I played a game last night that was quite entertaining, but not in a "I love poker way".  I was warned, so it was my own fault.

$20 buy in, 10 players, top of a pool table.  And $12,500 starting chips!  In other words, nobody was ever short stacked.  When there were 5 players left, I had over 20,000 chips, and was not in any trouble at all, as only two other people had more.  That's just nuts. 

But I played, and I had fun with some friends.  I won't go any further because the results of this game don't matter.  It was basically everyone limp and hope to hit, and if someone raises....well, we'll still hope to hit.

So why did I play?  Practice.  Simple as that.  I play in every tournament setting I can get my hands on.  Nothing helps a poker game more than playing.

One funny side note:  Two guys, both two of the biggest donkey's on the planet, were discussing helpful poker books.  One guy was bragging about the Harrington On Hold Em books.  Now, I play with this guy frequently.  If he's read the Harrington books, well fine.  But he isn't APPLYING what he is learning. 

And since the other guy was in the discussion, I learned something else.  He hasn't read ANY poker books.  But he's discussing Harrington. 

Now, if you've never read a book before, don't start with War and Peace.  Start with The Cat in the Hat.  And if you've never studied poker before, don't start with Harrington on Hold Em.  Start with Phil Gordon's Little Book series, or anything by Phil Helmuth.  They are the Dr Suess of poker writers.