Conversations I've had in the past few days

Brotherpeaker: "Anything?"
Pokerpeaker: "No."



Pp: (Asked last night at 9:30 p.m.) "Have you had any lately?"
Kate: "Yes, I've had several in the last hour."
Pp: "Are they regular?"
Kate: "No."
(Wait two minutes)
Pp: "Have you had one?"
Kate: "You're going to drive me nuts. Is that your goal?"
Pp: (meekly) "no."



Co-workers, asked throughout the day at least 85 times: "Any babies yet?"
What I say: "I'm still here aren't I?" (fake laugh)
What I would like to say: "Please fuck off."




Kate: (POW) Punches husband in the arm.
Pp: "Ow! Jesus! What was that for?"
Kate: "Because I felt like it."




(Late last night)
Pp: "Any word?"
Kate: "They died down when I went to bed."
Pp: "Sigh."



POKER CONTENT:


I'm reading Sklansky's and Miller's "No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice." In some ways I really love it, given that there are some ideas and practices that I wasn't considering or was considering but didn't really know it and why until now. That's rare in a poker book these days.
But I'm also struggling with all the math. Math really isn't my thing. I'm a writer. In fact, a funny, quick story. I could read and write before I entered Kindergarten. I even gave a report on Mexico that won some Best of Show award from a science fair. Anyway, school officials tested me, thinking I might be a genius, and I failed so badly at the math portion that they just said, "never mind." So I'm not a genius, I guess, it's just that all my brain cells that were supposed to go to math also went to English.
I can figure pot odds, percentages (thanks to Gordon's rule of 4 and 2) and that sort of thing, but Sklansky's math is deep, complex and, for me, difficult.
I'm doing my best to absorb the concepts, and not the math so much, of the book, and it's working pretty well.
But my question is, how much math do we really need to be a great player? Am I selling myself short? I'm happy, quite honestly, being a winning player at the $25 NL and $50 NL levels with occasional dabbling in the $100 NL. I hope to win a large MTT someday but don't expect big scores all the time. So do I need all that math?




See you at the Mookie tonight. Maybe.