"They call me Chip, as in Chip-Stacks!"

Finally, the blog you've all come to see: Timmy's Poker Blog!

First, and foremost, remember these two sizes: (1) 15 cm, 1,400 g and (2) 13 cm, 420 g.

The first of which is the approx. length & weight of the brain of a human being. The second one is the approx. length & weight of the brain of a donkey. So if they both differ greatly in size, why does one sometimes act similar to the other?

The answer: inexperience.

Don't understand what I mean? K, lemme break it down for you, then.

A person simply cannot become a doctor by watching re-runs of "House" and "E.R." over-and-over again. No, they need to attend several years of schooling and internships.

Much like an inexperienced poker player must go through several trial runs of their own and learn to develop and employ the essential techniques in order to excel at the game.

The difference, besides the obvious ones...is that one bad player can have an excellent session overnight, with practically little to no skill required.

As we all know by now, there are two main factors to a "winning" poker session: skill (most importantly), and luck. Even the most-skilled players in the world can have their share of bad runs, and the worst ones of all can cash out as big winners...such is the unique beauty/swings of the game.

But "losers" will simply "cash" less over a given period of time simply because of their inexperience, impatience, and inability to adapt. "Winners" will grind it out, overcome the brief moments of defeat, and continuously look to improve their overall game.

So we've covered the "skill" part of the game, what about the "luck" factor then?

If psychology dominates most of the "skill" part of the game, then math must obviously play a huge part in the "luck" factor.

Is it really "unlucky" when you have an over-pair (such as Q,Q) on a board like (9,8,7) and your opponent has (10,9 for example) and spikes a J or 6 on the turn for the nut straight?

While it may definitely suck to be on the opposing end of this one, it's not really "unlucky" in my opinion, considering a board like that is a rather crappy one for the ladies.

Don't agree? No problem, but first, let's do the math. Your opponent (10,9 in this case, and assuming his remaining outs have not been folded)..has two 9's, three 10's, four J's, and four 6's to improve his hand...that equals a total of 13 outs (or approx. 52% to win the hand)...which practically makes your hand a "coin-flip" on the flop.

"Unlucky" is when he whiffs the turn (making him 26% to win the hand)...and spikes his one-outer on the river.

So now that we got that part out of the way...let's talk some poker!