Choices and Considerations<br>(A Bit of Poetry - Part II)

In my last column, "About Success (A Bit of Poetry – Part I)," I touched upon the subject of being successful in poker. I claimed it is far from easy to be a true winning player over an extended period of time, and that lots of players who seem to be beating the game are only break-even players at best. The main reason for this is that you can be a big winner only if you make the right decisions and play your best game all, instead of most, of the time. The implication here is that the top professional has faith in his own judgment, and in his ability to make the right choices. He doesn't let any of his decisions be affected by his present or recent results, by how things seem to be, or by how other people claim to make decisions. He makes his decisions based on his own evaluation and judgment, and on the pros and cons of every option available to him.

When I started playing for a living more than five years ago, I was going through one of the best times of my life up to that point. I had moved from my hometown of Amsterdam to Vienna, Austria, where I was working as a dealer at the Concord Card Casino, Europe's biggest poker room. I was making more money than I had ever made before, and had found love in my lovely colleague, roommate, and fellow dealer Elvira. With all things going so well, it seemed there was no need for me to change, as I made good money and I loved the work. Still, I had come to the conclusion that I might also have the abilities required to make it as a professional player. I thought that pursuing this kind of career might give me even more satisfaction than staying in my current job, and that becoming a successful full-time pro would give me a true feeling of accomplishment. My bosses laughed at me when I told them my plans. They said many dealers before me had tried to do the same thing, and all had failed; in fact, almost all of them had ended up broke, begging to get their former jobs back. In addition, quite a few people had warned me that playing for a living is not all fun and is very stressful, and that it would be silly to give up such a good and secure job. Over all the years that I had been working as a dealer, I had not seen any player be truly successful over an extended period of time. In fact, I had only seen people getting busted by the game, either monetarily or mentally – and quite often both. Plus, I did not have that much more poker knowledge than most of the other regular players – so why on earth would I succeed when all others had failed? Nowadays, all the people I love and who are close to me (family, girlfriend, and friends) understand and accept what I do for a living. In fact, they expect me to simply keep on winning, because that's what I have been doing over the past couple of years. What they don't see is that it has been far from easy for me to get to the point where I am now, and that it's therefore far from certain that I will be able to keep the good results coming. In my opinion, it has been an unusual combination of heart, courage, determination, patience, discipline, natural ability, and a fair share of luck that have helped me make it – so far.

So, what do you do when you are at that crossroad, that point where you have to choose and have to make the decision: Do you go for it, or not? In an excellent article, "Don't Quit Your Day Job," fellow Card Player columnist Dr. Alan Schoonmaker warns that almost all people who try to become full-time pros fail. In his view, it might therefore be better to keep your job, and perhaps try to make an extra buck playing poker. In this way, you won't have the extra pressure of having to make money playing – for instance, to pay the rent. He claims that because playing poker can be such a great second job, it would be silly to expose yourself to the daily routine and the monetary pressure of playing full time. While I agree that this might be a very wise decision for most players who are thinking about turning pro, I also know that becoming a highly successful professional player provides so much satisfaction that it might well be worth it to give it your best shot and try – even though the odds are against your making it. I would say, trust your judgment, and your judgment alone. If you think that even if you fail, you will be able to pick up the pieces and have something meaningful to fall back on, and playing poker is not just a pleasant pastime but a thing you truly love, go for it: You should give it your all to try to become the best player you possibly can. I did this by making a decision that I probably would not have made had I just been thinking rationally – but it has paid off well for me, even though things have not always been easy. (But, one will enjoy and value the good times more after having gone through a little adversity). I would like to close with a poem that describes exactly the decision-making process I have gone through, and the value of choosing one thing when most people would choose another. This poem by Robert Frost sums up basically everything I have written about today, and in a broader sense might be the perfect description of the way I view choices and considerations, or life in general.

In my next column, it will be business as usual: back to poker strategy.