poker strategy blog

[tek]

Ding Ding! Agreed.

[ifoldaces]

[ QUOTE ]
You keep insisting that meditation and zazen are different. Yet, every zen buddhist center I've practiced with (Denver, Omaha, Seattle) have no objection and frequently use the two interchangably.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure you are aware of what you're saying? You are confirming that Zazen and meditation are in fact different things which is what I stated, so, thank you. Of course you can use them interchangably, but that's a different story. I will, however clarify, once more, what I meant.

Poker becomes a mechanical game (especially limit) after many consecutive hours of a single session, months or years at a time. Therefore poker becomes a part of an individual Zen, just like the other forms of meditation you have described. Every good player can say that from time to time they "sense" their opponents' moves, cards, emotions, etc. What I am saying is that with the practice of beginner's Zazen along with repeatative poker mechanics one has the ability to cultivate and develop such senses.

An ability to apply Zen into our everyday life is a daunting task, considering the fact that we are in a perpetual struggle with our environment. I believe that for people who play poker for a living Zen would be a realistic adaptation. In addition to added benefits such as developing "mind's eye" they will be better psychologically, mentally and emotionally, thinking will become clearer and they may even attain kensho at one point or another, with enough devotion to the cause. I believe in this strongly and I have tested Poker Zen on myself and a few of my close friends. While it may not be for everyone, but only for those with a will to persevere, everyone is welcome to try it and hopefully will ignore all the negative comments that always attempt to hinder something profoundly positive.

Boris R.
http://www.TheLeagueNY.com

[jubeirm]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You keep insisting that meditation and zazen are different. Yet, every zen buddhist center I've practiced with (Denver, Omaha, Seattle) have no objection and frequently use the two interchangably.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure you are aware of what you're saying? You are confirming that Zazen and meditation are in fact different things which is what I stated, so, thank you. Of course you can use them interchangably, but that's a different story. I will, however clarify, once more, what I meant.


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry what part of "yet" did'nt you understand? For posterity, let me be very clear:
<ul type="square">[*] Meditation and Zazen are the same thing.[*] Zen practitioners across the U.S. use the two interchangably.[/list]Please define Meditation and Zazen seperately and explain why you believe them to be different.

[Supersetoy]

This may be straying from the discussion going on here...but, I've felt it before. Like someone mentioned earlier regarding the "zone", I've been there a couple times (basketball, baseball, golf, etc...poker). Things that require a LOT of concetration and precision suddenly start coming so easily to me.

For a poker example (believe it or not, I had roughly 15 people watching make these reads) I was involved in a small B&amp;M (40 person) tournament which I made the final table, and ended up chopping top 3. The whole night I told myself I would try my best to rely on my "gut feeling"...no meditation included here. I made probably 60% of my plays that night off of my gut feeling, and it won me more than I lost, but here's what happened:

A player in fifth position was very shortstacked, and he made back to back moves trying to steal to stay alive in the tourney.

When I watched him push all his chips in, something inside my head screamed to me "POCKET 10s". I looked down at my cards and had rags, but as everyone folded around to me and I folded my big blind, I said out loud what I was thinking, "Nice hand, Pocket 10s". He replied "Holy [censored]!" and continued on to flip over two black 10s. He then said, "If you tell me the next hand that someone holds, then I'll believe you...or you're a freak of some sort." The table laughed...

The VERY next hand, he moved all in once again. Again, the voice inside my head said "Pocket 4s". Same scenario, except I'm in the small blind. I held K7 off. I looked at him again and said "You have pocket 4s, and I have two over cards. I'm going to call."

Sure enough, he had pocket 4s. They held up, I doubled him up, but everyone at the table was shocked at my back to back calls. I myself, am still impressed by that feat. Luckily my roomate and sister were all there to witness it, so I have all the proof I need. Flame all you'd like, but I can't imagine what it would be like to be there ALL the time.

