Poker and Golf - my two passions

My two great passions are poker and golf. No mystery there as reflected by the name of my Blog. Oftentimes I will try to arrange a marriage of poker and golf as I feel they are very similar in a lot of ways. In golf there are different ways to play a course or a hole or even a singe shot. In poker there are different ways to play a tournament, a flop or your hole cards. One day you can get every draw you are in, get the best cards and not get sucked out on and the next day nothing goes your way, losing to set over set, pocket aces getting cracked by a donkey with 7/2 offsuit and they hit their two pair or trips or full house. The same is true in golf. On one day every putt will drop, every chip will end up as a tap in and the next day the putts lip out or the chips are chunked and you don’t even reach the green. In poker a bad beat can put you on tilt and in golf a missed putt or bad drive can do the same thing. In golf slow players can make you furious and so can the slow poker player that you have to wait and wait and wait for them to make a decision. In a recent post I have Doyle Brunson as the King of Hearts and Arnold Palmer as the King of Clubs. I think you can safely say that each is as important to his craft, is as respected in his field by everyone, and both have helped put their respective talents to good use for the total benefit of their sports (yes, poker can be termed a sport) and themselves. I think you can argue that Daniel Negraneu and Tiger Woods are the newest superstars of poker and golf, respectively.

I think everyone can play poker and everyone can play golf. But maybe not all that well at first. Both games take a lot of dedication, a lot of practice, a lot of reading on different techniques to use and how to play certain ways. The best golfers and the best poker players study their craft and work hard at achieving a high level of play. Some golf courses just conform to your game better as do some poker rooms.

It is my goal to become good at both of my crafts and so far I feel I am achieving that. I am playing some of my best golf ever and it is because I am playing a lot. I am playing some of my best poker ever and I think my hard work will help to make me an even better player.

It may be a bumpy ride but I am really looking forward to many, many years of good poker and good golf and hope I never get tired of either.