Carrying on from part one of this series and I first have to mention that  I did succeed but only because of sheer bloody mindedness and perseverance. But the sad fact is that I have lost tremendous amounts of money through lacking discipline in the past that has inhibited my progress as a poker player.

But now I actually understand the core reasons for my behavior patterns for the very first time. But diagnosis of such problems is really only the beginning because unless the diagnosis leads to a cure then you have still not reached the ultimate goal.

This is where we enter the world of Zen and in fact, the other philosophies from the Far East as well and in this I mean Buddhism, Tao and Confucianism. But in these articles I am going to explain or at least try to explain the Zen philosophy.

Although to attempt to do so is in itself a violation of traditional Zen principles as discovering the power of Zen is something that one experiences rather than being told about it or reading about it.

There are also far better accounts of Zen and eastern philosophy than my article and I freely admit that books like “Zen in the art of Archery” by Eugen Herrigel and “Life without Stress” by Dr Arthur Sokoloff are two books that are not only far superior in putting Zen into words than anything that I could ever manage but they are also two books that have changed my life and my poker game as well and also helped me to develop a sound online poker.

This is an area that nearly all novice and for that matter, intermediate poker players simply overlook. In fact, many winning and professional poker players ignore the importance of it as well. Quite simply, the way that you conduct your everyday life away from poker is related to how you will behave at the poker table. Do you seriously think that you can flick a switch at the table and suddenly turn into a poker playing robot?

Do you seriously think that if you become agitated in traffic jams, angered by negative events and suffer from over reaction in general that you can turn all of this off the minute you play poker? You suffer a bad beat; you shrug it off because some book has told you to do so. It happens again and you shrug it off but only now you are not quite as composed as you were the first time. Then it happens again and again and…..SNAP!

Some motorist does something on the road that endangers your safety and you shrug it off. Then it happens again and again and again and SNAP! See the connection, modern western living tests us every single day of our lives. We constantly are in pressure situations and the danger is when we have no emotional outlet from which to escape and something snaps within us.

One of the best pieces of advice that I have ever heard was “if you can neither fight nor flee then flow”. The example given concerned a caveman from thousands of years ago who was confronted by a highly dangerous and lethal animal. Instinctively he knew whether the correct choice of fighting or running away was dependent on many factors including how well armed he was at the time.

“Flowing” was not part of the equation and he had but two options. But in modern life we are constantly placed into situations where it is not practical to do either. For instance, let us say that you are in a work environment where you are up for an all important promotion that would mean a big salary increase which knocks on to mean a better standard of living for not only yourself but also your family.

You are not skilled enough to do any other job but your work environment is one of constant conflict and your boss is non other than the boss from hell. You cannot fight him because he is your boss and whatever he says has to be obeyed. You cannot flee either as your families standard of living is depending on you. It is in situations like these when you can neither “fight nor flee” that pressure and stress starts to build……you are a far better poker player playing without pressure.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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