The Donkey's Tale - In the beginning ....

Well hope this works. I did this (blogging) briefly a few years back and I knew bugger all about HTML then. Not much has changed in this regard. Still, substance over style (only took a few sentences for the cliches to come out) and all that.

Welcome to The Donkey's Tale! Firstly ... why the title. Well, according to Miriam-Webster's online dictionary (thanks Google):

Donkey Pronunciation: 'dä[ng]-kE, 'd&[ng]-, 'do[ng]-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural donkeys
Etymology: origin unknown
1 : the domestic ass (Equus asinus)
2 : a stupid or obstinate person

Hmmm well. Not the first ... the second might be close but not quite. Instead I'll use another definition: a donkey is a poker player who doesn't know what they are doing, or plays in a stupid fashion. Rather than explaining it myself Thomas Keller of Cardplayer.com defines it as follows (hope this doesn't violate copyright!):

By far the most extensively used new expression is “donkey,” and it is commonly abbreviated as “donk.” Donkey as an English slang word is a playful way of calling someone stupid. Similarly in poker, one use of the word donkey is to describe a player who does stupid things while playing poker. Many other older poker expressions like tourist, fish, or sucker have similar meanings, yet they seem to carry more demeaning connotations than donkey. Donkey is generally perceived as a friendly word, and few people I have run across have taken great offense at being called a donkey — whether it be for making a bad play or accidentally posting right in front of the big blind. Even I have been called a donkey at times for things I have done at the poker table, and I usually have gotten a good chuckle out of it. Lots of professionals will even refer to themselves as donkeys when they make a mistake, saying such things as, “I played that hand like a donkey,” or sometimes they just let out a good heehaw (the sound a donkey makes). The poker term donkey is unique, though, in that it can be used not only as a noun or an adjective, but also as a verb.

Donkey is conjugated as a verb by using the term “donk.” For example, after busting out of a tournament, I may say, “Damn, I donked off a ton of my chips running a huge bluff against the nuts.” One can also get “donked” in a poker hand by taking a bad beat. Similarly, one can donk another player by getting lucky and sucking out on him (oftentimes when not getting the proper odds to draw to whatever long shot is hit.) Many players will even apologize for their donkey ways by saying, “Sorry I donked you,” or, “Donkeys have to eat, too.

Hmm yes well, you get the idea. So I am a donkey, or a donk, who is trying to learn not to be one, at playing cards. As for the tale ... well this is my story. In the process of learning to play this game I've read a lot, and one of the great recommendations I've come across is ... "Keep a journal". Great idea! The concept is you make notes, write thoughts, and generally improve your play by writing down your poker experiences. So I got a notebook ... but it doesnt seem to work for me. Then I remembered my old blog that went nowhere and .... here we are.

So this is the Donkey's Tale, the blog by a poker newbie who would like to become ... not a donkey ;) I look forward to posting my trials and tribulations ... maybe noone will read, but if nothing else I hope to look back in a few years time and think ... OMG, I was such a donk back then! :)