[bobneptune]

hi clayton,

your poker skills are way above mine, but when you are having these types of concerns, it might be helpful to look at the experiences of some of the great winners in sports and see what we can learn from them.

the great bill russell wrote a book years ago called "the russell rules" where he goes into 11 concepts that lead to winning. one of his first couple of quotes is one which is so simple, yet quite elegant. he says:

"the game is on the schedule... we have to play it.... why not win it?"

it sounds so simple... whether or not you may want to be in a certain tourney in a certain place at a certain time, you are here... it makes no sense to cheat yourself not to use all your skills and abilities to prevail.

the second winner i'll quote is joe montana. in the 1989 super bowl, montana and the 49 er's found themselves trailing by three on their own 8 yard line with the ball with 3:20 to go in the game. he trots on the field with all hell breaking lose in his huddle with teammates screaming at each other.

he grabs tackle harris barton aside and looks in the stands and asks him,"isn't that john candy up there ??" everyone in the huddle shuts up, looking at montana like he has 3 heads. then he turns to the rest of the huddle and says, " is there another place on earth you'd rather be right now ???"

of course, they drive the ball 102 yards and win the championship, but his meaning was quite simple and elegant once again.... embrace the challenge.

i think this is the sort of attitude one need to have in order to be successful at tourney poker, or any other endeavour.

it never hurts to emulate champions to learn to become one , yourself.