Poker Riches

Wow, poker has got popular. Not the everyday 'have a game of poker with your friends' version, but the cut-throat gambling version where for a small entry fee you can earn a huge prize.

But how easy it is to become a successful poker player. Can a person of average intelligence crack the game and make a living. Is it really a game of skill or a game of luck?

I'm going to find out. And I am going to document my progress as I go along. And my observations. Maybe at the end I will be addicted to gambling and have lost all my money...(I hope not).... or maybe I will be one of those lucky people you see on television raking in all the money at a big tournament.

The special skills I bring to the game are as follows:

- as a kid I was good at math and mental arithmetic - quickly calculating numbers in my head and I am still reasonably capable of doing this.
- as a teen I was a reasonably good chess player - a regional champion but certainly not county or national level. I've probably played 5 games in the last 10 years but still think I must be pretty smart to have been pretty good at chess.
- as an adult I have made a good living programming computers and databases. This suggests I am pretty with it when it comes to logical puzzles and if/then/else branches.

I like to learn new things and hold on to information pretty well. With computers I had a passion and read many many books just to get an idea how to do things. I copied ideas and modified algorithyms to make slightly different programs suited to what I was trying to achieve. And I was extremely focussed - all problems are solvable if you put in the hours and each failure just makes the eventual success taste sweeter. I could work for 36 hours straight nailing a computer program but I always cracked it eventually.

So can I apply the same passion and energy to poker and be successful? I have 3-4 months to try to get from the starting point to the pinaccle (whatever that turns out to be). Lets start the journey.

Ace (my new nickname)