Tao Of Poker by Phillips Larry W

Author:Phillips, Larry W.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2003-09-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

On Steaming, Calm,

and Composure

“He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.”

—Johann Kaspar Lavater

“No one can achieve serenity until the glare of passion is past the meridian.”

—Cyril Connolly

Rule 169: Try to keep emotions out of the game.

One important poker objective is to try to stay as neutral as possible— and not to get emotionally caught up in the game. The reason is because it is much harder to get a clear sense of what is going on in the game once heated emotions come into play. A certain measure of indifference is therefore helpful. Another way of putting it would be: Stop caring so much. Caring—deeply and passionately—tends to wedge itself between us and our play. It interferes with clear perception and objective analysis (not to mention making us more readable).

Eliminating emotions from the game also has the side benefit of eliminating very negative emotions, such as the joys of payback, the pleasures of one-upping someone, the thrills of revenge, anger, hostility, and so on. These bad-karma emotions are also among those done away with under a program of abolishing all emotions.

Finally, if you show emotion during poker (“I’m angry! I’m not getting any cards!”), opponents only need to look for a continuation of those emotions (or lack thereof) to read your play.

“To play at the top of your form, you cannot be emotionally involved in the results.”

—Arnold Snyder, Card Player magazine

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