Look, you guys wanted me to talk about poker, so I’m going to talk about poker. In my opinion, poker is one of the all time gambling games around. The truth is that you either can get down with the competitive nature of poker, or you can’t. There really isn’t a middle ground. The middle ground is where people get eaten. If you try to be diplomatic in poker, you’re going to get eaten. If you try to be too friendly, you’re going to get eaten. Do you see the pattern here? If you don’t come to the world of poker looking to win…you’re going to get eaten.

This is something that a lot of people don’t really think about, but it’s absolutely true. What you have to do from here is know that if you aren’t reaching for the top, you’re going to fall behind. People are hungry to play poker. Maybe in the beginning, it wasn’t as cutthroat. But now that we have the World Series of poker and the World Poker Tour, the truth is that you’re going to be looking at a LOT of competition. People are thinking about quitting their jobs and doing nothing but playing poker all day. That’s something that’s pretty tough to deal with, and it’s not something that you want to look down upon in the slightest.

You just have to peek into a different world and plan for the best outcome possible. I’m not going to tell you that you’re going to become some sort of poker god in less than six months. But you can take steps to better yourself in the field without losing your cool.

The first step is definitely confidence. If you’re not confident in the world of poker…well, I’ll let you fill in the blanks. 🙂 The truth is that confidence is an absolute must. You can’t bring the stress and strain of everyday life into the poker world with you. Even though it’s online, these poker hounds will pick up on any type of stress or worry that you’re going through. You have to set those feelings aside because they are absolutely toxic in the grand scheme of things.

If there’s something that you need to figure out, you have to make sure that you get it together. There’s nothing wrong with pushing hard if that’s something that you’re trying to do, but there’s something to be said about having your head in the game.

There’s a difference between being confident, and being cocky. You have to make sure that you’re not overplaying your hand. If you keep raising and everyone’s going along with it, you could be walking into a trap. But pride won’t tell you that. Pride will tell you that everyone’s a sucker and you’re the smartest guy in the room. That’s not something that you want to find yourself dealing with, either.

The best thing that you can do from here is make sure that you’re focused on your game. Don’t get emotionally involved in the poker hijinks of others. Don’t be afraid to fold if you know that you don’t have the nuts. Pride will tell you that you should stay in, play loose because that’s where the money is. Don’t give in to pride.

Confidence, in my mind, is much calmer and far quieter than pride could ever be. You are never going to be the best poker player that ever was. That just isn’t going to happen at all. However, what you can do is make sure that you embrace the challenges of poker. Roll with them. You’ll make mistakes but I promise that you’ll have fun along the way. Good luck!