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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

Aug. 11, 2007

The Four Agreements and Poker

There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts. -- Voltaire

It's August. We don't need to tell anyone who lives in those parts of the planet experiencing heat-wave summers that we're in the height of summer. We just want to remind them, and everyone else who hasn't yet realized it: The year of 2007 is two-thirds over, gone, never returning!

Remember back in January when you were wearing those funny glittering glasses, odd hats and paper necklaces, while you were dancing around with a drink in one hand and a noise maker in the other? Remember back when you decided to make some resolutions about your poker game?

If you're feeling guilty, then you probably forgot those resolutions almost immediately. Not unusual. I don't think anyone has ever done a government-funded study on how many people actually keep their resolutions but I'm betting the number would be microscopic. (Hey, people get government grants to study all sorts of odd and seemingly silly things, so why not resolution keeping?)

Poker promises are, to be frank, hard to keep. With so many pitfalls lingering everywhere, from bankroll to game availability to personal disconcert, the mind can easily be distracted. You could compare it to swearing off chocolate then taking a leisurely stroll through the Ethel M candy factory for an afternoon, only worse. Maybe it's more like (for guys mostly) swearing off visceral (You know what that's a euphemism for, don't you?) feelings then being asked to act as the head photographer for the annual Sport Illustrated swim suit issue.

Fair warning now: I'm going back to improving your mental attitude, a subject I've talked about time and again with regard to poker prowess. So if you're tired of hearing me harp about how you can improve your focus and thus upgrade your game, you might want to skip to the end for the pithy conclusion.

Some time ago I had the opportunity to read a book called The Four Agreements and most recently received the audio version, which gave me an opportunity to enjoy it again. Before you pass judgment on what you can learn from this book as just more new-age Pablum for the brain, here's some background. The author, Don Miguel Ruiz, was raised in the Toltec ways by a mother who was a Toltec faith healer, and a grandfather who was a shaman. Rather than treading in their tracks, he went for higher education, studied medicine and became a surgeon. When he experienced a serious accident, he returned home and began to re-evaluate his early upbringing and eventually decuded to teach them to the rest of the world. Thus was born this book.

Though there is a lot of spiritual and introspective thought in the Ruiz book, the thesis can be narrowed down to the agreements which focus on your word.

Yes, in its complexity, it's that simple. Essentially, Ruiz asks you to agree to four things regarding word - be impeccable with yours, don't take any other's personally, make no assumptions about words, and always do your best.

Let's look at these agreements from your poker point of view.

You can see how important it is to be impeccable with your word. (If you say you are going to risk x amount of money, be impeccable and risk no more and no less. If you plan to rebuy only once in a tournament, rebuy only once.)

You can understand how damaging it can be if you take the words of others seriously. (When was the last time you let a remark about your luck or your suck out or your lack of knowledge about the game put you on tilt?)

You should immediately know why you can make no assumptions. (When another poker player talks to your during a pot, you should know he's fishing for information or he's trying to get you to think he has something stronger or weaker than he has. Unless you have information, ignore him. Don't assume he means anything at all.)

You know the only way to profit and have fun with poker is to always do your best. That needs no further illustration.

Now, back to those resolutions made eight months ago. They are, in effect, words. They are promises you made to yourself. Maybe you weren't impeccable and you disobeyed the; maybe you didn't do you best.

It's not too late.

Don't get your undies in a twist over your perceived failure. Very few people succeed at difficult tasks right out of the box. If your resolutions had merit, rethink them in a new way and start over.

And look on the bright side. You don't have to keep reign on yourself for 12 months now--just four wonderful, invigorating, renewed, profitable and impeccable months.