Poker and Life

I've got a little quote running through my head that I came up with. I'm not sure if anyone else has coined it, but it goes like this:

"I want to live life the way that I play poker and I want to play poker the way that I live life."

There's something about bad beats. In poker, a bad beat is when you completely outplay someone, only to have a very unlikely card show up after all the money is on the table. For example, if you have a pair of aces and your opponent has a pair of kings with one card left to draw, you're an overwhelming favorite. At most, your opponent will have two "outs," or cards that they can beat you with (the two remaining kings). In Texas Hold'em, that means that you each have 2 cards, and there are 4 community cards on the board. That leaves 44 cards unknown, of which 2 cards can beat you. That means that 21 out of 22 times, or about 95% of the time, you win. But there's always that 5% shot that your opponent gets you.

Now most people hate bad beats. I tend to think of them as the result of playing cards the right way. If you're suffering the most bad beats at the table, that means that you're probably playing the best poker. Now there are certain situations that some would consider to be a bad beat, but really aren't. Basically, anytime that you get all your money in with the best hand, and then lose, then that's a bad beat. But if you get your money in with the the worst hand that was at one point the best hand, then it wasn't a bad beat, but you just got greedy trying to slow play. Let's say that you already have a pair of aces, and your opponent has a pair of kings, and instead of getting all your money in, you just check (don't bet) and see another card. If that card is one that your opponent beats you on, and you then bet heavily and lose, then you just got greedy and unlucky. That's not a bad beat.

So what does this have to do with life? I think that poker will parallel life. If you're doing things right, then you'll have some bad beats. That's just how things work. If you're getting your money into the pot 100 times with the best hand, it's inevitable, that about 5 of those times, you'll come up short. That's just natural (or at least statistical) law working it self out. But that also means that you'll be doing better in the long run. When I play poker, I will make a read, and live with the results. If I'm right, then I've got a real good shot to win some money. But there's always the chance of taking a bad beat. The key here is that you keep going all in with the best hand, regardless of the outcome. That's the sign of being a good poker player. I think that I'm a good poker player. I want to live life that way, too.

I think that my life hasn't been quite as fearless. I think that I took a couple bad beats and now I've gotten gun shy. I don't take as many shots at winning as I used to. I've become okay with just taking small victories and minimizing my losses. I think that this needs to come to a stop. But it's hard to get back to doing the things the right way after you let yourself get complacent. For me, it's a series of small battles. Doing the little things the right way will eventually get me back to doing the big things the right way, and back to living a full and exciting life.

Of course, I need to wary of not categorizing poor results as bad beats when they are just a result of me misplaying the hand. There's a really common attribution of poor results on the circumstances around you, when really, it's because you just botched it. That's what I need to be careful of. When you're playing cards, the only way that you improve is by being aware of your shortcomings and addressing them. Life is the same way. You can't just blame "the world" for your problems all the time. I think that happens a small percentage of the time for real (like the 5% bad beats that will happen), but there are also many times where you need to just admit that you made a mistake and really learn from it. I think that I do this well in life, but I think that I become a little too proud at the poker table. Long story short:"I want to live life the way that I play poker and I want to play poker the way that I live life."

So, here's to knowing the difference between a bad beat and a mistake, as well as to the good moves that lead the bad beats.

-Chairman