3 months is less than 6

Immersed back in both my worlds it begins time to inter-relate again. Poker is going well, splitting my time between two clubs on both sides of the felt and I know that while my game has not plateaued, I certainly am not as sharp as I once was. My newest fascination has been with reads and micro-expressions, something I picked up in Forensic Psychology and which has been recently exaggerated in the show Lie to Me.

The interaction is still fun, but I feel like when I live in the poker and comedy worlds I become a little displaced from the real one and even my dreams become laughingly mundane. I usually write with a mission so here is today's "Topic." What is the typical player looking for?

Obviously a win. But more specifically than that, do players want a social environment, a cheap rake, loose players, all of the above? Do players want access to alcohol, to massage girls, to hookers? As a player I've been told table selection is more important than bankroll management, but rarely do I see people scout the competition, or question the houses' take. I'm against private lotteries, so bad beat jackpots, high hand collections and showdown and high cards are not for me.

There are tournament players and cash players, tight players and loose players social players and quiet players, I don't necessarily adapt to the situation but at one time or another I have been all of these. I've been playing for over 5,000 days, more than half my life and the game still has so many mysteries to me, the biggest one is when a watch a player who fundamentally plays against the rules of the game win. "I got it in with an under-pair against an over-pair 7 times, I'm supposed to win that one in five." And it constantly amazes me how much good players can lose, but when does luck even out, when does the math settle in...it is hard to imagine luck being such a factor.

Let's see if I can write more than once a week rather than only once a year...