Poker Perambulation

My intentions seem to keep getting grayer and grayer. In my earlier days, it all seemed so black and white. In forums or other writings, I could argue with the best – or so I thought. A lot of said arguments were with as incomplete information as the tables provide. In forums we can finally get that hashed out. Blogs are a different beast.

These days with me playing mostly stud. The gray almost becomes fog. Stud exacerbates finding the thoughts behind opponent's plays. Loose play isn't always as loose as it appears with just the normal glance. Pot odds and personalities compete with what seems iffy play.

Hold'em is more transparent. But, even there, things are gray around the edges. At least when we factor in tournament play with blind acceleration. I'll never be the likes of some – like Negreanu – who have a seemingly psychic ability to call opponent's hands. But, I can usually come up with a decent range of hands.

At ring, implied odds bring about 'stupidity' that seems apparent if we aren't close observers. When the poker juices were really flowing, I was a sound observer. That slipped. I've often referred to the results as my boredom tilt. I didn't watch TV along with play or even multi-table. People say that single table SnG's and such are too boring for them and so they multi-task or multi-table. Back when I was 'better', I never had that problem. One table with a hand a minute could engross me.

The problem I have is typified by hand histories. They are so cut and dried without the background that most fail to provide. They lack flow. Intentions aren't defined. Without intent, you have nothing. Thought is defined instead by results.

Intent is a two-way street. It creates your A-game or a sad substitute. We're often too late in recognizing that. We aren't as observant about other intent. The results populate our various blogs. Variance and intent are fellow travelers. It is something we often recognize too late.

ADDENDUM:

Intent is easy to picture and its flight from rationality is always close by.

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