A little about my poker, Part I

I guess I should give a brief (hopefully) background about my poker playing, given the title of the blog. There's not really much to tell, actually. Other than 4 years of goofy dealers choice games in college for nickels, dimes, and quarters, my poker playing began in the fall of 2004 in a monthly home game with my golf buddies. We still played dealers choice (blend of 7 card stud-based split pot games like hi/lo, Chicago, with some 5 card draw thrown in there). About the extent of my strategy knowledge was a nugget I remembered from a book I'd glanced at years ago, which said that the average hand that wins in 5-card draw is a pair of jacks, and the average hand that wins in 7-card stud is 3 eights.

I guess I'm naturally conservative in most things. In this game, I was playing not to lose, as opposed to trying to win. I didn't enter many pots, folded to any aggression without having a hand, and didn't bet or raise myself without a really strong hand. Pretty easy (although maybe not fun) to play against, but you can keep yourself out of much trouble with that approach. I was probably a small winner for 3 or 4 nights (months), and noticed one guy was the consistent big winner. Now, we weren't playing for huge stakes ($60 buyin, $2-max bet/raise), but I'm (too) competitive, and I wanted to be at the top. But I didn't do anything about it.

One night, someone suggested we play Texas Hold'em. I'd never even heard of the game, and wasn't crazy about playing with a disadvantage (again, too competitive). Well, I had no idea what were 2 good cards to come in with, and I'm sure I played way too many hands. I stunk it up that night, and had a month to think about it before the next game. So, the next day, I started searching for poker strategy on the web. I don't remember all the sites that I came across, but I did get some decent advice, and started to read about the different online rooms.

Coming up....the beginning of my online play.

My son's first year of soccer started last week. Although I don't really know much about soccer, I'm going to be an assistant coach. I did the same with my daughter's basketball team last year (although I know a bit about basketball, since I played in school), and I really enjoyed it. We try to go to all their practices and games anyway, so I don't see it as that much more of a commitment in terms of time. I like being involved, and (I think) the kids like having me out there.

The only thing that I don't like about it is that kids seem to listen to the coaches, except the coaches' own kids. I don't know how many times last season my daughter woudn't do a drill in practice or something in the game when I asked her, but as soon as the coach asked her, she did. Same thing with the coach's daughter, until I asked. Oh, well.