An Excellent Quote for Poker

[shipitfish]

I read that Barry Greenstein, in his book, has the following quote from Kierkegaard:

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

It's true that so many times, it's clear to everyone who considers a hand after it is done knows how it should have been played. When we disagree, they are almost always marginal decisions. In the moment, though, things aren't so straight forward and it's hard to tell the marginal decision (that's ok either way) from the one that has a clear path. We have to plod through in those moments and make the best decisions we can. The important thing is learning from those decisions for the next time you live a hand forwards. In a meta-game consideration, it too often becomes obvious after the fact that the game was too tough, or that we weren't in the best state of mind when we played, but in the moment it's hard to realize.

I had wanted to read his book anyway, but seeing this in a review of it made me consider getting to it sooner.