Don Roach

Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve updated the blog. There’s been good reason – at least as far as I’m concerned. Sometime in July I had the bright idea of becoming the next poker stahhhh!! Seriously, I’d been playing for free for years and recently had a modicum of success that inspired me to try it out for real. I found a site where I could buy-in cheap, $10 dollars cheap, and opined, “If I can win with this $10, then I’m good. If not, well at least I gave it a shot.” In the ensuing months I took the $10 to $202 as recently as three weeks ago. I am now down to about $29, such is the life of a poker player, no?

During my six month Odyssey on the felt, I’ve really discovered how much of a skill game poker is. It’s all about getting your money in ahead, riding the ups and the downs and getting used to the occassional “bad beat”. Imagine you have pocket aces and some guy calls you with 72 off suit – or suited – and the board comes out 777. Hehe. You’ll find many players completely angered by such situations but I’ve taken the same approach with poker as I have with life – I will not be denied. Bumps are going to happen but if you stay focused on the goal…your talent and skill will prove if you’ve got it or not.

I strongly recommend people try the game of poker, in much the same way I vehemently suggest people try chess, you learn a lot about yourself in these games. What I’ve learned from poker is this, patience is paramount, and while I’m generally a patient guy I have lapses and those lapses are the reason I’m no longer at the $200 I was at just a few weeks ago but is also the reason I know I’ll get back there over the next couple of months.

In life, I tend to play it very patiently for the most part but when I lose that patience there I tend to do stupid things. Example, circa 2003 I was in a difficult living situation and I punched my windshield. I ended up cracking the windshield costing about $1400 to replace. Not really a wise move.

I say all this to say, poker has afforded me a window into my best and my worst – tempered zeal with patience is perhaps my greatest strength. Unrestrained aggression being my worst and most closely hidden weakness. As you play the game of poker you too may learn about yourself and use that information to face and overcome the different challenges we all face.