Gone Fishin'

I never was much of a fisher. The one time I hit it big was when I was 13 years old and went on a Boy Scout trip to the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Canada. In those rivers, all you had to do was lower the hook into the water with something shiny on it, and then you'd dip the rod up and down for a few minutes. If you were there at dawn or dusk, you'd catch a lot of walleye. And they tasted delicious.

I think I'm beginning to learn what real fishing is like. You wait. You try to find the part of the pond that has the most fish. Then you wait. And you move to another table. And wait.

You check your buddy list on Party Poker for some fish you've been tracking. You chase them down and try to sit at their tables.

Other times, you sit at a table and just hang out for a while. You don't post the blinds, you just sit. And then, with the help of PokerAce HUD and PokerTracker, you'll begin to see if there are any fish in the area.

You want to go fishing in a pond with table averages of more than 30 percent seeing the flop (VP$P).

Perhaps more importantly, you want to sit to the left of the big fish. Often, the table averages don't matter. What's important is that you have the fish to your right.

Rinse. Repeat. Open new tables. Wait for numbers to pop up. Wait some more. Eventually, you'll find the fish. When you find a monster fish, add him to your buddy list so you can track him down later.

And then, at last, you're ready to play. Cast your line deep and have your bait prepared.

It's time to go fishing. They won't have a chance.