CARDRUNNERS

Three months ago, before we launched the new version of CardRunners, we had under 25 blogs; consisting mostly of CR pros and employees. In the last three months since we opened it up to all members, we have added over 500 blogs to that total. I love that all kinds of members are taking advantage of this free feature.

I think blogging is a great exercise for all who participate. Prior to starting my own blog in May of this year, I didn't think I would enjoy the process. I've never been one to enjoy the limelight or care much what other people think. I can now say that I have really enjoyed the experience. Below are some reasons why I think it's a worthy endeavour.

• Putting a voice to the thoughts in your heads is always a good thing.
• Blogs require discipline and effort to prepare and explain your thoughts for others to read.
• Getting feedback on your thought process, whether it's good or bad, is valuable.
• When we share our thoughts with others, we realize we aren't so unusual (shared commonality to life's experiences)
• We all have something to contribute (I've realized even though I'm no poker pro, I still have something to add)

While I read all the top 25 blogs on a regular basis, I also enjoy selecting blogs at random to see what other members blog about. How we blog is often very reflective of our personalities. You can group many of the blogs into just a few general types. Some blog infrequently but when they do they are very intense and thorough. Others blog frequently with less in depth entries. While most bloggers keep their blogs to very poker specific entries, I often find the most interesting are those that reveal more of their thoughts beyond the hands they play. It is this humanity that captures and inspires me. Too much of life is playing a role for society (i.e. good poker player, good worker, good son, good husband etc.) that it is refreshing to hear people's feelings about things that matter to them.

While we are working on many other projects concurrently, we still plan to improve the look and feel of our blogs to continue to make them top notch. We just added a section on the new home page to feature member blogs. I will be periodically selecting interesting blogs that I find. Over time we will run some promotions surrounding the blogs as well. I personally thank each of you who take the time and effort to blog. I feel you are better for it and certainly CardRunners is better off to have you a part of our community.

I've been spending a lot of time studying Texas hold'em, watching Cardrunner's videos, reading blogs, and analysing hand histories. It seems to be paying off. Take a look at this pretty graph: