Student of the month? Ohhhhhh boy.

Believe it or not, after 26 years of life, I have my first official student of the month award.

Thats right, Screw Del Roble, screw Herman, and screw Oak Grove, I have been named the Rainman poker school for turning fish into sharks first official student of the month. I am overjoyed by the fact that I was chosen by Nick and his coaches as the first student of the month for his coaching program. It really validates just how much effort I have put into improving my game and making sure that when I play I do so at optimum concentration and efficiency. Nick wrote up a nice little blurb that you can check out on Rainmanpoker.net.

Once again, I am stoked, and very thankful for the opportunity that I have been provided, and my work and effort is just going to improve from this point forward. I have recently gotten the chance to mix in a few of the larger games with my mix of 2's and 7's, and have already seen a nice profit from them. I feel like my game actually excels playing against better players.

That is an interesting phenomenon actually. The ability for poor athletes/teams etc to step up their play when playing against better talent. (Now, I'm not saying that i am a poor player in any sense, but there are certainly guys that are tiers and many tiers above my play ability at this time.) Anyway, Back when my old girlfriend played softball for a college that was division 1, but well below the ranks of other division 1 schools, there was always one team that the girls really excelled against, and it just didnt make sense. On a regular basis, the team would get blown out of the water by teams that just weren't very good on the grand scheme of things, but about once a year, the softball team would make a trip to Knoxville and take on a team that made the women's college world series every year, and the strangest thing would happen. The softball team would start playing well. They would hit their spots, make amazing plays, and constantly frustrate this team that was 100 times better than them. Not only that, but they managed to take 2 wins of the ten times that they played. That to me is an incredible stat, and any time I watched them play against this clearly superior team and somehow step up their game was really very interesting to me.

Anyway, maybe its an actual phenomenon, maybe it only happens to certain people, but I really feel that I play my best when surrounded by those who are at the top of their game. And don't get me wrong when I say that the players in the 12's are all at the top of their games. They aren't. Instead of about 95% of players being terrible like you will see in the $2 games, you are more likely to see about 80% of players being terrible. There is a much higher number of regulars who make a living playing the $12 and $36 games than there are at the $2's, but there are still plenty of terrible players joinging the game to take their shot. It is those players who help pay the salaries of all those who make a living doing this, and we welcome them with open arms. When one cracks your aces with A7o on the bubble, you just smile, shake your head and reload and really hope that guy puts any money he wins back into the pot later on.