Want to start
winning with the energy? Start with a commitment and a
dedication to your goal. Try playing detached in such a way so you are
uninvolved emotionally with the outcome winning or losing. When you are open to
opportunities, you create an energy of intention for opportunities to be
delivered to your doorstep. You come out of limitlessness abundance, an attitude
of deserving only the best. When it come to any achievement in life, “if it is
yours” it comes about with you pushing out with intention and an energy that
says, “It is mine”.
I for one do not
believe in accidents, coincidence or chance occurrence. I believe in the energy
that is present. Now, it may be hard to hang you hat on something you can’t see
or exactly relate to, so the tendency for the ego is to identify energy in some
way that will allow it to be comfortable with the experience. Thus, we have
luck, good and bad, coincidence, accidents, happenstance and serendipity to help
our intellectual self cope.
The key to all of
this asks, what meaning does it hold for you in the game? If you just walk into
any game and plop your money down, you are likely to get what you sign up for…
not much. When you come from a bigger energy that says, “I do not settle for
less than I deserve, I am a winner and I am here to win”, then you have put in
your order for results. You have taken responsibility and initiated action. Come from a
commitment and a dedication that states a willingness to do what others will not
and you have joined the elite club for success.
Okay, this still
does not mean a winning table every time. But your intention, your thought form
creates your reality. What you believe in is your truth. Your word is your law.
When you subscriber to “bigger and more”, “more and bigger” are what you get.
Want to change your results at the table? Change the way you experience life. It
is all just thought form. If you say that you are having a lousy day, a lousy
day is what you will experience.
Expand your comfort
zone, take a risk and follow the energy. The energy is always true. We only kid
ourselves and diminish our power believing in something else, say luck. Separate from emotion, intellect,
and ego and come from a perception of the energy that is present. It will tell
you everything you need to know. All you have to do is ask.
If you believe in
coincidence, happenstance, chance and accidents, then in essence, you have put
your order in and that is what you will draw to yourself. Or, you can take
charge. Make your energy big with a clear intention. Commit to excellence and
never settle for less than you deserve. The path of excellence draws an entirely
different reality than just tumbling down stream and letting current take you
where it will.
I had an
interesting conversation today with a poker buddy. We were discussing esoteric
concepts of the game. This Saturday we play the third session in a ten-session
league tournament. He told me the game had already begun for him. I smiled to
myself understanding what he had just shared with me. After I rang off, it
dawned on me that my game had begun a month before, when I was invited to join
the poker league.
Time has no
relevance as you learn to work with energy. The sooner you get started, the
sooner you get results. You can win them all…
(Side note, I finished in the money in last night's poker game...)
<top>
Jack is Back…
The game of
blackjack has suffered several modifications since I wrote "Black Day For
Blackjack" about rule changes at the Mirage in the July/September 2000,
Playing 4 Keeps Newsletter. Sure, I still play but the games I do play
are limited to a few select casinos still offering what I suppose I’d call,
close to a fair game.
Blackjack lives and
is making a come back in tournament play. Blackjack tournaments, though not as
available compared to say Texas Hold’em tournaments, offer a great opportunity
and a good rate of return for the buy-in. Recently, I played a blackjack
tournament while on a business trip to Taos. As it turned out, I happened to be
in town for the Thursday tournament. Using the same strategy I shared in this
newsletter, I made it to the final table and money.
The thing about any
tournament, be it poker, dice or twenty-one, the game has to go your way if you
are to end up in the money. Along with that, you also have to play the hands you
get to the best of your advantage. Blackjack tournaments are contests usually
limited to twenty-one hands. First and second chip leaders advance to the next
round and repeat the process until reaching the final table.
A blackjack
tournament is a promotion on the part of the casino to fill the live blackjack
tables with players in between the tournament rounds. Good marketing! Because
the casino is not at risk producing a tournament, the games are usually played
by the old Las Vegas rules along with descent deck penetration, often a two-deck
pitch game.
Enter the card
counter and strategy player; these are the conditions of old when taking a few
“bob” off the casino was like taking candy from a baby.
