Poker Drivel: Eschew Egregious Obfuscation

What the heck is "Eschew Egregious Obfuscation", anyway?

That's my favorite geek-humor, tongue-in-cheek way of saying "don't make things more complicated than they need to be", more literally translated (from Middle Dorkish) as "avoid needless complications ".

You see, we as ambitious human beings have this habit, especially when we start to get good at something... We're naturally curious and we want to explore the concepts and practices to their very fringes, honing the finer points and developing a skill in the subject of which we can be truly proud. While there's nothing ultimately wrong with that, we can get our heads so firmly planted in the details that we forget the basics.

I've spent a lot of time honing the finer points of a bluff and learning how to put an opponent solidly on a hand... I've played around with the right size of bet to feed into chasers to maximize my profit when they don't catch and minimize my losses when they do. I've explored the art of Texas Hold 'Em down to the nitty gritty and found myself occassionally losing sight of the ultimate measure of a successful poker game... Profit.

While I'm sure there are players out there who are truly good enough to play a dazzling poker game full of complexity, access every trick from their repetoire without hesitation or flaw, and constantly maintain focus... That's not me. And it probably isn't you either.

So, while you're reading the various blogs and learning finer points, remember this also... Relax. Work these things into your game slowly. Especially when you're on an emotional or mental edge for some reason, sometimes it's best to keep the tricks and traps in a bag and simply play solid, tight poker.

Eschew Egregious Obfuscation.