[ifoldaces]

Ok. I will put in a quote since apparently you give no credit to my words. The following quote is a translation of a lecture by a great Zen Master Hakuun Yasutani from a traditional Buddhist lines of both Soto and Rinzai sects. "Zazen must not be confused with meditation. Meditation involves putting something into the mind, either an image or a sacred word that is visualized or a concept that is thought about or reflected on, or both...In Tantric Buddhist systems of meditation, mandalas containing various seed syllables of the Sanskrit alphabet - such as Om, for example, are visualized and dwelt upon in a prescribed manner. Uniqueness of Zazen lies in this: that the mind is freed from bondage to all thought-forms, visions, objects and imaginings, however sacred or elavating are brought to a state of absoulte emptiness, from which alone it may one day percieve its own true nature, or the nature of the universe. Such initital exercises as counting or following the breath cannot, sticktly speaking, be called meditation since they do not involve visulaization of an object or reflection upon an idea. For the same reason koan zazen cannot be called meditation."

[tek]

[ QUOTE ]
Uniqueness of Zazen lies in this: that the mind is freed from bondage to all thought-forms, visions, objects and imaginings, however sacred or elavating are brought to a state of absolute emptiness, from which alone it may one day percieve its own true nature, or the nature of the universe.

[/ QUOTE ]

And I will say again, this state is not conducive to playing poker. You can use intuition, play in the zone and not let secular thoughts (kids, bills, job, etc) enter your mind. But you have to be in the game to some extent, not just in lala land.

[Demana]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Uniqueness of Zazen lies in this: that the mind is freed from bondage to all thought-forms, visions, objects and imaginings, however sacred or elavating are brought to a state of absolute emptiness, from which alone it may one day percieve its own true nature, or the nature of the universe.

[/ QUOTE ]

And I will say again, this state is not conducive to playing poker. You can use intuition, play in the zone and not let secular thoughts (kids, bills, job, etc) enter your mind. But you have to be in the game to some extent, not just in lala land.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree. It is not lala land that I am in, it is simply a place where I can feel what the people are thinking and feeling when they make their actions. Based on those perceptions, instinct tells me the best poker play to make.

The best way I can explain is that when I meditate, I am listening to my body with an inward focus, learning about myself. When I am in the "poker" state, I am listening to my body, but it's focus is outward, in relation to the other players at the table.

[ifoldaces]

I am under suspicion that you comment just to comment. That post was a response to a challenge for a difference between meditation and zazen, not an instructional one.

You are obviously a person that knows nothing of zazen so I ask you to please stop posting here. I've stated my responses to all your comments, regardles of how stupid and repeatative they sound, if you still have a question just scroll up and read.

[ifoldaces]

Demana, you may get confused following this line of thought. Best way is not to think anything, of anything. There are two reasons to why, with practice of "surface zazen" you may be able to percieve cards and actions ahead of time. One is the fact that your mind moves, as some believe, at lightspeed, however our conscious intellect is at a snail's pace and so we miss on about 99% of our thoughts. The second reason is the clarvoyant perception which exists in a form of what most people know as "gut feeling". Both of these factors can be further developed and enhanced through practice of zazen or deep contemplation (which is hard to do without first crossing into a lower level of self-actualization).

Ok I hope this helps.

[Demana]

[ QUOTE ]

Demana, you may get confused following this line of thought. Best way is not to think anything, of anything.


[/ QUOTE ]

I am confused about this. I am not thinking of anything when I am perceiving what the other players will do. It is just what comes out when nothing is in the mind and then a perception is made.

Perhaps if I put it another way: There seem to be at least three levels of thought: conscious, sub-concious, and beyond.

Concious are the thoughts that we have when we do something.
Subconious are the thoughts that we have trained (or learned) to have in a specific situation.
Beyond are the thoughts that strike us that come from somewhere beyond our minds.

When perceiving the thoughts of other players, it is the beyond thoughts that are providing the information.