A recent conversation came up with a friend. The relation of intention to gambling and how one can essentially use a spiritual perspective to do something that is not a normal spiritual path, making money at casinos. This has always been an interesting subject to me. My outlook on life has always naturally paralleled with Siddhārtha Gautama who became known as Buddha through his wisdom and teachings. Before I ever read any of his writings I shared the philosophical beliefs of compassion for all life and positive thought processes create positive realities. This is what is considered to most, a natural mind state, and is a basic philosophy that was written into simplified philosophical and poetic writings by Gautama. The word Buddha comes from the root BUDH, to be awake, to be conscious of, to know. From the same root comes the word Buddhi meaning : intelligence, reason, vision, and wisdom So how does this apply to what I do when I play poker professionally? All of these factors are directly paralleled to my success at any poker game. - Compassion for all life allows me to be kind to my opponents even when they are rude to me, which helps enable me to win money from other players without upsetting them or imbalancing the table. This keeps the game flowing undisturbed, just like life itself. - Positive thinking and positive intentions affect not only the external reality through theoretically guiding luck, however it also keeps one confident in the midst of chaos. Always knowing that you will come up again even when you fall is important when playing poker for long sessions. I have often lost only to rise to the top and succeed. Often come back from huge losses to manifest huge wins thanks to staying in a positive mind set. - Intelligence allows me to continuously make better mathematical and psychological based decisions than my average opponent. This gives me a strong advantage in a game that has an edge for skilled players. - Reason, although similar to intelligence, is more directed at singular events. The smallest mistake can cost one hundreds and even thousands in the game of poker. Thus I must use decisive analytical reasoning to make correct decisions as much as is possible. - Vision, probably my favorite of these factors. This to me is intuition. Often in the game of poker we feel like we are about to lose a pot before losing it. Or we feel like we are going to win before wining it. Otherwise known as intuition, this future vision is something I have learned to trust 100%, to feel the game and the future before I make mistakes. Although it is difficult to scientifically prove that intuition can see into the future, other professional poker players will understand that there is something much more deeper to our intuition. Often poker players refer to intuitive players as feel players, because they tend to base their decisions on how they feel about the hand. These same players will change their mathematical reasoning in order to adjust to their luck, and make seemingly bad decisions because they felt like they were going to win or lose. Yet, only the players who truly succeed as feel players will continue to do this, as they are continuously rewarded for their intuitive capacities. Players that are less intuitive and more analytical continue to play with only mathematical favors, however I personally go in between my analytical and intuitive skills depending on how my luck is running at the table. Last night I stated I am running to good to fold, before making what would be called a bad mathematical decision, because I simply felt like I was going to win. And I did. Side note - when I played professional poker in my early years I did exceptionally well as a feel player. Another professional player named me Future Man because he believed I could see into the future of the hand. I always loved this nickname, and it stuck. Many of the regulars at the casino where I learned the game called me this on a daily basis, often shortening it to Future. :) - Wisdom, the most important of factors. Wisdom is achieved through a perpetual state of learning. Buddha did not become a master bodhisattva overnight, he spent his entire life in meditation and deep self realization. I never believe I am the best I can be at the game of poker, the path to perfection is never over, it is a perpetual state of discipline and learning in which we constantly perfect our game of life. Every day I remember to humble myself and continue to perfect my game, even after playing poker for almost a decade, countless hands, I will always get better and learn more about this complex game that is a metaphor for life itself.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 20:57:36 +0000
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