Note: This is Andrew Feldman's follow-up on the article he wrote on poker fantasy camps. His article on Camp Hellmuth will follow.
Wow.
That was honestly my feeling after I drove away from Foxwoods Sunday after completing the World Poker Tour Boot Camp. For two days, I had been immersed in poker theory and strategy, hoping that I would pick up something that would take my game to the next level. I took in a lot more than just something. I couldn't believe that after all the poker reading and analysis I had done, it only took someone to sit at a table with me and explain a strategy to finally understand what it meant.
I know it might sound amateurish to many, but the one thing I really took away from the camp was the first thing I heard. Mike Sexton, a longtime pro and announcer for the World Poker Tour, said (quoting Mike Caro), "The object of poker is about making correct decisions."
Think about that. Let it sink in.
Got it?
The object of poker is not to win. It's not to make money. It's to make correct decisions. Every fold, call and raise must be the correct course of action, or else you will suffer a setback in your game. Put all the correct decisions in a row, and you have a winning session or tournament.
The first thing that he said (besides "Thank you" for the enormous ovation), meant the most to me after two days of poker camp. In no way does this mean that the rest of the two days were meaningless, but the mere simplicity of that statement had a huge impact on my poker thought process. Although I believe I play winning poker, the way I play will never be the same after the camp.
On Saturday morning I felt like I was back in a lecture hall in college. Not the huge ones that can hold 600 students, but the small classes that I rarely had the chance to participate in during my college days at Michigan.
Crispin Leyser, one of the instructors, liked the thought of himself as a teacher in a perfect world.
"[Being an instructor] in the camp has all the great aspects of teaching," Leyser said. "Every one of your students is desperate to learn. It's a perfect classroom."
One thing you will not see in an actual classroom: poker tables. During the lectures, everyone sat around the tables that would later be used for practice and discussions. There were only 60 people in attendance in the camp, and it was the perfect number.
There were four instructors, and the 15-1 ratio allowed for personal attention, which all the students utilized to get their questions answered. The instruction provided by Alex Outhred, an associate producer for the World Poker Tour, was a pleasant surprise to the majority of students, who really had no idea who he was before the camp. Outhred is responsible for the hand selection of the WPT television shows, and because of this, he has seen professionals play their hands and has studied their strategies to improve his own game. He has information that nobody else in the world does, and his passion for the game kept the students interested at all times.
Although Sexton handled the majority of the lectures, Outhred led the labs -- where students played and had their decisions critiqued -- with the assistance of Jules and Crispin Leyser, two tournament players who make their living playing online. Bottom line, these four instructors provided everything that a student could imagine, and on top of that, you get to play them in the weekend tournament. They play just like any other player at the table, but they are still the instructors. If you make a bad play, trust me, you'll hear about it. After the tournament ended, the instructors critiqued the class and emphasized what was done right, and what was done drastically wrong.
Everything they said was valuable. Constructive criticism at its best. But why do it? Why take this time to make 60 strangers better poker players? Why share these secrets of the game?
"The people that come in have a passion for this game. They are willing and ready to learn." Outhred said. "The biggest difficulty is to break the old habits of some of the players. Players have good qualities, but they are resistant to change."
Jules Leyser said it best: "We get a kick out of sending 60 people out into the world that are better poker players."
The boot camp experience is something that can improve all poker players, no matter how many years they've played. After speaking to many of the students, it was clear they had a great time.
Patrick Corcoran summed up the experience perfectly: "[The boot camp] is like a Xerox sales seminar. Everything you learn you already know, but you pick up three new things that make all the difference in the world."
I'm off to play a little bit, but I can still hear their voices echoing in my head: "Have a purpose for every bet. Never limp in if you are first to act. Make correct decisions. Calculate the odds. And most importantly, have fun."
Andrew Feldman is the ESPN Poker Club's producer, writer and tournament director. He is also visiting Camp Hellmuth and will be comparing the two camps. To contact Andrew, e-mail andrew.j.feldman@espn3.com .