Big News: We've Moved!

Well, after ten long years, and nearly a thousand blog posts, it's time for a change: 

As of today, this PokerBug site will go dormant. There will be no more new technical articles posted on this blog. It is now and forever just a static archive of past posts.

No, this isn't some kind of April fools prank. PokerBug is leaving for greener pastures.

Ah, but don't worry. This is actually a good thing, for both me and (hopefully) for you. Here's why: I've moved to a new domain and hosting site. I've also changed the name of the new blog and, more importantly, I've refined its core focus. Call it a fresh new start for the Bug. You can read all about the What's and Why's for the move over on the new site, which I've linked to a little further down in this post.

Before you click that link and surf on over there, however, I want to take a moment to thank all of you for your long, loyal readership here on this blog. The feedback, email, comments, links, and connections you've provided me over the years have been both legion and tremendously helpful. I can honestly say that I'm a much better player because of your input and feedback-- and I hope that you have found similar benefit from my writings.

Equally important are the many friendships I've made as a result of this blog; I cherish them all. In recent years, I've also managed to pick up a gaggle of students, the occasional contributor, frequent fact checkers, and, last year, even a business partner, all due directly to this blog. Thank you, one and all for your friendships, as well as the time and effort you've invested in reading and improving all my poker posts. I owe a debt of gratitude to each and every one of you. I hope you find my new poker site just as helpful and interesting as it gathers speed and gets off the ground...

So, without further ado, here's the link to the home page for Bug's new site:

Exceptional Poker

And here's the link to the short backstory post there on why I made this major change in my life.

I hope you visit the new site as often as you have dropped in on this one.  I also hope to see you someday in person on the felt, preferably with a big stack of multi-colored chips in front you. If so, please say hi, pull out a chair, and let me sit in your game--  preferably on your left!

Cheers!

All-in for the last time...
-Bug

Want to get better at poker? Write about it.

"Learn as much by writing as by reading." - Lord John Acton

Long ago, one of the best things I ever did for my poker game was start this blog. Writing about poker means thinking about poker, which in turn means learning-- which means improving. Other players that I know who have taken up similar habits of blogging about poker, or even just writing down hands and situations and analyzing what they did right and wrong, have similarly benefited from the process. Writing about poker helps your win rate.

Lots of poker coaches feel the same way. They encourage their students to keep records, write down key hands, and, yes, blog. Recently, poker author and coach Nathan "BlackRain79" Williams posted on his blog about the benefits of blogging. He wrote: "It doesn't even matter if anybody is reading [what you write] or not. I had literally zero people reading this blog for the first three years. It didn't matter..."

There's an old adage that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. I personally learned this years ago in college when I took a night job teaching calculus at a local community college. I thought I knew math before I started that job-- and boy, was I mistaken. Yes, I could solve problems, but no, I couldn't not explain the how or the why very well. The good news is that by the time that first semester was over I easily had increased my knowledge of calculus by more than 100%, and I did so by learning how to explain to others. I literally became an expert by teaching.

I think it was Albert Einstein who famously said, "You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother." Whenever I post to this blog, I essentially put on my "explaining hat" and imagine that I'm teaching an imaginary reader something. If I can coherently articulate a concept or idea in writing so that a generic reader can understand it, then by definition I also get it. Which means my game has gotten better.

Way up at the top of this very web page, right underneath the title "PokerBug" are the words Docendo Disco, Scribendo Cogito -- Ship It. The Latin part of this phrase translates to "I learn by teaching, I think by writing."

I'll leave it to the reader to figure out the "Ship It" part. :-)

All-in for now...
-Bug