Mike Caro’s Advice on Poker Is Good Advice for Life (Pt 1)
March 19th, 20101.) The poker cards and breaking even.
We’ve all heard of the statistics, you’ll get a pair approximately one in every 17 hands, you’ll flop a straight, a flush, a full house, or trips x% of the time. These are all good online poker strategies to live by when you pay as they help you measure odds, and accordingly help you decide how to play your hand. But in the end, the cards probably will not break even with you. See, these statistics are estimations, and in an imperfect world, perfect statistical data doesn’t always hold up.
How this applies to life: You simply can’t control your luck. You win 1000 dollars in one session, and only win 100 in the next, you had a 900 downswing, but you still came out a winner and in the positive. So you’re still happy with your 100 dollar win, but why? Well, because you made the best decisions that you could. The same applies in life, it’s not about luck since we’ve established that you can’t control that. It’s about making the best decisions that you can with the hand you were dealt in life. As Caro says, “Stop expecting life to be equal for everyone.” It isn’t. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. It’s all about how you play the game, not letting the game play you, and making the best of life, even if you’re dealt a 2-7 offsuit. You never know, the board could come out in the end with three other 7s on the board. Look out for these things when you play poker online.