I just returned back from a 5-day trip to Las Vegas with my girlfriend and one of my closest friends and his colleague. I had never been to “Sin City” and wasn’t sure what to expect. My girlfriend tried to convince me that I would do far more than just sit at a poker table 24 hours a day, but I couldn’t understand what else I would want to see. If you’ve never been, it’s impossible to describe how immense a single casino is. Caesar’s Palace for example has over 3,300 rooms and countless shops, restaurants and architecture. It can take hours just to get through A casino and there are so many on the strip that it takes days just to walk through them, let alone to sit down and play.
What you need to know about me if you’re unfamiliar with me is what a ridiculous poker fiend I am. My fondness for poker is borderline obsession. If I’m not E-Mailing and harassing you, or performing a speech or travelling to a speech, you can put a poker chip on the fact that I am probably either playing poker, reading poker, or watching poker on my PVR (Tivo for you Americans out there in Blogland).
This isn’t to say that I have a gambling problem or gamble too much…I’m far too stingy for that. I feel like I work VERY hard running my own business and working and communicating with staff and students and I could never blow a paycheque “gambling”. A $5 game for 2 hours of socialization with friends is far more entertainment for me than going to a noisy bar/club so I prefer playing a game of poker with friends as opposed to other forms of entertainment.
I feel as though poker is the ultimate game of chess. Every single move you make, both physically and mentally, consciously and subconsciously tells your opponents something else about you and your hand. The psychology behind it fascinates me. From the way a person stacks their poker chips, to the way a person holds their cards during a hand. Everything is a “tell”.
Being in Vegas gave me a chance to test my chops against some amateurs and some pros and I’m proud to say I held my own. Over the course of 15 hours during 6 seperate sessions, I came away ahead in 4/6 sessions and only down $20 at the end of the trip. A couple of bad beats aside and this Motivational Speaker is walking away a richer man. But as Doyle Brunson, the greatest poker player of all time says, “It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about making the right decision more times than the wrong one.” Just like life.