Experience, A Great Teacher

My Uncle used to tell me that if I was smart I'd learn from other people's experiences instead of making those same mistakes myself. Being told that at a very young age my naive mind reasoned that without my very own experiences I would somehow be cheating myself out of experiencing life. I promptly vowed to not learn from others and to make my own mistakes. Brilliant. Thankfully, I am more wiser than I was, but while my Uncle could not be more correct there are some things that you must experience - even if you know about it from others! Gasp!!! Let me explain.

Put simply, reading and comprehension do not go hand in hand - you can read something, but not necessarily grasp the concept (sometimes we have apparent meaning and more deeper layers of meaning, but let's leave that out of the equation).

Where exactly that I read this I am not sure, but I am sure that I've read it a couple of times here and there; it goes something like this: when you play don't be concerned about winning or losing, just play correctly and the money will follow.

Now, I have to admit that I never fully understood this. What I mean is how can someone play and not be concerned about the money? We are all there to win not the game, but the money! If I wanted to play a game correctly I would go play chess and never wager a dollar.

This past weekend however, after losing half my bankroll, the next day it dawned on me that playing pots and trying to win the money and not lose blinded me from correct play. I was in an auto-aggressive mode where I couldn't understand why my AQ would constantly lose to a 2 or a 4, or why when a hand screamed a straight I did not fold and thought I was being bluffed.

It was an expensive weekend, but I learned a valuable lesson that will save me money in the future. My Uncle was right. Too bad, I did not grasp the entire concept the first time and had to experience this for myself.