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EXPERT VIEW - Negreanu`s Miserable Year Gets Worse
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05 November 2005
I confess that every time I get stuck in a poker game, and for me "getting stuck" entails losing anywhere from $500 - $1,500, I take solace by reading Daniel Negreanu`s blogs on his excellent website Fullcontactpoker.com, because when Negreanu get`s stuck it`s to the tune of $447,100 or at least that was today`s loss in the high stakes poker game currently going on in Vegas.
There`s a new television poker series called "High Stakes Poker" that shows a real high-stakes poker game where the minimum buy-in is $100,000. The game lasts for three days, eight hours of poker at a time, and it`s no-limit hold`em with ridiculous blinds. The big cash game players like Sam Farha, Freddy Deeb, and Barry Greenstein are all in attendance. Each one has taken a piece of Daniel so far, and following the first two days of action he is down nearly half a million. The sad thing is that he is playing really well, and has been very unlucky.
There is one day left and I hope he bounces back. The aspect of his blog that I find amazing is his ability to separate outcomes and actions. What I mean is that the outcomes have all been horrible so far - and his results are directly related to those outcomes. Poker is partially gambling, and there are times when pure gamblers like Deeb and Farha will have the best of it. His actions - how he is playing - have been very good, and Daniel remains upbeat (is it a pose? probably not) because the actions matter more in the long run.
I dwell in reality, a place few poker players are aware of, and in reality $10,000 buys not just a seat in a tournament, but 5 mortgage payments and many, many groceries. This is holding me back, but also keeping me grounded, and I can`t decide whether I want to go across to the surreal world of the poker pro where getting stuck is a minor inconvenience and only important if it impacts your bankroll.
It seems to me that a lot of top poker players are philosophically related to the Stoics, particularly thinkers like Epictetus, who famously said "Some things are up to us, and some things are not up to us." His point was to focus only on what is up to you, and to DISREGARD what isn`t up to you. Not to ignore it, mind you, but live without feeling or concern of any kind for the things in life you cannot control. Poker players are like that with money, I feel, and certainly like that with outcomes. If they make the right play they`re satisfied, and that`s the end of the story because that`s all that is up to them.
Posted by: Marc at 09:04
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