Volume 15 : Issue 8
| In This Edition: | Soft Touch Says Question, Can You Tear Down the Wall? Who Ya Gonna Call? |
Soft Touch Says –
I love being in my garden during the summer months. Quiet time, just me, my flowers and my meditations. Flashback! While thinning some vines on the back wall, a seemingly endless task, I flashed on “The Wall”. I asked Ed to re-print this article, as it is one of my favorites.
Happiness is getting over the wall, but if you can’t, it might be better to just walk away.
Soft Touch
The Wall
by Michael Vernon
Say that you are a nickel player. You have won eight units or $40. However, the $40 level seems to be a barrier. You are unable to go beyond an eight unit profit. At the eight unit barrier the game stalls and you lose four to six units. You climb back to a profit of $40 only to experience another loss, and so it goes. It is a back and forth game when you are at the wall.
The same phenomenon can be experienced during a losing session. You are down the same eight units. Eight units becomes the bottom barrier. You may claw your way back to even only to backslide to the eight unit loss. Again, it’s up, down, up, down. It’s a stall when you’ve hit the wall.
From my many hours of experienced play, the smartest, simplest and most profitable thing to do is to leave the game upon hitting the wall. The energy for winning is not sustaining the game. I call it “win one, lose one, push”. No matter how you adjust your play, nothing seems to work. Only the casino makes money when a game is at the “wall”. I know of no magic feather that will change or perk up the stale energy. Believe me, I have tried many times to shift the energy. Well, except sticking pins in a boxman-voodoo-doll.
Leaving seems like simple advice, yet the tendency is for the player is to engage the intellect. The player thinks that the doldrums cannot go on forever. Intellect talks the player into staying with the game. Perhaps the player thinks, “This game has to got to break away eventually. What the heck, I have only been here forty-five minutes? I have to show something for my time. After all, I’m not losing, I can make this table pay.” The intellect provides logical explanations to keep playing but the energy tells a different story.
I always promote playing sensitive to the energy or the “vibes” at the table. Follow the action closely, taking notice of all things. Keep yourself alert, be present and in the moment. Know what is going on all of the time. Keep yourself “switched on”, aware to any signal that hints to your departure from the game. Positive reasons to stay with a game should be obvious enough.
More times than not, after hitting the wall, the game tends to break down. Too often, when this shift occurs, it happens very rapidly. The player who is asleep at the wheel is caught with their pants down and usually leaves the game that way.
The message to bail out of the game comes as a feeling, experienced perhaps, as something not right. It is a feeling of being in a stagnate state lacking progress, going nowhere. I am reminded of the description of Limbo as told by Sister Mary Fatima when I was about nine years old.
When you are in touch with the energy, you will experience a “knowing”. You can perceive the energy and know the kind of game you are playing by how it feels to you. It feels comfortable or it feels uncomfortable. Perceiving energy is real. When it is a negative feeling, ask yourself, “Why am I not feeling good about this experience”? Look down at your chips in the rail and you will see the answer. Confirmation in real time is what I call it.
You can experience this energy feeling in your normal daily life. It is that little voice that is always speaking to you. You know, the one you always promise to listen to next time… “if only I had listened to myself”. Working with energy requires discipline, quieting the mind and subjugating the ego and the emotions. Perceiving energy is a subtle technique that intellect, ego and emotion easily overpower. You have to ask “them” to step aside, to enable you to notice your perceptions as feelings. Yes, and it takes some practice, but it is something everyone is capable of achieving.
Once the intellect or ego engages, it takes charge over the player. The player is not paying attention to the subtle messages. The player is unaware signals that can be perceived from the energy. Being aware of the subtle messages and their meaning is what I refer to as “reading the energy”. Most players follow their emotions not the energy. The ego whispers, “something good should happen because… because I want it to, because it is due, because I am one heck of a player, because losing can’t go on forever”. The player’s perspective is not aligned with the action of the game. “Reading the energy” is traded off for an emotional perspective. A longing and yearning for the win, at any cost, is projecting negative emotion. Desperately wishing that something good will happen is a sure sign that you do not believe or feel that it will happen. Negative emotion is like a magnet. It draws negativity.
Detachment from ego, emotion and intellect requires strong will and discipline. Without discipline, a player can be lulled into a kind of dream-like state. Hoping for success, and the absence of any change, the player continues on a downward spiral. The mundane rhythm of the game gets boring and betting becomes rote behavior, chasing a loss. Make a bet and replace the bet after a loss. It is like having a song that you hate stuck in your head and you can not stop humming it. Your are in a trance. You have hit the wall.
The stage is set, ready for the fall. Without warning, the wind turns cold and in a matter of minutes, losing hand follows losing hand. The chase is on. Ego is not going to accept a loss. After playing “even” for an hour and a half, an entire betting stake can be wiped out in a few minutes.
Well what happened? You see, back at the wall, the player received a quick warning from the energy, or lack of energy. The warning was ignored and ego took the helm, and “damn the torpedoes” the ship was sunk. “Hitting the wall” is a signal. It is a wake up call to pay extra attention to the game.
Here are a few more considerations when reading energy.
- Be in the present moment. Ask what is going on here? What do I see? What do I know? How do I feel about it?
- Be aware of what is going on with the game and especially with yourself.
- Notice your breathing. Pay attention to your body. Listen to your heart.
- Are you comfortable? Are you experiencing any pain?
- Do you have a headache or backache?
- Usually, signs of discomfort are not apparent when you are having fun.
If you catch your awareness drifting from the present moment, something is causing that distraction. It is not important to identify the distraction. It is important to recognize that you are not “in” the game. Be honest with yourself and have the discipline to admit when your intention is weak. It is like boxer, in the ring, but not protecting himself. A knockout is inevitable. Reading the subtle signs of energy in the game is a way of protecting yourself. It takes a bit of practice and like anything, the more you practice the more skilled you will become.
No matter if you are winning or losing look for the rhythm in the game expressed by the energy. When the rhythm changes, be ready to take the necessary action. Usually a change in the energy is a signal that it is time to leave the game. Relax, casinos never shut. Play it smart, take a break then find a game with potential, a game with winning energy. It is never wrong to exit a game. Play from the heart, not from the head.
Re-published with permission
Playing 4 Keeps™
playing4keeps.com
January/March 2000
Volume 2 Issue 1
Copyright Michael Vernon
