Thu, October 28, 2004
From Hellmuth—2:33 AM
Arksie and I had the good fortune to attend a course in power poker taught by nine-time World Champion of Poker Phil Hellmuth on Tuesday night. Phil's basic point over the evening was: "Read my book. Play tight. Be patient." But that doesn't mean we didn't learn plenty and have a great time.
Showing Phil Hellmuth my poker face. (Oops, that's my "grinning maniacally" face.)
The thing is, you can't really discuss poker strategy too much beyond the basics, because there are so many variables. People with questions like, "What do you do with AK after missing the flop and having two people bet in front of you?" opened up the floor for some discussion and some fun stories from Phil, but they couldn't get very specific answers because it depends on the personalities involved, the history of their play at the table, and your "read" on them.
I really enjoyed just listening to Phil's stories and seeing another side of him than the "bad boy" image pushed by ESPN's WSOP coverage. (He swears he's only that bratty about 5% of the time he's at a poker table; after Tuesday night, I'm inclined to believe him.) He was very magnanimous about not shilling his book the whole time, but really everything you need to know is in there. He gave some good pointers about reading other players, but that's just something that takes a lot of practice. You need to know what hands are good, play conservatively, and trust that over time you'll come out ahead. The key thing I got from Phil's book is that sometimes aggressive play will be costly in the short term, but you must consider that an investment: both in your table image and in the information that you get back from watching other players react. He added a few helpful tips like that over the evening, but mostly he simply delivered an enjoyable conversation about poker with one of the game's top minds.
"Will" — Fri, 10/29/04 2:03pm
Hey! You're a googlewhack! "Perspicacity Brickmaker"! Plug it into Google, and you're the only hit. (I just finished reading a really funny book, Dave Gorman's Goolgewhack! Adventure, and it had a bunch of funny coincidences. Funnily enough, there's a coincidence here, too. I used to review TV shows for a little paper in Chicago. (My old columns are online at http://bohlen.blogspot.com). I gave it up when I moved to Belgium. Now, though, I'm posting over at http://snapculture.blogspot.com. In any case, sorry for the randomness. Just wanted to let you know of your googlewhack status. Cheers.
Bee Boy — Fri, 10/29/04 10:33pm
This is the happiest day of my life! This, and that day I learned that a dolphin and a porpoise are not technically the same thing.
Thanks for the alert! (Sadly, my first score from back in my old days of googlewhacking – "quadraphonic apoplexy" – is no longer standing.)
Bee Boy — Tue, 5/17/05 5:56pm
Found a new one! "biomimetic sommelier" That oughtta be worth something.