At this year's World Series of Poker, many new faces will experience their ultimate dream by earning a coveted WSOP bracelet. Their name will make headlines in major poker websites and magazines, and they may even get an action shot picture of themselves kissing their bracelet or hugging a pile of money in Poker Player Newspaper.
Relatively unknown players across the globe will score big wins every now and then, never to be heard from again. Perhaps more than any other sport or contest, poker has seen innumerable meteoric rises to the pinnacle of the game by completely unknown players. Likewise, we've seen just as many folks who drop out of the poker limelight faster than they arrived.
Making the poker limelight is very tough these days. Other than winning the WSOP main event, no single win can make you a truly big name in the poker world. There are many guys who have won US poker Championships, World Poker Tour crowns, or scored huge money in tournament wins online who do not have autograph seekers chasing them down or companies tossing endorsement deals in their direction. More than ever, it takes consistency to truly be considered a great and revered poker player.
Since a string of good cards and some lucky breaks can propel almost anyone to the top of the heap every once in a while, it makes sense that we poker players are a demanding bunch. We judge others harshly. If you need evidence, stop by any online poker chat forum and see how many folks openly doubt the abilities of guys who've scored impressive tournament wins.
Many in the poker public openly criticize guys who've earned millions of dollars in a major tournament win, calling them lucky "fish." In order to gain the respect of the poker world, we need to see a few impressive outings strung together. As the famous quote from ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle states, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Interestingly, though, we tend to not be so harsh when judging ourselves. We are often so egocentric that we rashly assume that we deserve respect and have obtained greatness from a single big outing. This is a common phenomenon in the human psychological condition. We often judge others with a harsh eye, but often measure ourselves against much softer criteria. We justify our losses as simple bad luck while we use wins to help back our assumption of self-worthiness. In others, though, it is nearly the opposite. A win for an opponent is often perceived as good luck, and a loss for an opponent is evidence of their lack of true skill.
It is time for us all to take a step back and re-evaluate the way we let our minds measure ourselves and others. Any player who navigates an enormous tournament field did not get there entirely by luck. On the flipside, a single good showing is not an indication of poker supremacy.
Don't allow automatic thinking to cloud your measurement and you may start to get a better picture of the true strengths and abilities of yourself and your opposition. It is fine to measure your opponents and the poker pros on TV by looking for sustained wins before considering them to be excellent players, but be sure to measure yourself by the same criteria as well. Remember, excellence is a habit. Now go make it happen.
John Carlisle is a National Certified Counselor with a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from West Virginia University. Contact John at carlisle14@hotmail.com.
