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He was a quiet young man, came out some dusty little town in southwest Texas...in his mid 20's...for 2 years he'd listened and observed ole gunslingers, marshalls and regulators...from every one of them, he added some little adjustment to his draw and gunslinging....A shift slightly forward of his holster, slightly higher on his belt, practicing over and over his thumbing of the hammer...ever little adjustment made him quicker and deadlier...( folded K10's, QJ's, folded 77,88, 99 early on in tournies...believed it when someone reraised him the mininum and let go the hand...all these things added to his prowess as a good NL tourny player)
Through one 1 month period at the local quick draw contests, he found himself slipping...coming in 4th, 7th, 6th...he wasn't sure what it was, after placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd about 40% of the time...then it hit him one night, while sleeping on his bedroll under a hunter's moon, among the singing coyotes...he'd let the angle of his holster slip back to vertical and it had also shifted downward on his leg a might...he hadn't noticed this until this night upon taking his rig off...tomorrow at the Abilene quickdraw contest, he'd readjust...(for a month now, he wasn't placing in the money, he'd played a ring game or two, and now was trying to limp more with low pairs, medium pairs, trouble hands, early on in NL tournys...it DID make a difference...finally he realized it and tightened up...although things hadn't been going his way, gettin sucked out on on the river, every Tom, Dick and Harry hittin their flush draws, he kept playing solid poker, knowing the pendulum would swing back)
He won the Abilene contest...somehow it seemed easy...ever get that feeling? Some you really work for, some just come easy. At the end of the day, he ran into an old marshall who had given up his ivory handled guns for the quiet life on his ranch...this old marshall took note of this young gun and took a likin to him...he decided to tell him THREE SECRETS...that would make him world class.
One - he said "son, you stick your gun out too far when you shoot...you're real fast, but stickin your gun out slows you down...do this...draw, and stay right there...fire 1 inch over the top of your holster...it'll shave a heap of time off your draw...The young gun from the dusty Texas town took his advice...and started getting more 1sts and 2nds and 3rds (everyone knows about position...but being OUT of position is sometimes the better place to be, right of first bluff as it were...when the pot got raised preflop, and it's just between you and one other player, and you're the first to act...and the flop comes ONE face card (not an A)...go ahead and bet the pot no matter what you have...MOST of the time, your opponent WON"T hit that flop, so he'll let it go...doesn't matter whether you hit it or not...this will increase your top finishes...IF you DO get called...pause a while and check it down, if reraised, let it go...but most of the time, you'll win that pot...)
THAT'S the 1st secret, said the ole marshall...let me know when you've mastered it, and i'll tell you the 2nd.
