Draggin’ ass..

411: Trying to motivate myself to go to work. I took first place in two online poker tournaments last night, and placed second in another, so I’m about $50 richer.

My poker skills are improving by leaps and bounds.

Taking a tip from my poker buddy Bradley, I made a set of flashcards to test myself on the intricacies and probability of success of several poker hands. They are, frankly, sweet looking. I used “mini” size playing cards, and stuck them to a normal 3×5 index card and wrote my notes on the back. This is a huge improvement over using normal size decks, which result in flash cards that don’t fit in a pocket.

Now I wander around town, on the Metro, and in restaurants clutching my index cards and muttering things like, “That’s a Group 4 hand. It can’t call a raise anywhere and you can really only play it in middle-late position. If you’re the first in, you could raise with it. It’s going to need a lot of others in the pot to make the odds for the flush draw correct.”

I was in my favorite breakfast place the other day when one of the owners saw me with my flash cards and said, “What are you doing, teaching yourself to play poker?”

“No”, I said, “see this is a Group 4 hand and you can’t play it in early position, or even call a solid raise with it.”

He looked at me with a blank stare and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

That’s right buddy, I’m not teaching myself to play poker. I’m teach myself to take your money.