]

As a side issue, Tony 'How beige is my jacket' Kendall has a HUGE physical advantage, but that's just a freak of nature

His arse again?

You're infatuated with it Tom!

He's not alone Trace. But I am not comfy with the "sex-God" image I have, I hate it when women  - and some men - look at me & I can sense them mentally undressing me. Love me for my mind, not my body, is my message.

Oh dear!

Someone up his medication he's fantasizing again!

No choice these days Trace, the sell-by-date sems to have long been & gone......

Awwwwwwww

[patman]

do you know from a long way away and in a poor light he has a chin and looks kinda like paul newman in that photo...

[tikay]

do you know from a long way away and in a poor light he has a chin and looks kinda like paul newman in that photo...

That's often been said. As has Bergerac's likeness to me. Tom Cruise too, I shouldent wonder.

[Sark79]

I don't know about being born genetically better than anyone else. I suppose this relates to other areas just as much as to poker. The nature verses nurture debate.

However, when you look at someone like Gus Hansen's heart rate during a game, he is so relaxed. This obviously shows that he is 100% confident in what he is doing and also what he feels he is able to do. I think this factor is what sets out a winning poker player. I doubt if any of the top players ever feel negative during a game. Of course, experience of playing at these high levels make this a thing which can be learned.

To continue with the Hansen example, he has played games from a young age with a competative mindset. I think this helps as it ingrains a competative streak in a persons character. He is also intelligent which allows him to adapt to different situations throughtout the game.His backgammon background and general games skills must play a part in his present success.  

I honestly believe that most top sports people could play poker well. Of course this would require a large commitment of time and patience that any other person needs while learning the game. Their advantage would be, they are used to using their brains in a competative way. Look at someone like Stephen Hendry, he is a good poker player. Apart from the fact he may just have studied the books available on strategy, I think his ability can be related back to his mindset used for years of playing snooker at a high level.

In my opinion anyone can be a world class poker player. All it takes is self belief, dedication, lots of study and a basic understanding of people,this can be obtained through our normal daily interactions with the people we meet. If all of these criteria are met then really there is no need to gamble.
 
I freely admit, I am an obsessive person when it comes to winning. When I look at the members of Blonde, there is not a single person that doesen't have the potential to play with the so called 'Greats' of the game. Don't get me wrong, I have huge repect for all the top players. But not because I feel they are gentically better than me or even in a lucky position to be where they are. I respect them because they are at a stage in the path to greatness which we have still to reach. It is within all of us, it is just the releasing which is the hard part.

Some people on Blonde may be able to compete with a DB or Gus Hansen at the moment. But there is no reason why all of us couldn't compete with them in the future.

[Sheriff Fatman]

Poker is a game where you can never have enough experience, so there are constantly ways in which you can look to improve.  No matter what your background, there's always likely to be a facet of the game which is not natural to you and which you have to train yourself in.

I was attracted into the game by the logical/mathematical side of it and with a determination to 'learn it' - hence the numerous books on the subject in my collection.  However, its an impossibility to do this as the game is so complex.  Hence, there's no 'basic strategy' which will guarantee you success.

For me, the real learning curve has been the non-mathematical side to the game (e.g. making moves, playing the player and 'gambling' to accumulate chips) which is much less of a natural thing for me to do, but is as much as a necessity as understanding the maths.  However, I can think of many players who are naturals at this side of the game who perhap don't understand the 'theory' as well as I do.  However, there's no guarantee as to who makes the better player at the end of the day.

I can identify very much with TightEnd's sentiments as I went/am going through a similar learning curve to him.  I think we are similar players in style and its interesting to see him seek to improve and to read his posts on here as in a lot of ways it closely mirrors issues that I've found during my development.  However, I'm equally as fascinated by the 'gamblers', as their approach to the game provides me with much more 'learning material' as they possess the natural skills that I am trying to artificially develop.

The one certainty among all this is that nothing beats experience.  I've shared tables with the likes of Micky Wernick and Joe Grech and am constantly awed by this fact at the end of the session.  Ignoring the fact that their presence at the table makes my immediate situation much more difficult I've found that I can learn a hell of a lot just from watching them play.  

At the end of the day its a simple fact that the more hands I play, in as many formats as possible, the more exposure I get to make the decisions that count.  Provided I can extricate myself from the emotions (not easy) and focus on the decisions I made (regardless of the results), learn from the ones I got wrong and re-inforce the ones I got right then I should become a more formidable opponent than before.  However, experience only counts if you are willing to go through this process - if you spend your life putting everything down to bad cards, bad luck, crap opponents and the like then you'll end up making the same mistakes over and over again until they're so entrenched that they become impossible to undo.

Sheriff

[RED-DOG]

Another 

[TightEnd]

Now that post by Sheriff, a sparring partner for me across the felt for many months, is an an excellent post.

Top stuff!

[tikay]

I extract this from Sark's most insightful Post......

".....It is within all of us, it is just the releasing which is the hard part........."

I am not 100% certain he is right insofar as it affects poker, but let me tell you a little story, 100% true, to reflect the "it is within you, it's the releasing it which is the hard part" theory.

For reasons we don't need to go into now, at the age of 13 I could neither read nor write, barely speak as it happens, too, as I had a dreadful stammer. I was at a regular school, & then I got sent to a "special school". I sat in all the lessons, & I seemed "normal-ish" in other ways (stammer apart) but I just could NOT read or write, no matter how hard I tried.

And then, as if by magic, I COULD read & write. Not over 6 weeks or 6 months, but literally - & I do mean literally (in both senses) OVERNIGHT I could not only do both reading & writing, but I could do them both jolly well. I was instantly the school Spelling Bee Champion (bet thery are a thing of the past) & I immediately started reading quite heavy stuff, the quality newspapers & pretty detailed technical books & the like. In other words, it was within me all the time, but something needed to happen to unlock it.

Maybe I will wake up tomorrow & be able to play poker well, too..... though that would be asking a bit much, I fancy.....

Still, I've got a  lovely @rse, or so I'm told.

[RED-DOG]

It's always amazes me how a seemingly simple question on blonde can sometimes bring forth these deep, brutaly honest replies

  to all the posters

[Sark79]

  tikay.  It started off sad, but ended with a happy ending. 

[tikay]

tikay.  It started off sad, but ended with a happy ending. 

I don't see it as sad at all Sark. Everything happens for a reason. Early adversity has served me incredibly well in later life, so iit's swings & roundabouts. I can handle disappointments & setbacks & bad beats better than anyone I know, the "immune system" has done it's job well. So the early problems have been wholly to my benefit. I do fear - terribly - for today's kids who get wrapped in cotton wool & protected from life's bumps & bgruises - they NEED to suffer those bumps & bruises to prepare them for the real world. But these days they are cosseted & protcted from them by over-protective parents & the nanny state, & it's damn CRUELTY to children to educate them to think they can go through life without taking a few slaps along the way.

It ended happily? Well, not QUITE done yet, but yes, I'm as happy as a happy person can be. So, back to the subject mstter, yes, maybe it's all bottled up inside us - though I fear I will never know how to bust Karabiner's QQ with Thewy's K-9........

[Sark79]

yea I agree

[jezza777]

Great posts on here guys . I think that with hard study you can become a very good player but if you want to be great then you do need a little extra and I think that you probably are born with it.

[TightEnd]

that sums it up nicely.....