The Bridge

When I began posting on YouTube, I had one singular goal in mind: Create poker content that’s fun, engaging, and enriching for everyone. Not just the pros and the grinders—the people who happily eat, sleep, and breathe poker. Instead, I wanted to reach everyone with an ounce of desire to sit at a table and let the chips fall where they may.

But in order to create content intended for everyone, the challenge lay in making it accessible to viewers with a wide range of poker backgrounds. I understood that I had to tone down the jargon if I wanted to make successful content centered on the complexity of the game. My entire content creation strategy would have to deviate from the way I think and talk about poker as a seasoned professional. Everything from the concepts I chose to explore, to the language I used to communicate them, would need to be different than when I interact with players with knowledge bases that match my own.

For example, I can describe the action in a hand of poker in a variety of ways. I might say, “I bluffed because the villain’s range is capped, and ICM considerations dictate it’s GTO for him to fold.” There’s a problem, though: Not only do I sound like a robot, but more importantly, I lose a sizable chunk of my audience. There’s some heavy lifting that goes into being able to fully understand that sentence. And ultimately, content is about the people consuming it, not the creator (in this case, me) looking smart.

Instead, I can convey the same concept much more simply: “It’s unlikely my opponent has a strong hand, and he won’t want to risk his tournament life when he can safely move up the pay ladder by folding.”

It’s the same message, but how I communicate it makes all the difference.

As I’ve refined my process over the years, I’ve realized that this focus on simplicity remains a core part of what draws people to my work. In short, it’s my ability to distill complex ideas in a way that most players can digest that makes my content resonate with a varied audience.

It’s why I see myself as the bridge.

Bridges close gaps, connecting two parts that would otherwise be inaccessible to each other. As I expand the breadth of my work and begin to delve into subjects outside of poker, I want to continue serving this role.

Here’s my process, broken down: I love to learn. When a new topic sparks interest in me, I can’t help but immerse myself. I seek out the best experts I can find and listen to them until I can competently paraphrase what they’re saying. Next, I look for people who hold opposing viewpoints to those experts because I’ve found that the intersections where their messages overlap are often a source of truth. Then I draw my own conclusions.

For example, there’s no shortage of debate about which is the healthier diet: paleo or vegan. Yet despite the fact that one allows the consumption of meat and the other doesn’t, both agree that plants should be the primary source of one’s calories, making it almost certain that it’s a truth we can rely upon.

After consuming everything I can find about a new subject of interest, I reach a level of understanding that makes me sound knowledgable to people who know little about it—and stupid to people who know a lot. I’m self-aware enough to know I’ll never be an expert in the many fields that interest me like I am in poker, but if I can learn enough to hold my own, that puts me in a unique position to bridge ideas from the most highly-respected experts to those who are just getting started.

I find that the best way to deepen my understanding of something is to teach it to others, and that starts with writing it out. The process of writing about a topic for someone who knows nothing about it helps me better understand my own thoughts, providing a level of clarity I wouldn’t otherwise reach. Although writing in this way presents challenges, it’s the ultimate stress test for an idea. Only the ones that survive the process get published.

This process is positive-sum—when I act as the bridge, it’s both deeply enjoyable on a personal level, and ultimately, it can be beneficial to others. In the coming weeks, months and years, I hope to serve as the bridge between you and content on the subjects that interest me most: business, marketing, wellness, spirituality, finance, and investing, just to name a few. 

Who knows? Maybe I’ll even be able to create content in the form of conversations with the aforementioned experts, posing questions that help them articulate otherwise elusive ideas in a way that makes it possible for everyone to learn from and implement newfound knowledge.

My goals in this endeavor: Ignite interesting conversations, connect with like-minded individuals from all walks of life, and learn from my community. I hope you’ll join me.

Thanks for your attention.
Alec ♠️