HOW I Become a Poker Champion in One Year

 HOW I BECAME A POKEER CHAMPION IN A YEAR

I was a newbie to poker when I met Erik Seidel for the first time. Rounders is a 1998 Matt Damon movie that tells the story of a law student who works hard and plays poker to make ends meet. A live poker match can be seen in many scenes. It's the 1988 World Series of Poker final-table showdown, in which a young Seidel faces Johnny Chan, who is frequently called "master", by commentators. This poker match is one of the most well-known in non-poker. Seidel's queens fall to Chan's straight after Chan sets an expert trap for Seidel, who was then a new player in poker. To make it to the final table, he had defeated 165 of his rivals. Seidel, now the master, has been there for thirty years. Seidel is the holder of eight WSOP bracelets - only five other players have more - and a World Poker Tour championship. He is one of only 32 poker hall of fame members. He holds the record for the fourth-highest career tournament winnings and the fourth-most WSOP cashes (114). Many consider him to be the GOAT--the most important player of all-time.

Seidel's longevity is what sets him apart from all other players: He still holds the No. 1 spot. Since his early career, in the late 1980s, Seidel has been No. 1. This takes some practice. Over the past 30 year, the game has undergone a significant transformation. The qualitative aspects of poker, like so many other aspects of modern living, have been replaced by the quantitative. Caltech Ph.D.s are now on the tables. You will often see printedouts of statistics columns. GTO (game theoretical optimal) and +EV (positive expected values) are two common terms that often pop up in conversations. Despite the fact that Seidel's play style is psychologically based, it has not been a disaster.

Seidel taught me how to play poker three years ago. A professional poker player, the professional poker player, would agree to allow a random journalist to follow his journey like a child. It's not to get publicity or money. Seidel is notoriously reserved and doesn't like sharing his methods. However, I was an ideal student in many ways. I am a psychologist with a Ph.D., so I was well-equipped to comprehend Seidel's style. Seidel didn't have to remove me from any bad habits, as I had never been much into playing cards. I was an inexperienced player and had a strong academic background. This made me the perfect candidate to test whether Seidel's psychological strategy could be superior to a mathematical approach. i had a top hand in a poker tournament the other night