PokerStrategy.com is a learning community
In his first column Arne "KTU" Gewert elaborates on the benefits of PokerStrategy.com and its community.
PokerStrategy.com is a community of poker players. There are a lot of people here who like to play poker, get to the bottom of it, share their experiences and support each other. That's what's connecting all of us.
A lot of us met friends for life at PokerStrategy.com and numerous big careers began here, mostly starting with simple questions like "Did I play my flush draw correctly?"
The success of a community is a concept tested by evolution, but how exactly does that help us in terms of poker? Writing things down leads to more clarity. Everyone knows the feeling when our ideas and thoughts feel incredibly smart and genius, but when we write them down it actually reveals gaps in the concept and logical errors. Writing is a good thing. There are no doubts about that.
The small things lead to big changes
Our brain needs new impulses in order to further develop itself, and we can get these by discussing hands with our peers. Old views will be questioned and new ideas and approaches thrown into the arena. Often it's the very small things that lead to big 'aha' moments.
For me that was a conversation that went like this:
"Here, I'm betting JT on the turn in order to avoid a range split ..."
"Stop! That doesn't make sense. How can a check/call with JT on the turn be exploited when you consider that he has too wide a flop calling range?"
That sent cold shivers down my spine and I suddenly understood that I was regarding the concept of range splits in a too generic way.
In the same way you can be exposed to new ideas and concepts that completely change the way you see the world. Some might remember when developing an overall strategy (game plan) was introduced in 2010/2011 and the vacuum approach was put into question. Long and heated discussions were the result, but in the end everyone was a bit smarter and people were able to approach the equilibrium between both concepts.
Learning from a global community
But the biggest advantage of this community is the opportunity to establish contact with other players. Less than 300 people live in my home town in Germany. It's hard to find someone over there with whom you can debate GTO strategies on the river. Through PokerStrategy.com I'm able to chat to people on December 22nd at nine in the evening who understand my questions and are equally interested in finding a solution.
One of them is sitting in Hong Kong, the other one 60 km away in Cologne and another one 2,750 km away in Gibraltar, while Juri from Russia reads my question before taking his dog for a walk to think about it. At 9:45 PM I'm getting valuable ideas and maybe even solutions from all over the world. That's just awesome!
I'm honestly convinced that the learning community has been and still is the main reason for the success of PokerStrategy.com.
How has this community improved your game? Let us know in the comments.
