Life Rhythms, Poker Rhythms, and Biorhythms. Winning Helpers?

Hi. Come on in. I know you like mushrooms, so this time, as promised, I've used my crockpot to make mushroom soup with veggies. It looks more like a stew, so keep a fork handy.

There has been a renewed interest in biorhythms. For some poker players, it is becoming quite profitable, but not for everyone. One of my students says, "Biorhythms are great. I've been winning more since charting mine." Another says, "Biorhythms are a crock of horsefeathers. The chart said I should win, but I lost my tush." Others are saying, "What the heck are biorhythms?"

I've done some research, and if you haven't looked into biorhythms yet, you might want to check it out.

For some poker players, biorhythm charts have become a valuable tool for increasing their winnings. For others, they have been a source of disillusion and disappointment. And for still others, the majority, the results are inconclusive.

It's actually very simple to learn. By keeping track of winning and losing days, and charting them on your biorhythm cycles, you'll see a pattern emerging for each day of the cycle, as to whether it's a "winning" day or a "losing" day. Then, you can decide to play or not to play on any day according to the patterns. Or, you might want to increase or decrease the intensity of your play on a given "winning" or "losing" day.

Space is limited here, so I won't go into the complete theory of biorhythms. There are books available at a bookstore or library. Briefly, the biorhythms theory states that at your birth, three cycles begin that will reoccur consistently throughout your life. There is the Physical Cycle, with a duration of 23 days, the Emotional Cycle of 28 days, and the Intellectual Cycle of 33 days.

The significant days of each cycle are the first day and the midpoint day, halfway through the cycle. They are called "critical" days. They aren't critical in the sense of "good" or "bad," but in the sense of a change of energy flow. I personally think they should be called "changing" days. These are points when the cycle changes from the recharge phase to the discharge phase, or vice versa. Each cycle also contains a "high" day and a "low" day.

I suggest you start by charting your Emotional Cycle. This is because our lives are controlled by our present emotions, and our emotional memories from the past, which are stored in our subconscious.

If you don't see any patterns developing, chart your Intellectual Cycle. If you really want to get into it, correlate the Emotional and Intellectual cycles. In relation to poker, the Physical Cycle is the least conclusive.

For my own research, I have looked back and charted two years of my poker records according to my biorhythms cycles. For me, there was a definite pattern of winning and losing on various cycle days. Fortunately, the win-loss balance was by far in favor of wins.

Only four of my 28 Emotional Cycle days showed more losses than wins, and on one of those cycle days, my wins were bigger than my losses, so I still showed an overall profit even on a "losing" cycle day.

Day No. 20 of the Emotional Cycle has been my worst cycle day, while my best day has been No. 17 of the same cycle. I won six times as much money on day No. 17 as I lost on day No. 20. The problem is that this is not completely predictive, because only one of my "winning" days had no losses, while all of my "losing" days had some wins.

To learn more on the subject, I consulted with a guy who has been working on a biorhythm program on his computer. He told me that biorhythms are a source of measurement. They are a point of reference as to "where you were" when you accomplished something as opposed to "where you are going to be" when you want to accomplish it again. There is nothing hard and fast to say that because you won on cycle day No. 7, you'll win on every cycle day No. 7.

The conclusion at which I have arrived is that charting my biorhythms has been inconclusive, but for some poker players, it has been profitable.

The soup is my grandma's recipe, but she made hers in a big iron pot. Grandma never had, and probably wouldn't use, a crockpot. Now, I need a nap. Kill the light on your way out.

Editor's note: Roy West, author of the bestseller 7 Card Stud, the Complete Course in Winning (available from Card Player), continues to give his successful poker lessons in Las Vegas to both tourists and locals. Ladies are welcome. Call 1-800-548-6177 Ext. 03.