Put an end to all results oriented thinking

Great post from another forum, although the discussion is about cash game winrates, that mentality would certainly be greatly beneficial to MTT players. Makes me want to study Zen philosphy [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

[HandCracker]

thanks for the link!

Think I should have gotten a stud QB like MLG to post this, as more people would read it, and more good would be done [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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Makes me want to study Zen philosphy [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

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I've been trying man.

[Cactus Jack]

Mike Matros, in the latest issue of Card Player, has a column on game theory. In it he states and I'm paraphrasing, "Poker strategists think how to best play this hand. Game theorists think how to best play poker."

While the nuts and bolts are beyond my ability, the idea got me thinking. As long as I'm playing the best poker I can play, I am not going to worry about the results of any individual hand, session, week or month. I'm just going to play as well as I can play. Sort of like the saying of the guys in the 101st Airborne--Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.

I'm not a "lucky" person. Never have been. Woody Allen says, "85% of success is just showing up." What he doesn't say is what the last 15% is. I believe it's luck, and that's something over which we have no control, as frustrating as that is. Poker really is like life. The lucky tend to be successful more than the unlucky. Showing up is the only thing you really have any control over.

Zen is great. So is maturity. After a while, you learn to accept things as they are and not battle what we wish they could could be, or what they should be. Live in the moment, and you'll be okay, long term.

That's my dos centavos.

CJ

[burningyen]

Matt Matros.

[Nato76]

Do you really believe some people are luckier than others? Just curious.

[burningyen]

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Do you really believe some people are luckier than others?

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You don't?

[Nato76]

I really don't know. I would hope that hard works pays off in the end and not luck.

Luck would always be a factor, but the effects of "luck", or variance, should be greatly diminished over the long run. Ignoring all results and focusing on each individual situation at hand, doing the best to play "perfect" poker (which is practically impossible in NLHE), and coming closer and closer to that goal certainly has a much better chance of producing favorable results, but the game being as it is, even playing to the best of your ability you aren't always promised satisfying results. And by looking at the results, as the OP said, a bad player on a hot run may become complacent with a game filled with leaks, while a great player playing perfectly (just for example's sake) may still encounter a big downswing that will cloud his judgement on future decisions, perhaps even creating leaks in his previously perfect game.