This weekend I met Beanie and feldliss for the first time. 2Cents set up a little meeting with Beanie, Feldliss and me at little bar on Friday night. Beanie is not only a nice guy, but he's an amazing resource on the finer points of the game, and what it's like to play at the higher levels. Feldliss is a hell of a nice guy who has been on a hell of a win streak lately, so hearing his perspective on the game was great. We expected a better turnout of other minnesota players, but frankly I was pleased to have Beanie to myself for most of the evening. The guy has been there and done that everywhere in the world of poker, and he was more than happy to share his experience and advice.

I actually have changed my tournament strategy somewhat because of what Beanie told me, and though it has only been a few tournaments since then I have noticed a significant difference in the way I have accumulated chips. Beanie seems to be one of those players who learns from everything around him, and takes every piece of information from his surroundings. I try to be the same way, and he is certainly one of the best resources that I have found. Alot of the bigger names are quite secretive with everyone but their close friends, so hearing Beanie and Feldliss speak freely about the game and what they do was refreshing

That brings up something that I think would help most players improve much faster than they do. I spent a great deal of time when I was younger studying the martial arts, and the most important thing I took from that experience was the ability to be a student. Humility in Asian cultures is not about thinking you are worth less than other people; it’s about being able to learn from anything that you see. It’s about taking everything you can from every experience you have, and always viewing instruction or advice as something that can be useful.

If you think you are a better player than someone who wrote a book, or you’ve seen them make a mistake you can’t simply discount what they say. Just because a pro has a weakness in their game, or you think a particular author isn’t a good player, is no reason to ignore everything they have to say. There is a saying in the martial arts when a student starts to think they can beat their teacher in a fight and therefore shouldn’t study under them any more. “Yes, but he can teach you how to kick his ass faster and more efficiently."

Be the student and you will learn faster. Take every piece of advice you hear or read and think about it. Is it true? Is it valuable or useful? If not, then why did they say it? Is it a common misconception among players that you can exploit? Being the student in every situation will speed up your learning curve, and that in turn will speed up your earning curve.

On another topic, the week has gone fairly well for me at the tables. I was down some at the beginning of the week, but I made it into the money in the BoDog 100k for a $300 profit and won a bunch of $50 SNG’s on Stars while I was working on clearing the bonus. Those $50 SNG’s on Stars are really ripe right now, and while you have bonus money in your account it clears at the same rate as you pay tournament fees, meaning I was playing $50 + 0 tournaments which helps quite a bit.

Make sure you get the Empire reload bonus tomorrow, it’s %50 up to $100 so even with a small bankroll you can collect it easily. Check out my blog from a few weeks ago on the best way to collect bonus money on the Party skins.

See you at the final table, Fox