Phillips, Larry. Zen and The Art of Poker

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POKER RULE #31: Don’t get overconfident.

No matter how good we think we are or how many hands of poker we’ve played—whether one thousand or one hundred thousand—don’t take that to the bank. Don’t get overconfident, egotistical, arrogant. The reason: The Big Comeuppance can always be lurking around the next corner.

What is the Big Comeuppance?* It is similar to a lightning bolt that comes down out of the heavens. It wrecks your cards, hand after hand, hour after hour, even session after session. And it can start at any time. Egotism or arrogance have no place in any process where this can occur. Humble is the watchword here.

Don’t begin to walk too tall when things are going well. Humility is a central aspect of Zen.

Pride means the end of wisdom.

—Japanese proverb

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

—Proverbs 16.18

Let’s repeat it, because it is so important: the Big Comeuppance can start at any time. It can begin on the very next hand. What is it like? It is like one of those days when you go to use a stapler and it is out of staples; and then you go to use a tape dispenser and it is out of tape. And then you pick up a flashlight and the batteries are dead. Then you use an elevator to reach the twentieth floor of a building and some kid has punched every button so the elevator has to stop at every floor. Then you dismiss all of the

*This label and others like it—the Big Meltdown, the Sky Falling In, Your Worst Night- mare—may seem overly dramatic, even melodramatic, until you are going through it, that is. When you are in the midst of it, the concept has a very accurate ring to it indeed, and the name will seem quite apt and fitting.

above from your mind and sit down calmly to tie your shoelace and it breaks off in your hand. The rest of the day proceeds in a similar fashion. There are days in poker that closely match this scenario. (And they can be the start of weeks or even months.) They can begin without warning and can go on indefinitely.

Be on your guard. Be vigilant. Arrogance has no place in any situation where this can occur.

Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for though knowest not what a day may bring forth.

—Proverbs 27:1

There is an uphill road and there is a downhill road.

—Japanese proverb

POKER RULE #32: Learn how to avoid a losing streak.

Is there anything you can do to avoid a losing streak? There are a few things.

First, watch for any clues that you might be getting cold. And by this I mean early clues. (Your starting cards are consistently terrible, or you have good hands that keep coming in second, or you seem to “hit a wall” every time you make any kind of move in the game, or whenever you do get good hands they only win a quarter of the pot, and so on.) Don’t let losing over and over at the end of the hand be your first clue that you’re cold.

One of the difficulties with a losing streak is that it is not a losing streak until it happens. That is, you’re not really down until you’re down—and then it’s too late. Its very essence is a combination of events that takes you suddenly beyond the shore and drops you there before you can prepare for it.

Here is an example: You’re down $170 after a series of unfor-

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tunate hands, but now you’re in a big pot with a very good hand, so if you win you’ll be approximately even. But a miracle card comes on the end for your opponent and you lose again and now you’re down $290. Sitting there a moment later, you wonder to yourself: How did it happen? How did I get so far down and not see it coming?

One answer is: You weren’t there until you were there. And then it was too late.

But there is a second problem here as well: you can’t structure your game around this sort of thing happening. To design your game too much for this would be poor play and would stunt your game. So, in a sense, you have to be unprepared for it.

Look for early clues; they are sometimes the harbingers of worse things to come.

The fall of one leaf heralds the coming of autumn. —Chinese proverb

POKER RULE #33: When things start going right for other players and wrong for you, back off.

This would seem to be so obvious and self-evident that you’d think every player would do it instinctively, without even thinking about it.

But do they? Do they back off? It’s astonishing how many players step up their involvement at this point.

Ego usually plays a part in this.

In fact, the easiest thing in the world is to reach for your ego at this point. To bet right into the situation. Go up against it, challenge it. After all, things were going so well for you just a little while ago.

The probable explanation for this is that we are endlessly optimistic. Few players are convinced after three or four second-

place finishes in a row. It can’t happen again. It simply can’t. Things are bound to turn around. Looking back at the end of the night, however, at how a losing streak was put together, certain things stand out, and this is one of them: we should have caught on a little sooner. It is important that we notice these situations earlier and react accordingly.

