My View of the Poker Player's Attitude

[Johnny Hughes]

I am a gambler but I don't like the gambling part. I am more of a card player. I don't mind a bit being known as a gambler. I am proud of it.

Let me go back to my earliest training by the very best. I made a living as a gambler for many years. To most people, that term is not a pleasant one. Poker was most secretive. A gambler was an outlaw, most frequently arrested.

There's a guy I refer to in some of my poker articles called Ace a.k.a. Curly. He taught me the way to think if you are going to be a gambler. I recall exactly what he said after almost fifty years!

He'd say, "I wouldn't flip you for fifty cents. I don't have any gamble in me. If I don't have the best of it, I will not bet."

He'd say, "Luck is a subject for the thick-headed suckers."

A real professional gambler is not gambling because if he takes the best of it on a lot of action that fits his bankroll, he will win every single year of his life but not every month.

Thinking the way he taught me has benefited me greatly in life. I started putting all my retirement money in the stock market at the highest risk I could get twenty some odd years ago. It is very much like the way Curly described what a dice table will do. He'd get a big game started and then go to the movies because he knew how to predict the roll out, the long term effect of the best of it. The other day I lost 2 plus per cent of my whole bankroll in one day. It does not phase me in the least. Neither does poker. Win or lose. It is all the same for me as long as I know I will win for the year on the market and the month on the poker.

As for the action or thrill of gambling, I don't really feel that. However, if I get a monster hand, a full house or some unbeatable hand, the nuts on the flop, my tired old heart starts singing and racing and jumping around. I lean forward slightly hoping my shirt will cover my chest heaving. Do you have that reaction?

I think a professional poker player should never, ever, ever play the slots or dice or any games other than poker. It's part of the self-discipline of the eternal gambler's mantra,"Never take the worst of it."

Curly would say he knew everything about gambling except why the suckers take the worst of it. Even though I have watched people with a lot of gamble in themselves play poker from two or three feet away for half a century, I'm not so sure what is in their heads. I do know how to recognize when they are "poker drunk", excited to be off big winner or big loser.

The old gamblers had this attitude that makes life as a gambler less stressful. Build a bankroll and don't get too excited about anything. By keeping a poker face and their composure in front of the other players makes you feel more centered when you get a bad beat or a surprise. Poker has no more surprises for me.


What's the greatest thing about being a poker player? It's the money and the comfortable relationship you can have with the extra money. Almost as important is the way it impacts your self-esteem, the driving force in all life's endeavors.

Here's the conversation I always have with myself when I walk in a casino. "Look at all these people. I am superior to nearly all these people at gambling because I can gamble and get the best of it at poker" Millions of people stream into Las Vegas. Only a tiny elite can get the best of it. You can depend on poker if you are a good player. Poker will always be here. There's poker nearly any place you want to travel. You can quit poker to work on your education and it will be there when you come back. Everything has rapidly changed but poker only gets better.

I record my wins and losses and brief notes on big hands in a journal. I make notes on other players patterns, tells. Poker is supposed to make you feel good. You do it with your brain but also your stamina and emotions. It is not a team sport. It is a real one man by himself against everyone else that makes it so pure. If you are a regular winner, you get to feel smarter than the regular losers regardless of what they do in life. A rocket surgeon relaxing? If you play bad, you are an all day sucker to me. I want to feel superior at poker. I want to believe I am sure to win over a short period of time, a few days. We play poker for the power, as well as the money.

I use the same analogy when I eat out. I feel superior to all who don't get the best of it eating. I go to the truck stop for oatmeal, rye toast, and an orange. The joint is packed. The smoking section is even more packed. I'm the only one in the joint taking the best it. Same as the comparison to the casino crowd. A poker player needs to cultivate an attitude. Part of that attitude is superiority in poker. If you have your self fooled, you are in a heap of trouble around a gambling joint.

[costanza_g]

I feel i get the best of it reading 2+2, cuz i only read threads that i feel are worth my time. There are however a few times where i misjudge and have to endure the bad beats, like this thread.

[LBK]

[ QUOTE ]
I feel i get the best of it reading 2+2, cuz i only read threads that i feel are worth my time. There are however a few times where i misjudge and have to endure the bad beats, like this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]


[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[JoseGonzlez]

hey costanza who is the dude in your avatar and why does everyonne have a picture of him???

[MasterLJ]

Despite constanza's feelings, I think it's a great thread.

Great quote that I agree with 100%:

[ QUOTE ]
I think a professional poker player should never, ever, ever play the slots or dice or any games other than poker. It's part of the self-discipline of the eternal gambler's mantra,"Never take the worst of it."

[/ QUOTE ]

[Cactus Jack]

If you don't agree with it, you don't get it. And if you don't get it, read it again. If that still doesn't work, good luck.

A fine post, Johnny.

[TresDeuce]

<3 how only the retards dont like it.

Dude in the picture is Jman ldo.

[whodatdare]

The only thing I don't get is why eating oatmeal in a truck stop is the best of it. Otherwise, thanks for the great post, Johnny. Please keep these coming, as they are really enlightening.

[holyfield5]

[ QUOTE ]
The only thing I don't get is why eating oatmeal in a truck stop is the best of it. Otherwise, thanks for the great post, Johnny. Please keep these coming, as they are really enlightening.

[/ QUOTE ]

i mirror this sentiment

[Eder]

Poker is work...craps is fun...I like both but know the difference