Soft Touch Says -
My dear readers,
welcome to the January newsletter. Brrrrrr to all of you shivering,
shoveling, or surrendering soles having to deal with the onslaught of winter weather in the
Mid-West and North
East. Yesterday, I had to get out the ear muffs for my palm trees.
Really!!!
Seriously
now, I cannot disclose exactly when, but I have plans to meet up with the
Dice Coach next month. We have several days of dice recon to do
along with a poker tournament or two. With any luck, I may have some news
for y'all following the trip. Stay tuned.
Speaking of
luck and poker, Ed is publishing an article about both topics. I know it
is not a topic for craps players, but I think the message applies well to
our game. It kind of has a Beatles theme going with subtle hints of Rocky
Raccoon's hurt ego, getting hit in the eye, and then getting flat out
beat.
Hap-pi-ness is a
warm, warm... roll,
Sorry, I just got this other Beatle's song going in my head now as I was
signing off.
Soft Touch

|
With
a Little Bit of Luck
Mate, I’ll have an additional 37 grams of luck if you
don’t mind? No wait, better if I take that in ounces, if it is all the
same to you gov’ner? Blimey me, when it comes to ordering up a little bit
of luck, I’ve got no idea the measure of a little bit. Come to think of
it, asking you mate, makes no sense a’tall. Better off that I should
Google up a little bit of luck. Lucky for me, I can find anything I need
on the Internet.
Bit of Luck
So, I am sitting in the big blind with queen/duce. Two
callers ahead of me and no one raised. I checked to see the flop. The flop
came 2/Q/2. I made a four unit raise. There was one caller (Rocky) and the
other player folded. The turn card was a 7. I bet out and Rocky quickly
called the bet. The river card was the Jack of Diamonds. I slow played,
checking the bet, and was raised all-in. I called the all-in. I rolled the
full house. In anger, Rocky threw his cards into the muck, muttering how
it’s better to be lucky.
Me lucky? Well, first of all, the disgruntled Rocky
disclosed his weakness early on, showing off his WSOP card to another
player who was sitting in on the game. (Look at me ego mate!) He wanted
to be sure the rest of us in the game got his message. It turned out the
other player was a card carrying member too. The game took place during
the World Series of Poker Tournament held annually in Las Vegas. The two
pro players were slumming it in a nickel, no limit game, bullying and
intimidating the peasants.
So, how could I make the call? Never mind that I was
holding the winning hand. I had been studying Rocky and his buddy’s
playing technique. Their method was relentless, but simple. Just push the
rest of the players around. Their “tells” were hanging out like tails on
monkeys. There was no way my hand could have ever been behind. Rocky tried
to bully me with a predictable all-in, just like he had been doing all
game. His big mistake was the bet he made with his ego. He assumed his
arrogance would be enough to intimidate his opposition. I was supposed to
be fearful, respect his all-in raise, back down, and fold my hand.
A little bit of luck was not the reason I held the
winning hand. Like a patient hunter, I hit the hand that I had been
waiting for, and that is that. I played the hand perfectly and Rocky fell
into the trap. Since ego hates being out smarted, it makes ego is an easy
mark. Playing out of control, emotionally, is the number one reason to
leave ego out of the game. You see how it ended for
Rocky Raccoon after getting hit by a rock in the
eye. (I’m gonna get that boy…poor Rocky boy.)
I was not lucky. Luck had nothing to do with my
heighten awareness of the energy and the attempted intimidation. For me,
poker is a waiting game. It is all about timing, laying traps, and pulling
the trigger. Without a show of power, pre-flop, I had the opportunity of
seeing the flop. Flopping a full house, I knew that my time had come. All
I had to do was to lure my opponent out of as many of his cheques as
possible. If there was any luck, it was dumb luck on the part of Rocky’s
play. He assumed that his self-importance provided him with a cloak of
convincing superiority. Essentially, Rocky put his own foot into his own
trap.
True, you can certainly out play another player in a
game of poker, but in the end, at the show down, you can never be better
than the cards. Bluffing and losing at the showdown does not make the
winner simply lucky. Luck is the excuse given to a winner’s commitment.
Metaphysically, it is a better to possess confidence
and take ownership of your ability and skill, than to hand off your power
to chance, hoping to catch it lucky. Confidence comes with consistency of
belief and action. It requires a dedicated commitment to your intended
goal. You make your energy bigger by believing in and exercising right
time, right place, and right action.
A belief that has luck dictating your fate is hinged
to chance. That simply distills down to surrendering to a way of life that
is just lucky. Are you lucky enough to be that lucky? Are you willing to
allow life to be dictate by luck or your command of ability and skill?
Okay, I’m going to try to get out of this now, if I’m
lucky. Back to the opening about ordering up a little bit of luck. In
today’s world, that is like saying let’s run down to the blacksmith and
get some…ah, what the hell do you go to the blacksmith for anyway? Luck is
not acquired from a place or from a shelf, any more than it resides with
someone in the moment. Luck is not a commodity to be accessed like a
bottle of aspirin for a headache. Luck is an expression of your energy. It
is not a random capricious event. Your energy draws like energy. What you
put out you get back. Energy manifests with your greater sense of self.
I am what I am. Popeye said that.
One definition of luck: Luck is the explanation given
to circumstances that cannot be explained logically, or in a tangible
manner. Luck cannot be understood in a way that makes sense because it
cannot be duplicated. A dictionary version goes something like; to prosper
or have good fortune by chance.
Make your energy big and you spin out of the ordinary
and mundane ways of everyday life. You will ride closer to the edge of the
etheric dimension, which in turn, puts you closer to the near future. By
doing so, you are more likely to perceive events that are just about to
happen. Again, energy draws like energy, aligned to vibration forces. It
harmonizes and resonates, in a perceivable and identifiable feeling. When
you create a winner’s energy, you create an energy of “can do, kick ass”.
A winner’s energy settles for nothing less than your best. The neat thing
is that you can draw these kinds of experiences into your daily life with
not much effort. It requires a shift in thought form and a shift in daily
practice. Of course, your intentions are invisible, so your winning ways
will confound others that have a lesser energy. Thus, because your bigger
energy cannot be seen or explained, your winning ways will be understood
simply as being lucky.
The warrior sage lives a life with intention,
discipline, and skill rather than haphazard chance. You can have whatever
you want, except for one thing, you have to want it!
Copyright ©2015 Michael Vernon
Playing 4
Keeps
|