My father was the first one to give me any poker advice. When I was young, I had a poker video game for my game system. It was just 5 card draw, 5 and 7 card stud and
blackjack. I was playing it one day while my dad sat on the couch behind me reading the paper. He gave about a half a dozen pieces of advice, like not feeling like I had to play every single hand. He told me it was okay to fold poor starting
hands and that I shouldn't throw money away chasing thin draws, simple things like that. But they are still the basis of my
poker strategy.
Right around the time Moneymaker won the main, a friend was showing off his football memorabilia when I noticed a half dozen
poker books on a shelf. Most of them had never been cracked. While my friends played video games on his 80+ inch TV that he had purchased with money from an accident settlement, I thumbed through his poker books.
Then the Moneymaker effect really kicked in and poker training videos started popping up on YouTube. Not to mention that a lot of the
poker sites had some sort of training academy or poker school.
But if I had to say where I learned the most, I would probably have to say it was from watching poker. Watching the broadcast of
wsop and WPT tournaments and listening to the commentary gave me a great deal of insight into the game and how others think and play.