Phew!

I didn't want to leave any of you hanging. My daughter is going to be fine. The lump on her neck had no melanoma, lymphoma or any cancer of any kind. It's what is called a reactive lymph node. Easily treatable. I made camping plans with her to celebrate. We're also goin' into the big apple next weekend.

It's amazing how everything pales in comparison to the health of our kids. Now I can focus on the last days before the closing of the sale of my company. I'm going to meet the new owners today for lunch. Ciao.

Was George Right?

Lately one episode of "Seinfeld" has been ringing in my ears. I can't remember much about it except that something good had just happened to George and he becomes very nervous and paranoid. His reasoning was that, nothing good happens just by itself. It is always accompanied by a bad even that is as bad as the good event is good.

I laughed along with everyone else. "That's a good one, George. That George, what a flake."

But yesterday, I had some very good news. I can't go into it now, but I promise to reveal it in a future post. I'm all smiles and having a good time chatting to my buddies at the company I founded, when I get a call. It's my ex-wife - who only calls me directly when something bad has happened to one of my daughters. I can't bear to answer, so I send it to voice male. After my cold sweat subsides (her name and voice always seem to do that to me), I check the message. My #2 daughter has a suspicious lump on her neck. My good news paled in comparison to this shock. This 17 year old is the happiest, most upbeat, well adjusted (and talented and smart and . . .[I could keep going on]) person I have ever known. I immediately call her and she's taking it like a trooper. They did a biopsy and we'll know more on Monday. I know it is just an inflamed cyst or swollen lymph node and nothing more. I reassure her. We joke around like we always do. Everything is going to be fine.

Being the Other Person

In poker, some of the most important skills have nothing to do with cards. One such skill is the ability to transport your consciousness into the body and spirit of another person. The poker player becomes the other player. As hard as that sounds to do, its actually very logical and a common skill among top tier players. In fact, how often have you looked at a hand that you may have just been observing and you thought; "Its obvious he had that hand. What other hand would he have played like that."

Sure its much easier to understand a hand once you see the cards at the end, but the skill of putting a player on a hand is not some mystical skill that requires ESP or a sixth sense. Its a two fold process. You use logic to determine what the range of hands could be. Then you fit that logic with the capabilities and style of the player(s) involved. The result is often a very few number of possible hands that are likely. As you become a better player, you'll start to incorporate more personality traits, more setting specific facts and there is actually no end to how good you can be at this. That is why even the best players claim that they are still improving all the time. Of course I talk about this extensively and provide exercises in my online poker courses.

This skill is also a critical skill in business. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I'm involved in some long and tedious negotiations regarding the sale of an Internet company I founded ten years ago. It surprises me how weak many business people are in this critical skill. I think it is ego more than anything else that keeps people from trying to put themselves in the other persons shoes. The hardest thing for many people is the process of letting go of all your wants, needs, tendencies and personal characteristics. These traits are what make us who we are. Its like letting go of the self. But this must be done before you can refill the now empty vessel with the traits of the other person. This takes practice and a will. Then you have to have the faith in yourself to follow through on the resulting read.

This is not what they teach in Business School. I should know after two business degrees and 15 years of university teaching experience. What would really be useful for the budding and mature businessman and woman is an intense course in reading an opponent in poker. The only way to get into the head of your competitor, vender, buyer or customer is to get out of your own first. I'm in the process of setting up a Poker/Business Skills Conference in Vegas in the near future. It'll be the business training of the future. See you there.

Poker/Life/Happiness

I saw an interesting thing at the poker table I had never seen before. A young, conservative-looking fellow was about to sit down at the table, but before he did, he clutched a cross that was hanging around his neck, looked skyward, closed his eyes, kissed his icon and genuflected.

Did this guy serious think that the gods would favor him now that he blessed himself or whatever he did? Lets get something straight here. There are no poker gods. Nothing but probabilities determines winners in any given session and, in the long run, you need to know what you're doing if you want to come out ahead.

This is not to say that I eschew the spiritual. Absolutely not. Although I'm Jewish, I've always found myself most comfortable with the Buddhist approach. Peace and harmony must be found from within. All things go in cycles and are interconnected. Things are never too good or too bad. Moderation. Acceptance. Humbleness. Almost an indifference leads to true contentment.