Bad Luck—When the Cards Are Not Running Well

It has been observed that players actually play worse when their cards (and luck) are running badly. (This also inspires opponents to play better, seeing us struggling.) For this reason, losses hurt doubly when they occur. Oppositely, most people begin to play better when things are running well, so they enjoy a double benefit: good luck and good play. It is for this reason that there seems to be an almost exponential difference between the two states—one that goes beyond merely the difference between winning and losing—and why they sometimes seem like they are worlds apart, almost like two different games.

7

Calmness:

The Ordinary Way

POKER RULE #34: Detach yourself emotionally from the game.

The game of poker is nothing more than a long, random, neutral statistical run, one that is predictable for the most part, with occasional aberrations in between.

Every experienced player knows the following truth: the four jacks he loses to heartbreakingly one week are quite likely to reappear in his own hand two or three weeks later for a win. Everything evens out. This is why getting angry, pounding the table, throwing the cards, and so on is pointless. In fact, it is worse than pointless, because still-heated emotions often lead to bad decisions on subsequent hands (attempts to “catch up” quickly or “get even” with somebody, or to “win it all back quickly” or “push a mediocre hand through” out of sheer stub- bornness—or any variation of the above). In such a situation, a cloud of emotions takes possession of the player, commandeers his brain, and disrupts his play.

The action and repose of those who have mastered Zen are like flowing clouds . . . People who have mastered Zen are not stopped by anything: though clearly in the midst of all things, still they are highly aloof.

—Zen master Hongzhi

As regards the quietude of the sage, he is not quiet because quietness is said to be good. He is quiet because the multitude of things cannot disturb his quietude.

—Chuang-tzu

Remain dispassionate. Make it your goal to achieve a cool and calm demeanor. This is necessary in order to “keep the airwaves clear” in order to read incoming signals correctly.

You must function independently of what occurs on the table in front of you. Don’t let your poker play be determined by passing moods.

When the pools of perception are cleansed, everything appears as it is.

—Zen proverb

Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow.

—Buddha

Many aspects of poker are quite subtle and complex—more so than they may appear. Many gray areas exist, many borderline decisions. Superheated emotions can tip all these borderline decisions the wrong way, like dominoes, until they add up to disaster. Skill at detachment (and rebounding from losses) is important; the ability to dismiss the previous hand from mind is crucial. If this is not done the mind has as its principle focus this angry red cloud of emotion. It will see in its anger only this red cloud. How

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can the mind make accurate playing decisions when it is staring through a red cloud?

Also (as if this isn’t bad enough), emotions in poker become connected to the cards and opponents can begin to read you. (Studies by psychologist Paul Ekman have shown that the stronger the emotion, the harder it is to conceal.) Opponents easily start to make a connection between your cards and your expressions.

Please don’t think . . . that I am showing off when I say that I know the secret of how not to lose but win. I really do know the secret; it is terribly silly and simple and consists of keeping one’s head the whole time, whatever the state of the game, and not getting excited. That is all, and it makes losing simply impossible . . . But that is not the point: the point is whether, having grasped the secret, a man knows how to make use of it and is fit to do so. A man can be as wise as Solomon and have an iron character and still be carried away.

—Fyodor Dostoyevsky

One method of remaining calm is by detaching yourself emotionally. Be as indifferent as possible to the outcome of the hand, knowing in advance that aberrations (in the statistical long run) are going to occur. Put your focus on playing your cards correctly, not on the emotional fluctuations of your fortunes. (The question arises: Do good poker players ever get angry? Yes, they do: when these aberrations occur eight or nine times in a row; when loss follows loss, hour upon hour—even day after day—things can get extremely irritating, Zen or no Zen; when hands that could go either way keep falling the other way, toward the other players; when this is coupled with long dry spells in between; and—let’s take it one step further—if the whole thing is topped off by happening numerous sessions in a row. Such a scenario can be downright debilitating, and it becomes difficult to remain neutral and detached. A feeling of indignation arises—a smoldering feeling in the pit of the stomach. It is hard for Zen or anything else to cope with this.)

