:: My Urban Eyes ::

Lately I've been getting into poker. Not to the point where I'm playing cash games or anything, but I'm trying to learn more about the game. I first got into it with the World Series of Poker on ESPN a little over a year ago... Glenn and I would watch it together, and he'd tell me stories about the players.

Glenn knows me really well. If he went into long technical lectures about the odds for each hand and why so and so folded I would've turned the tv off. But hearing the stories behind players' nicknames and famous hands they've played kept me interested.

So know I know enough to play fake hands with Glenn and win one now and then. Last night, while procrastinating, I learned the basics of seven card stud, razz, and omaha. I loved the options of omaha, it felt freeing, especially heads up. At a table it must be a different monster, though. Seven card stud was a bit of a pain, as I don't know how to process all that information yet (four of the cards dealt to each player are face up... it's a lot to keep track of). Razz is an interesting study, I think--you want me to make the worst hand I can? I enjoyed thinking about things backwards. When else can you think, "Oh, crap, I got a pair of kings. Better fold."?

Tonight I actually read a few articles to try and increase my knowledge base. I don't know if it helped my game at all, but some of it was good reading. I think the psychology of poker, tells and the like, are very interesting. I found myself drifting towards those articles more often than not.

Glenn said I'm getting good at poker, and while I think he's sincere, I also think he has an ulterior motive--to get me to join his buddies' $10 cash game. I'm hesitant (obviously!), but I'd like to play for chips sometime, as I've never had a chance to sit at a table and read players (and conversely, be read). I'm curious as to how it would go. Especially if Glenn is at the table... I think I would read him decently well. ^_^