Let's continue to examine if our persona of a disciplined, solid poker player doesn't have a chink or two in its armor. Have you been working on your developmental needs list? Have you been totally open and honest with yourself? If you're lying to yourself, you're beyond help. Let's look at a scenario that happens all the time. Have you ever sat in a game folding hand after hand of miserable rags only to see your opponents winning pot after pot with the same or even worse starting hands than the ones that you are mucking?

Muddy Road

What follows may be the single most important piece of poker wisdom I've ever encountered. It originates with Tanzan, a 19th century Japanese Buddhist monk and professor of philosophy at the Imperial University, and it comes down to us today in the form of this Zen story or koan.

Tanzan and Ekido were walking together down a muddy road in the rain. Coming around a bend in the road, they arrived at a small, swift stream, where a lovely young girl in full dress kimono stood crying.

From The Mouths Of Babes

With age comes experience and (hopefully) wisdom. But sometimes children ask the wisest and most important questions. . . Esther asked the right question.

My almost-eight-year-old granddaughter, Esther, was visiting with me; and, as she often does, she opened a deck of cards and said, "Let's play poker, Papa."

While standing off to the side, I watched a poker game play out. I noticed a woman, who had been winning, take a nosedive and start losing. The cards didn't seem to be falling right for her. I observed how previously she seemed to have command of the game. The table had been all hers. Then suddenly it no longer belonged to her. She sat slumped, instead of erect. There was no longer the air of confidence about her. She looked frazzled and beaten, puzzled at how she'd lost control. It was like she'd given up and was just going through the motions. I asked Mike to explain this.