Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, volume 2

New thing I learned recently
A World War II battle was fought on American soil, and I didn't know that until I watched the History Channel last night.

The Japanese invaded and captured two of Alaska's Aleutian Islands.  The US retook one of the islands, then the Japanese evacuated the other one under cover of fog.  The westernmost Aleutians are actually closer to Japan (about 1,000 miles) then they are to Anchorage, which was a surprise to me.

Anyone who says that there is nothing good on TV hasn't really looked.  I learn something new and useful (this does not include the latest pageant exploits of Honey Boo Boo) from televison on a regular basis.

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There isn't much to say about poker.  I haven't played a tournament in the last 24 hours.  I'm being very selective about what I play this week while I'm concentrating more on study.

I downloaded Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, volume 2, by Johnathan Little, to my Kindle today.  One of the nice features is that is has page numbers along with Kindle locations.  I like that because when a book is discussed on the twoplustwo.com poker forums, it is customary to refer to the page number when addresssing a topic.  If some players are referencing a book printed on paper, some have a Kindle, and some are using a Nook or other device, it could certainly complicate communication on the forums.

Much of the book is about the nuts and bolts of playing a hand of poker. But it also covers other things, for example:

having a retirement fund
how to stack your chips
how to take useful notes online
how to interact with dealers and other players
why playing slowly costs you money
why berating other players costs you money
why arriving late to a tournament costs you money
why you should wear sunglasses at the table
why you should not wear headphones at the table
why you should be in a study group with other serious players

In this book, even more than with voume 1, I realized that Johnathan Little and myself are a lot alike in that we are both ruthlessly analytical.  I get some interesting looks (and sometimes comments) from my wife when I say something like, "I'm going to lay down.  I think there's a 70% chance that I'll be able to fall asleep."

I knew that Little was a kindred spirit when he stated that he's very good at housework, ". . .  because I have figured out the most efficient way to do each task."

As far as the importance of the topics in the book, you've probably looked at my partial list and are thinking something like, "Is that really important?"  I thought that too, espeically when I saw the section title, "How to Stack Your Chips."

It turns out that there are good reasons for the section.  For one, if your chips aren't well organized, you have to fumble for the right chips to make your bet.  Any extra moves you make can give off tells.  One of the basic tenants of live poker is that you never give your opponents free information, and to that end, you should make the save movements every time you bet.  Here is an excerpt from the book:

"I once saw a player who would shake like crazy when digging through his stack if he had a large hand and would smoothly go through his stack when weak.  I wonder how much money he would save if he just stacked his chips so they were easy to access."

When playing live I put my chips in stacks of ten or twenty, with different stacks for each denomination, which is very similar to what Little advocates, but I do it for a different reason.  I want to always know how many chips I have, and if I always keep them organized, I don't have to guess, or count them.

I"m learning a lot about how handling something seemingly mudane can actually make a difference.  The only downside was having still another poker expert tell me how important it was that I have poker friends with whom I can study and discuss hands.  That's not an option for me for a varity of reasons.

I'm learning a lot from volume 2 so far. I already have a long list of things to study based on volume 1, so I will be using Little's books as a core part of my studies for a long time.