Money management
remains the most important tactic when it comes to gaming and so it is with
tournament play. You must have chips left in the end if you are to be the chip
leader. You have to make your bankroll work at an optimal level as well as make
it last for all the twenty-one hands. You have to play a disciplined game and
not worry about the wild players. Again, you will either draw the necessary
hands to win or you will not. Sure the wild one betting it all on one hand and
winning will be hard to catch. Still, that kind of player usually ends up
bankrupt. You do have to pay attention to the other player’s stacks, and how
they bet and play. You will use that information as the game draws to an end.
Just ignore the nutters.
Usually you will
have $1,000 in play money for the twenty-one hands. Before the game, I determine
the minimum unit I will play. $1000 divided by 21 rounds up to a $50 unit. I
will play the $50 unit as my minimum bet. As the count varies in my favor, I
will increase the units I bet accordingly. Keeping to a discipline of a minimum
bet allows me to offset losses with equal or pressed bets when they win. It also
assures me that I will commit 50% of the starting bankroll to the first half of
the game and have the necessary funds to press my bets with a favorable count.
At the half
waypoint, I assess my financial position. Whatever the chip amount in front of
me after the tenth hand, I divide by ten and that becomes my new unit.
Hopefully, I have been winning and can now increase to a larger unit. Sticking
to basic strategy and accurate card counting I take advantage of opportunity
with minimum risk while moving up the money ladder.
As the game closes
in on the last five hands, any finessing can take place. A different strategy
may be employed perhaps in order to catch the leader or to protect my own lead if
held at this point in the game.
The last two or
three hands are critical and it is at this time that you must be able to
position yourself to finish either first or second. The hitch is that you do not
know if you are going to win, lose or push those last hands.
The last hand is
usually the deciding factor. However, I believe if you play a solid game, when
the last hand comes along, you should be in position to have a very good shot at
the win.
There are many
things to consider and I will share one example. My play could have gone either
way in the Taos tournament.
I was in sixth
position and last place. I was in the money and could do no worse than sixth
place. The chip leader held $1,985 and I had $1,350 with the rest of the field
salted in between. You see the game was very close. I figured with a $400 win
and I’d have a shot the lead. This assuming the chip leader and others would
lose the hand. I was second to bet, which was a disadvantage. I felt that I
could only focus on catching the leader but also wanted to hedge my bet to keep
some chips back in the event other players lost more on the last hand.
I caught a 5/6 for
a double hand. The dealer had an Ace up and called for insurance bets. The count
was an exact plus four and I paid the $200 insurance without hesitation. No
other player opted to take insurance. I was in perfect position. Oh, how I
wanted the dealer to have a blackjack and take down all the other bets. It would
surely have advanced my position in the game, if not placed me first or second.
But it was not to be. The dealer took my insurance bet, no blackjack for the
dealer.
Okay, plan B. I was
in good shape as I doubled my hand and with a plus count I figured a ten-count
card to go with my eleven. Sure enough, right between the eyes I drew a Jack of
Diamonds… Vingt-et-un! Now, as the others made their play, some held pat
hands, some stayed on junk and one guy went for a “Hail-Mary” doubled on a hard
total and made a hand.
Of all the possible
outcomes, having the dealer bust out would be the worst for me. She rolled a
five and then drew a seven and finally a ten card for a total of twenty-three.
Everyone was paid a winner. My double was not enough to improve my standing
after losing the insurance bet.
My mistake? I did
not recognize my “all in” position. I was already in last and could do no worse
than last. Had I put in more or all of my chips, I would have advance or perhaps
even been first. My strategy was to win $400 more and perhaps catch or pass the
leader, or in a loss, still have chips left that could move me a head of another
player that lost more than me. It is hard to guess how the last hand will play,
and hard making a decision that covers all the possible scenarios.
The game moves
quickly and decisions have to happen as fast. Couple that with the betting order
and trying to second-guess what the other players may do, it comes down to a
horse race in the end.
With hindsight one
can always discover the better way to have played the hand and I suppose the
lesson is, in the end, you will usually have to act on a “make or break”
decision. By playing a disciplined game, a conservative game, founded on money
management, sticking to specific units, you are more likely to find yourself in
a stronger position by the game’s end than most of the other players. It seems
to work for me more times than not.
On The Coat Tales of a Gambler… Part 17 coming next issue Sailor introduces,
Don
Miguel José Roybal, the Great, Great Grandfather of Johnnie “Scarpone” Roybal
.