Think of it this way. There are six important aspects of our life; (1) Relationships; (2) Our Health; (3) The health of those whom we love; (4) Career; (5) Financial; (6) Art (or hobbies, art and passions). Hardly ever, if ever, will all these parts of our life be going great at the same time. Some will go well, while other flounder. Even within each category, we'll have sub-aspects that are going well and sub-aspects that are hurtin'. Accept that this is how things are. Work on what needs working, but don't sweat the bad stuff.

For me, poker has been a tough road to hoe as of late. I'm feelin' like poor Utah in Vegas. I get kings, someones got aces. I hit a straight, someones got a higher straight. Sometimes it goes like that. Its the nature of probabilities. They are streaky. But if something isn't goin' well, consider it as an opportunity. The 'ol lemonade from lemons way of thinking. Now when I go to the poker room, I'm very focused on lowering my risk at the cost of winning a big hand. I'm practicing low risk poker. For example, instead of raising just enough to keep one caller in when I've got pocket aces, I now go all in. I'll take the small win during a cold spell. I'm workin' on the low risk gear. Keeping all gears in tip top shape will only help your game. Also, I take this opportunity to focus on bad streaks for a new course on my poker education site.

But as it so happens, one of my weak relationships has improved markedly. I don't think I did anything different (I may have without realizing it.), but things just suddenly got warmer and happier.

Also, as I mentioned in the last entry, my first business is close to being sold which would be a boost for my financial situation and for my career goals. I'll give you an update on this soon as the lawyer cloud drifts away.

I hope most of your six aspects are doing well.

So you want to Start a Company

I haven't talked much at all about the company I started many moons ago. Since things have been heating up there recently, its been on my cranial front burner.

First some background. for those of you who are interested in starting your own business and for the just curious. I was a professor in a business school at a small, regional, New England university in 1994 when I walked into my office and my computer had sprouted speakers. I played around with some sound files and with PowerPoint and immediately felt that this was the learning tool of the future. You could put any kind of image on the screen and have a friendly voice explain things to you. You could play the class over and over again until you got it. The professor needed to just record his lecture once and from then on would only need to add updates and improvements.

Fast forward to 2001. I was pretty much burned out on academic life. One introductory class I had taught 50 times. So I lined up some investors and set out to create an online company that delivered continuing education credit to insurance agents. It was a slow and arduous journey.

Today we have two potential offers for the company. In two or three months this long adventure may finally be over. I won't suddenly become rich, but at least I won't have to worry about how to pay for college for my four offspring. But it's never over until the check has cleared the bank and at least three or four more steps remain before that happens. I'll keep you posted.

What I wanted to talk about here are the most important lessons I've learned from this process. If anyone is interested in the full story, I'll be writing a book about the whole experience. Stay tuned for that. Anyway, here are the lessons that stand out for me at this point.

1. Hook up with someone who has been through the process before AND who is highly ethical. You'll need him/her all through the journey. I was SO lucky to find an initial investor/co-founder who turned out to be the most honest and honorable person I have ever met.
   
2. Never give up. Whenever you run into a road block, you should think; "What are my options for solving this problem?" Not; "Oh no, this isn't going to work."
3. Keep your costs as low as possible.
4. Pay attention to your corporate legal papers. Little things that don't seem important in your Shareholders Agreement, often are HUGE later on (like now for me).
5. Let things simmer. After you implement something new, don't rush to judgment. Give things some time. It'll also give you some down time to do something else. It'll also help you to avoid popping a blood vessel. Burn out is a big problem.

In the end, nothing is more career satisfying or just plain fun for me then creating an entity from nothing. Actually hiring people. Seeing that first sale. Watching things grow. Actually taking a salary. I tried to enjoy every step along the way.

However, what continues to amaze me is the greed in which many people are trapped. I, unfortunately, got some greedy %*$#& involved who turned out to not care about anything except themselves. These unhappy people were the biggest disappointment for me. People who I thought were decent turned out to be something else. That's the biggest reason why I'm praying I cash out now. Greedy, unhappy people are no fun to deal with and if its not fun - I don't want to do it.