Yet, detachment must be retained. It must always be a high priority. It is easy, of course, to be in a Zen state of ease and relaxation when you are winning (in fact, this is the Zen state—when things are going well). The trick is to be in it when you are struggling.

Take a step back from the game. Try to see both good times and bad with a detached, neutral eye.

While the bad times can be frustrating (and sometimes even devastating), you must realize that getting yourself beyond this, emotionally, is the edge you have over other players (who will selfdestruct when their turn at this happens).

You should let go and make yourself empty and quiet, clear and calm.

—Zen master Ying-An

Profoundly stable and calm, like a gigantic mountain, you cannot be disturbed by cravings or external conditions.

—Zen master Ying-An

POKER RULE #35: Develop a true indifference to the game.

George Leonard writes in Mastery that mastery’s true face is often “relaxed and serene, sometimes faintly smiling.” You sometimes see this with good poker players—a kind of smiling, ironic indifference to the vicissitudes of fate and the outcome of hands. Importantly, however, this is a true indifference. They are not pretending; it is not some kind of “act.” Such a player watches the event almost as he would a contest in which he has no vested interest.

This kind of indifference is very valuable in poker. It helps keep resetting us back to our best game, no matter how horrendous the outcome of the previous hand. It is also valuable for another reason: it doesn’t register on the face or body language, for the player always tends to look composed and unconcerned. (A note regarding this indifference: You obviously have to care

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enough to be focused on your play during the game. This isn’t the kind of indifference where you aren’t paying attention to what you’re doing. That sort of indifference will result in money losses. Indifference to the outcome of hands must be kept distinct from indifference during actual play.)

Everything that happens, and above all what happens to me, should be observed impartially, as though on the deepest level it did not concern me.

—Eugen Herrigel, The Method of Zen

This is the point you want to get to: a detachment so complete that it almost borders on disinterest. (Cautionary note: It is important to have a large enough bankroll to allow you to play like this.*)

♥ ♣ ♦ ♠

Over the long run, let’s say, you know that a certain bet will work out in a certain card game situation—that it will show a profit. That is all you are interested in. So, in a sense, you really don’t care what happens. You bet away—almost mechanically—as if the cards themselves are betting and you are not involved. This is the kind of approach that operates out of a base of Zen calm.

Employing this method allows us to respond to calamities in the game neutrally, to not dwell on them or exaggerate them unduly. This detached viewpoint works in our favor over the long run.

It is a matter of . . . living in the midst of passions yet being detached from passions.

—Zen essence

*Clearly, the reason for much of the stress and anxiety occurring in poker is a short bankroll. This stems from a kind of paradox: In order for a win to have meaning, we overplay our bankroll. But this in turn brings the annoyance/anger factor into play and takes us off our dispassionate, detached view.

Enter the game neutrally and exit it neutrally at whatever point you are ahead or behind.

(You won’t really do this—in actual practice—but this hints at the demeanor you need to have, the state of mind that is called for: a neutrality almost bordering on arbitrariness.)

POKER RULE #36: Don’t take the game personally.

The poker gods are not out to destroy you personally (although it may sometimes seem that way). The game itself is as neutral and mechanical as a roulette wheel, a church raffle, or a lottery ball drawing. A poker deck does not have any personal feelings one way or the other toward you or anyone else. At various times, we may rest assured, everyone “gets his,” while at other times we are dealt miracle cards that pull out a miraculous victory at the last moment. Realize ahead of time that both outcomes are going to occur.

Everything is true just as it is: Why dislike it? Why hate it? —Zen proverb

A return to Zen is a return to calmness. We must always remember that all that is necessary is to just sit there. This is all that is necessary. Nothing else is required. Remember that poker is a pastime—in the literal (as well as the Zen) sense—and must be seen as such. Stop straining in a hundred different directions. Stop looking endlessly for other and better situations. No other thing is needed.

Sitting quiet, doing nothing, spring comes, and grass grows by itself.

—Zen proverb

Players sometimes think that great things are called for—so- phisticated plays, plays that go beyond the ordinary, into the ex-