I was raised by a father who played semi professionally, meaning he won a lot more than he lost and played on a regular basis throughout most of my childhood. Dad's biggest push was a holistic approach to the game. It wasn't about the hole cards. It was more than the flop. It was the statistics and all the possible futures which could be achieved by the next turn of the card. He called it the big picture and in many ways, it is something that I do not do when I play poker but I do utilize in the rest of my life. I think it is what has made me successful in my professional life because I'm now a professional puzzle solver.

Recently, as many of you know, I won the first Sunday League game of the current iteration. In many ways, I wasn't playing what I would call my best game because I was exhausted after a long and enjoyable weekend with friends. I forwarded the email from Pokerstars to Micheal and to my friend Wayne- a math professor in Maryland. Wayne has recently become involved in the poker world. He's got the chops but he hasn't been able to see the bigger picture outside of his own hand. In the process of playing email tag, he told me how he was in a free roll event on FT where he thought he had won but hadn't due to a four card flush draw on the board. He honestly didn't see the four card flush after he had flopped his Q-8 straight.

In anthropology, we have two terms that are often hotly debated- Emic and Etic. Loosely translated, Etic means from an outsider's point of view and Emic is the insider's point of view. I've been examining my poker playing from an emic and thanks to Wayne, I have had to look at it and explain things to a member of the etic. I think our almost daily emails about how to play a hand or what was possibly missed have helped me with my own playing. I am not overanalyzing my own play. There is nothing wrong with being a tight player- but when you are so tight that you could squeeze a diamond out of one's arse, then its a little too tight. Wayne is making me review my own plays. I've realized that I've folded too many hands early because of fear, or apprehension of the possibilities.

After doing the math, about 15% of the hands that I fold would have won had I had the guts to see them through. Its reminding me that poker is more than just a numbers game. Its more than a psychological chess match based on hundreds of thousands of different possible broadways.

There is a bigger picture

Skelegirl

I am using this to vent, bitch, moan and complain. I love my job- working as the lead assistant the department chair as well as with various department of safety and federal agencies. For the past few weeks, we have been identifying victims of dehydration in the Central Texas landscape. Most of them are undocumented immigrants but occasionally we find a hiker. I came here to give families closure. I want to do something to make the world a better place. Now I just want to rage.

Yesterday, we had a scene that was horrific. I mean, to the giving back my lunch point. I've spent most of my day working with the DPS and the ME's office.

All I know is that some people shouldn't breathe let alone breed. Right now, I am so completely proud to be a Texan because we have a pretty stringent death penalty. I know I should not pass judgment until all the evidence is in. I got into this job because I wanted to give people closure... Now all I want to do is pray that I get to be the one who pushes the plunger in a few years. Never mind the fact that I am supposed to be on decreased hours because of Mike leaving. Never mind that I have spent three weeks on call so I can have time off. Never mind that I am supposed to be writing my dissertation.

I think... that I am going to go back to teaching- teaching anthropology to bratty little college kids.

Skelegirl

I've been thinking about starting my own blog. I have a journal that I have to write in (actually two) for my dissertation. One thing that we are taught as candidates for our PhD is that we must record and analyze everything in a holistic method. Our other journal is to reflect our personal responses to our work.

I think I want to make this my personal and professional journey as a poker player. Even though I have been playing for the majority of my life, there is still so much to learn. And in the past few days, I've been contemplating the community of poker players. Poker players have their own sets of hierarchy. We have our own language, especially now as the online poker arena gains force.

Before I left Vegas, my mother gave me a book she just finished. Normally, I don't have time for memoirs with all the work I'm doing. Since I had 120 minutes at the gate and another 2 hours on the plane, I decided that I would read something that had absolutely nothing to do with forensics. "Julie/Julia" is a woman's foray into french cooking. She resolves to make at a minimum of one meal from Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking everyday of the year. I wonder if that is what I should do here... One hand, one tourney, one something a day and review my bankroll, style, etc at the end.

Yeah, I think I'll do that.

Skelegirl