That’s right; the Aussie Millions is only a week away. Less actually, five days if we must get super technical. As I’ve mentioned somewhere in the area of infinity times, the Aussie Millions is my absolute favorite tournament series of the year. It’s a great three weeks because on top of having a great tournament schedule all my friends will be in the same place during the best month of the year in Melbourne. I’ve informed everyone near me that during those two weeks you can always find me either in the poker room or at Transport Bar at Federation Square where they have a giant beer list and the tennis on TV all night.

As the series approaches I’ve talked to a number of players and friends around the Australian poker scene who tell me they expect to do things because they “Want it so bad” or “Feel due.” For the love of God people, please stop talking like this. There is no ‘due’ in poker or in gambling. There is no ‘wanting it’. I don’t care how prepared you are, or how much this tournament ‘means to you’, that shit is irrelevant. Tournament poker is a cruel mistress and all that matters at the end of the day is that you sit there making as close to optimal decision as possible over and over again. If anything I’d think really ‘wanting’ a tournament and having some degree of emotional investment in it only adds another liability. If something goes wrong and you have so much of yourself invested you just might lose your cool. This isn’t a sport and it shouldn’t feel like gambling.

Anyway, I put a considerable amount of thought into my book today. I’ve decided to approach a large number of other players I have major respect for and ask for their help making this the most kick ass tournament poker book ever. Here’s the PM I’ve sent them all:
“Hey Guys,

So I’m sending this message out to a number of people, which is why it's written so informally. As you may or may not be aware of, I’ve decided to write a book on tournament poker. I’ve sent you this message because you’re one of the people in the poker world that impress me the most; not only with your game but with your ability to discuss concepts. I’d really like as many of you involved on this project as possible. I’ve even had some of you involved in the articles before, and again let me thank you for that.

I’m forming the book on the back bone of the ‘Things it took me a while to learn’ series, which deal primarily with tournament poker but occasionally touch on other subjects. I’d like to expand and elaborate considerably on what I’ve already written, as well as include several new topics. I won’t be designing this book for beginners as I think the market for that sort of thing is saturated and quite honestly, it just wouldn’t be very interesting for any of us to write.

I have a more peculiar method in mind for the style of the book. I remember back when I read a considerable amount of poker books that I’d have difficulty maintaining my focus on them over a long period of time because they were very technical and bland. Few mixed in humor and interesting anecdotes and as a result I often found them difficult to read for a sustained amount of time. What I was thinking for this particular book was to mix the highly technical and mathematical strategy information with occasional stoppages for something breezier. Essentially, I’m thinking that between every few chapters of poker knowledge would be something I’d title “Stories from the poker world” where either I or another writer simply tell a personal story about the tournament world or the poker world in general that was entertaining, amusing, or interesting.

I know that many of you are very busy and if you’re not interested whatsoever please let me know and I totally understand. I’m willing to take any amount of content from you guys, anything from a paragraph to a page to a chapter. If you have a specific topic you’d like to cover please let me know, and if you have no idea just have a conversation with me and we’ll come up with something for you. If you do decide to write one of the “Stories from the poker world” I’d encourage you to do so entirely uncensored. I will not edit your content (though I will have an editor for grammar, spelling, etc.)

Anyway, please let me know if this is something you’d like to be a part of. I’m not quite sure how to handle the issue of compensation at the moment and will be discussing that with more experienced authors. I have not submitted my idea to any publishers and at the moment am considering using one of the online self publishing companies instead. I was also considering Ebook format, though am unsure how large an issue piracy would be.

Cheers, Tony”

That gives a pretty good summation of the direction I want to take the book in. If you’re curious who all I sent that to and want to get involved the list is: Jman28, SEABEAST, Adanthar, Jurollo, Nath, Ansky, djk123, MaverickUSC, mlagoo, yellowsub, aejones, luckychewy, psyduck, shaundeeb, THAY3R, gobo, LearnedfromTV, mastr, Sirwatts, Timex, Foucault, AJKHoosier, SCTrojans, Gboro, Apestyles, Assassinato. I’ll also be approaching Lee Nelson, Greg Raymer, and Barry Greenstein.

I have no idea how many of them will choose to get involved. If they all said yes I think I’d bust a nut. If I got 10 I’d be thrilled. I guess we’ll find out over the next couple of days. I’ll be trying to write my portion of the book (and it’s going to be a lot) all before Friday.

I’ve been thinking about the way I write a lot lately. I’ve realized that for me, writing is not only a hobby but a necessity. If I don’t thoughts get stuck in my head and fly around bothering me at all times. Then when I try to close my eyes and go to sleep at night they’re all still there and wont’ shut up. The only way to get them out is on paper. That or get really baked which temporarily blocks them out. For the moment I have a hurricane of ideas swirling around my head, so after I finish playing over the next few days I intend to sit down and crank out pages in a Dostoyevskyesque fervor. Hopefully I’ll get some sleep before Fridays Aussie Millions opening event. After that I can focus on how to work in everyone else’s content.

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