Dalton Trumbo

If you missed it, you must see the PBS documentary about Dalton Trumbo. He was a screenwriter, a magnificent screenwriter from the 1950s. But more importantly, the man had ideals and he refused to surrender his values at, what turned out to be, great personal cost. But this blog isn't really about Dalton Trumbo. It's about Edward Lewis.

Mr. Tumbo was accused of being a communist by McCarthy in the early 50s. He refused to cooperate with the Unamerican Committee. He accused McCarthy and his henchmen as setting up a concentration camp for writers. Dalton was sent to jail for two years and then blackballed from his profession. He struggled mightly financially and socially. His friends were afraid to be seen with him. His 8 year old daughter was harrassed at her school to the point that she had to be pulled from the school. A treasure trove of Dalton's letters were recently discovered and are the most moving pieces of writing I have ever read.

But what I really found fascinating was the interview with Edward Lewis, the fine film producer who was 90 years old. This man had made tremendous amounts of money, won numerous awards for his films and had a wonderful marriage and several very successful offspring. He was ruminating with the interviewer about his life and said (I'm paraphrasing):

"As one gets toward the end of one's life, one spends a lot of time looking back at what they did over that time that they can say they are really proud of. Even though I lived an almost idealic life in so many ways, by far and away, the most proud moment in my life was when I insisted that Dalton Trumbo be listed in the credits for the movie Spartacus. Everyone said not to do it. He was toxic. He was blackballed. But the man wrote the screenplay and I demanded that he be given his due credit. It was the first movie after he was blackballed that he was given credit for. Nothing in my life compares to this act I did which I did just because I thought it was the right thing to do."

Its so easy to get caught up in the whole American dream shtick of trying to accumulate as much money as possible at any cost. But when it comes down to it, the only thing that really matters is the good that you do in the world. Make money - sure. But whenever you get an opportunity to do the right thing just for the sake of doing the right thing, grab it. You'll be a much happier person for it.

Tourney #2

So I finished 15th in the $340 event. Next was the $2000 event. Again in this tournament I was not getting playable starting cards through the first five hours. In many ways, I find this to be not such a horrible thing. It forces me to throw away a lot of hands and since it was a deep stack tournament, I had plenty of time to be patient. It was a good time to develop the proper table image. In this case - tight. Most times, eventually, you start to get some hands and you start to hit a few flops.

My patience paid off in spades. I hit a set and Mr. Aggressive went all in ahead of me. Big win. Then I was getting paid off with some big pairs. Very few times I was called after the flop. Then as we floated down to thirty players, I hit card dead territory. Something we all hit at one point or another. Then I just got caught. My 400,000 in chips had drifted down to $260,000 and I knew I had to make something happen, if my cards didn't improve on their own. So I'm in the small blind, one of the tighter players who had a lot of chips, but uncharacteristically, was playing a lot of hands was on the button. Its folded around to him and he makes a standard 3X raise or $75,000. I've got 88 (remember that hand last tournament?). I really don't have a choice in my mind. There's a good chance the button is weak or not strong enough to call a big raise. I go all in. He instacalls and shows me AA. I lose. I'm out in 22 place but I win $5000.

Recapping my efforts in these two tournaments;I finished 15 and 22nd and I netted $7000. I very good week. But I was really pleased with was my play, especially in the Mega. I was able to tread water very nicely during a prolonged card dead phase. I picked the proper times to steal and developed a perfect table image. It wasn't about the cards at all. It was about creating a proper pacing; playing the player and keeping an eye on average chip stack and other indicators. But most importantly it was about picking the moments to raise in which it was virtually impossible for my opponents to call if they didn't have a very narrow number of hands. This is so critical in professional tournament play. My risk control was allowing me to build up a stack without (or rarely) risking my chips through to the river. Again, in my courses, I spell this out in great detail.

I love tournament poker the most because it is existing in time-space continuum. Its about seeing the world as it exists, evaluating each moment in relative terms and evaluating choices and making the proper one in this best manner. Its almost important as how you bet as how much and when to bet.

Now I'm sitting in my hotel room in Atlantic City. Another deep stack tom'w. I hope I continue my focus. Especially since my cash game has been killing me lately. But that too will pass.