Quote:
Originally Posted by ROYALKNIGHT  If I start reading books or watching videos. Everyone would have basically the same style. Doing as the book or video says. Ill stick to freestyle and luck. Its more fun. |
I played very casual poker for years and years until I stumbled on the WSOP many, many years ago, and frankly did not know there were books on poker, though I should have suspected it since I was a master-level chess player and had already build up & read an impressive library of chess books.
When I got interested in improving my game, I read a few books. My style would change, it is true, but the main change is my game improved ...
a lot. Last April I won $16,000 in a MTT full of very tough players and poker books fundamentally improved my game so I could be a good enough player to win.
Poker books will not contaminate your game. They will give you ideas that you will be able to use whenever you want to. They are tools.
When I am taking something mechanical apart, I drag my toolbox and get to work. Sure I could sweat and maybe succeed with only a wrench and a srewdriver, but a better toolbox allows you to do the job right. Having good tools does not suck the enjoyment of taking a piece of machinery apart and putting it back together ... in the same way, learning a poker idea from a book does not make the game worse ... it makes it better.
I am not arguing against your right to play freestyle without input from books and videos ... in fact I have played with a lot of guys just like you live in tournaments in Vegas. You are all tough birds and tricky as hell.
That said my game has come a long way by learning some of the interesting poker tools you find inside these books. If you get curious and want to get a book you can "dip into" to pick up some tools, get Phil Gordon's
Little Blue Book instead of his
Little Green Book. You probably are advanced enough to enjoy the blue book more.
Meanwhile, good luck and live the "I love to crack the whip over the book-learned weasels that come to play in Vegas" (a direct quote from a gentleman I played with ten years ago in a Stud game at the Riviera Casino in Vegas.
Just a comment, don't want to change you and good luck in all of your games!
