Another B-Day (Belated)

This week I realized a few days late that the blog had turned six years old. First time I’ve managed to let one of those anniversary milestones slip by without some sort of introspective bit of rambling here. As far as I remember, anyhow.

When I noticed the date (April 28) had passed, I sent a tweet remarking how I’d forgotten. And how I should be forgiven “as six is like a hundred in blog years.”

Stepping back it’s tempting to compare the blogging thing and my experience of it to the trajectory taken by some poker players. Or, to be more specific, how my relationship to the act of keeping the blog over a lengthy period of time might resemble how a lot of us experience poker’s oft-evoked “long run.”

At first, we’re fascinated by the game, always wanting to play and never getting enough. With experience comes learning, too, and so we recognize ourselves getting better. For many that encourages exerting still more effort to try to improve our skills further and thus better our performance.

Eventually most of us discover our games leveling off at some point, likely well shy of once-dreamed-of goals. Our infatuation levels off as well, at least for a lot of us. Nothing seems especially new anymore, or at least we start having a hard time recognizing that which is.

For some what once seemed play perhaps becomes more like work. The player becomes a grinder. Who, depending on how things go from there, might well become a former player.

Like I say, pursuing such an analogy is tempting. And there’s more to it, of course. But after six-plus years of writing a poker blog, well, I have already written more than a few times about how writing and poker compare.

Obviously the game -- both games -- still inspire me enough to keep grinding. As do those of you who keep reading. Big thanks once again, all.