Poker News

Bonnie Demos

Fishing season is currently opening up throughout the great Midwest and soon the tranquil waters of countless lakes, streams and rivers will be dotted with anglers armed with an arsenal of lures and gadgets, working their best strategies and skills to hook the big one.

This brings to mind a highly effective, but difficult-to-master fishing technique called jerkbait fishing, which is based on using a simple flotation type of lure, with embedded barbs.

It’s designed to resemble a small fish that’s a tempting morsel to a larger predatory fish. The success of this type of fishing lies in the angler’s ability to control the lure, coaxing strikes out of the most skittish schools of fish, and tantalizing the largest fish in the pack to strike.

This requires infinite patience, practice, and skill on the angler’s part, but the end result is well worth the effort. Seasoned professionals swear by it, and regard their own personal techniques as closely guarded secrets. Less experienced anglers often find the process tiresome and frustrating. Anyone who has ever enjoyed the sport of fishing knows that on any given day, on any given lake, you can simply plop your bait into the water and a whopper just might grab it if you are lucky, but it’s the angler with skill, knowledge and patience that will consistently fill up the boat with trophies time and time again. It’s pretty obvious how this applies to that other fishing sport that we all love and know so well, poker. My travels take me to numerous poker rooms throughout the Midwest. As I stand on the sidelines observing, I always find myselfscanning the field of players, hoping to spot a jerkbait fisher in the crowd, because it is truly a pleasure to watch one in action. Poker had been played in the Midwest for decades before the advent of legalized gambling. The game was not played in the comfortable state-of-the-art card rooms that we enjoy today, but in basements, backrooms, factories, and backwoods. Fist and blows settled disputes over winning hands instead of rulebooks or supervisor’s decisions. Some of the most provocative and lucrative poker games in the area are still played in these arenas, however, seasoned veterans from these venues can often be found venturing into local casino poker rooms as well.

These formidable foes are not easily recognizable to the untrained eye, but with careful observation, over time you will begin to recognize and respect them. Playing with one of these great veterans of the game can teach you more about the game of poker than an entire library of books, if you can manage to hang on to your bankroll during the process. These players always seem to snag the trophy instead of becoming one.

Good luck and have fun as you fish the uncharted waters at your poker room this summer, and keep an eye out for the jerkbait fisherman. If you find yourself stuck in the weeds, you might want to develop some of yourown jerkbait skills. Happy fishing, I hope you hook the big one!

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