Poker Excellence
INSTANT EXCELLENCE
by: Lou Krieger©
Now you can become an excellent poker player in the wink of an
eye...in an instant...in a nanosecond. Just like that, and in less
time than it took you to read from there to here.
Is this a scam? Some kind of offering from an esoteric self-improvement
guru? Isn’t excellence a long time in the making? Nope. None
of the above. You can do it right now. It’s the real deal.
Here’s how you can accomplish this wondrous feat. Like the
Nike commercials admonish us, Just do it!
Make the commitment, and it’s done. Then, work your tail
off every day for the rest of your life to make sure it stays done.
IBM founder Thomas Watson said, “If you want to achieve excellence,
you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent
stuff.” Simple sounding? Sure, but like the Golden Rule, most
profound truths are simple.
A while back Mason Malmuth wrote about having “...a zero
tilt factor.” That seemingly simple statement is really quite
profound. After all, here is a man who thinks deeply about poker,
and whose expertise is grounded in statistical theory -- some of
which is quite complex. Yet that statement about “zero tilt
factor,” which is nothing more than a commitment each of us
could choose to make, might just account for as much of Malmuth’s
own poker success as all his technical knowledge.
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Because his statement really touched a nerve in me, I consciously
committed to zero tilt factor (or ZTF, as I like to call it). I
simply made a commitment that I would never, ever go on tilt again.
Not for one session, nor one hour, or even one hand. That commitment
alone gives me an extra edge over any player who goes on tilt. The
money they throw off, I’ll catch! How many of you can say
the same thing about your own game -- that you never go on tilt.
Not sometimes, not occasionally, but never.
The key to excellence is making a commitment. Wishing or wanting
to achieve excellence is not enough. Neither is it sufficient to
merely involve yourself in a a try for excellence. You have to commit
to it. Make no bones about it, there is a significant difference
between involvement and commitment, and it’s like the difference
between ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the ham is committed!
Want to be a great poker player? Commit to greatness. Sure, you
won’t be any better 10 minutes after you’ve made that
commitment than you are right now. But commitment is a necessary
first step down a long road. You’ll need to read up, think
about the game while you’re at the table and when you’re
away from it, model your own game after players you respect, talk
to winning players whose game you admire -- and you’ll need
to keep on doing the things it takes to guarantee yourself the best
of it, until your deal is done.
Still, you can declare your excellence tonight, starting with the
first hand you play. How do you begin? Visualize yourself as the
greatest poker player ever -- and act accordingly. Sound silly?
Even embarrassing? It’s not. A few years ago, before I started
writing for Card Player, the instructor in a writing class told
me, “The way to become a published writer is easy. Just put
on the hat of a writer, and you’ll grow into it!”
Yup. Just do it. And you know what? It works! Someone, I’m
not sure who, said, “Ninety percent of success is just showing
up.” That’s what this is all about, showing up -- and
showing up every time you play for the rest of your playing life.
Commitment -- that unbreakable bond to excellence, while easily
made, carries with it this mandate: I will picture myself as the
greatest poker player ever, and always play accordingly.
Sure, you’ll slide through valleys on your road to the heights.
So what! Life is not a kindergarten, and most things worthwhile
do not come without enduring struggle and adversity.
Here’s a terrific opportunity. When you sit in your game
tonight, play like an excellent player. Don’t delude yourself
into playing a less-than-quality hand because you “...have
a feeling.” Don’t play tired, and don’t take the
worst of it. Make the plays a top player would. You already know
much of what they do. You only need to apply it, and apply it every
time you sit in a game. Never, but never, allow or permit yourself
to play less than your best. That’s what commitment is all
about. That’s the decision you make in the wink of an eye.
And if you don’t know what a top player would do in a given
situation, that, too, is an opportunity. It’s a chance to
learn. To keep your commitment you need to learn something new every
day. And once you learn it, go out and practice it. Making that
commitment, and having decided to do what it takes to achieve excellence
as a poker player, never do anything, no matter how trivial, inconsistent
with your commitment.
Here’s the truth, and it’s simple. It does not take
long to make changes. It takes forever to maintain change, but changes
of the most dramatic, fundamental and far-reaching sorts, can be
had instantly and made today. It’s true with diets, smoking
and becoming a great poker player. Want to quit smoking? Just give
up cigarettes! Want to lose weight? Don’t eat any fats and
exercise aerobically for thirty minutes every day! It will work
for you when you work at it. Want to be a better poker player? Commit
to playing better. Then do it.
But remember, it’s all-or-nothing. You either commit to making
change or you don’t. Saying you’re going to change,
and then doing it -- except for five or six weak hands you decided
to play because you were tired, or you had a hunch, or whatever,
just doesn’t cut it. You’re either there or your not
-- on the bus or off the bus. No in-betweens allowed, and this is
a bet you can’t hedge.
You want to be a top-notch poker player? Great. Go ahead and commit
to it. Do it and it’s done. You can reach excellence in a
heartbeat, and you can do it today. But if you do, there’ll
be no more talk about bad beats, or that dealer who kills you. Once
you commit to achieving excellence and being the best poker player
alive, you can never again place the blame for your failures or
fortune on anyone else. Your results are your own. You own them
and they own you.
And if you decide not to make that commitment, it’s no big
deal. Just recognize the truth for what it is. You’re a recreational
player who cares more for enjoyment than results. Nothing wrong
with that, but you can’t have it both ways. If you want to
be a winning, excellent player, go ahead and do it. It takes no
time at all to achieve change, but it will take forever to maintain
it. It’s that simple. Really.
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