I posted this on my forum...thought I'd share here too...

[Moddy]

I have noticed something at our home poker games - everyones game is progressing. I used to play nothing but top hands - was usually able to coast into 3rd place or higher pretty consistently. I'd get pissed off if my AA was sucked out by someone playing J2.

We have a few new players, with varying styles of play, as well as [for lack of a better word] veteran players who we're comfortable playing with. That being said, I saw this quote from Bruce Lee regarding fighting forms, and it really clicked with me with regards to poker:

Bruce Lee was against forms:

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

I interpret this as being able to adapt to the type of players sitting at your table at any given moment, and counter their actions. If you have a really loose agressive players, change your style of play to counter that. If you are going against a tight passive player, you can mix up your game to exploit them as well.

Thoughts?

[Quads]

I saw that over there, and I was going to post it here and I'm glad you did. I think if you can relate to it, understand it, and use it, it will go a long way.

[Ender]

I sure feel like my game has progressed significantly in the last year. A year ago I wouldn't have felt comfortable playing 9/18 or even 2/5 NL... both of which are commonplace now.

I think the play overall in BYOC games has increased, one indicator being that more people are comfortable with higher ($100+) buyins... I remember some old BYOC events that were $25 buyin!

Go BYOC! 8)

-kid

[Hagar]

I think the play overall in BYOC games has increased, one indicator being that more people are comfortable with higher ($100+) buyins... I remember some old BYOC events that were $25 buyin!

I think almost everyone who plays regularly inour games has improved at least a little. There's few who count on their "old"game to get them through a session with mixed results, but as a whole, our already tough game has gotten a bit tougher. And that's a good thing in my book.

Most of us can cruise into a card room and have good sessions most of the time when the poker gods don't have their target on us and I think our home game has a lot to do with it.

Yeah, the $25 games seem rediculous to a lot of us now, but it proved to be a good base for our training. You gotta start somewhere and I know that I wouldn't have the cajones to play a NL cash game if it weren't for the last (nearly) 2 years of training in PP and BYOC. Now NL is nearly all I play.

I personally think that we have no need to keep jacking up our stakes at this time. The .50/1 game is plenty exciting most of the time and it tends to prevent huge losses on a tough night. I like the occasional 1/2 tossed in (hopefully I'll be ready to step up to a 2/4, 2/5 in the not too far away future) every now and then, but I think that a steady diet of the .50/1 games is still a good base for us to continue to work on our games.

And water? What's all this crap about water? :scratch: Fish reproduce in water :ncool: . Water is flushed down a toilet :shaking2: . Neither are molds that I wish to conform to... :lol:

(I'm just kidding Moddy - I do see the relevance. ;) )

[Moddy]

Brutal!