Foxhog

The essay "The Hedgehog and the Fox" by Isaiah Berlin speaks to a very important ideal that is very true and dear to my heart right now, well at least as far as poker goes. The hedgehog, knows only one particular strategy, but knows that strategy VERY well, while the fox maintains a general overview of many strategies, but is the "jack of all trades, master of none".

In the poker world, this is a much debated topic, so much that Steve Zolotow had a chapter in Doyle Brunson's Super System 2 book discussing this very topic and essay by Berlin.

In a world of poker dominated by No Limit Hold Em (thanks Moneymaker), many casual players don't even know that other games exist, let alone care to learn them. But if you want to be a serious player, you owe it to yourself to at least learn the rules and basic strategies of the many other exciting games poker has to offer. My guess...... is that you might find one that you enjoy and/or are better at than NLHE. And that can be your specialty, your "go to" game when you're trying to make some money in this crazy upside down economic climate.

But if you can focus on one game and beat the crap out of the competition every time, why would you waste your time on any other game?? Well for that, I'm gonna borrow a quote from Mel Gibson(pre crazy) from the movie "We Were Soldiers". When Chris Klein's character is asking him how he feels about being a father AND a soldier, he says "Well, I hope that being good at one, makes me better at the other". That's a very powerful statement. In poker, having tunnel vision can cripple a player. So even a basic understanding of all the games will almost instantly improve your all around game more than you can imagine!!

I've pretty much got a basic understanding of all the variations of this crazy game we call poker. My mission is now to delve deeper into each game, to truly master each; and hopefully as I improve at each game, I'll also improve exponentially as an all around player.

My current(and first) game I've chosen is Omaha Hi Lo. Because of its small swings, it allows me to play at higher limits with the same bankroll. This way, hopefully I can master the game while fattening up my BR all at the same time.......... we'll see.

JWC