Why So Honest?

A few people have noted my honesty when it comes to making posts and even a member of my family was worried that I might be handing over an edge to the competition by giving away too much information. Well, in a game as deceptive such as poker, I can understand this point of view. However there are three general reasons why I don't mind being so open about my bankroll, profits, losses and strategies:

1)  I count myself as an amateur enthusiast - not a pro. The amount invested is a reasonable but an expendable amount to spend/invest on a hobby/interest that will keep me occupied for as long as one year. If I was playing for a lot more money where my livelihood depended on my results then I think I would certainly be more guarded with certain information.

2)  It's just plain fun, it's really therapeutic, and it's more interesting to the reader. As a Teacher of English I enjoy writing and messing around with language. If I can do this while writing about something I really enjoy - and make that interesting for others, then that's fine all-round. Also, you can't get to a certain level of enjoyment if you're just not being honest about it. Incidentally, the blog is actually an excuse to have a break from the tables. If I didn't have this blog to retreat to every once in a while I just KNOW I would spend longer at the tables - and this refusal to tear yourself away once in a while can only hurt your game.

3)  My readership-base is hardly huge and, at a rough guess, I'd say that around 99.9% of players I play will not have read this anyway. Those that have will be very few and even then, my bankroll, profits, losses and strategies are forever changing anyway. No one knows my mood when I sit down at the table so I can be as honest as I like here. 

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One area of my posts that may be picked up, analysed, and then used against me are my hand histories. But I still don't think this is a major worry for me either. In the early days of playing, I suppose I would have been wary of revealing my thought processes and how I play certain hands but nowadays I think my play is flexible enough for this not to bother me. It's unlikely that I'll get into the exact same situation as outlined in a hand-history and even if I do, the variables (such as stack sizes, history, stats etc etc) and way of looking at the hand will be so different anyway. There must be well over a hundred variables floating around while deep into a cash game and these will be different every time.

Finally, there is the idea that poker evolves very quickly - it's forever changing. Therefore other players as well as yours truly just play differently as time moves on. It is for all these reasons why I see honesty as being the best policy. At least for the time being.

My update this week still falls under Week 1 in my diary. There were only two days before this in 2011, the Saturday and the Sunday, but these two days cannot be considered a full week  - so these are included in the Week 1 figures.

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ONLINE:  WEEK 1: +$355 (~£220)  /  JANUARY: +$355 (~£220)  /  YEAR: +$355 (~£220)

LIVE: N/A