Fighting a Bad Streak

At times it feels the world just doesn't like you. Here take that - your car breaks down - and that - my course geek turns out to be a brick and I need to start again with a new guy - and an upper cut to the jaw - weather cancels my promo trip and money twirls down the drain. I hit a dry spell at the tables just as my expenses mount. As you can see, I've been having one of those bad runs. And like poker, you need to stick it out. Keep your loses to a minimum. My three month old son smiles at me as I pick him up this snowy morning. Stay focused on what is important.

I'll always remember an interview with a WWII vet, Frank, who went back to visit the battlefield in France where, in 1944, he was assigned to sit in a foxhole and wait for the Nazis to pass by. Then he and the other foxholers would sneak out at night and attack their rear. Well things went horribly bad and a gang of Nazis discovered the ploy and were going from foxhole to foxhole and unloading seven or eight shots into the heads of each American G.I. Imagine what Frank felt as he saw and heard each of his buddies plead for their lives as they raised their hands in surrender and then be cold -bloodedly killed. There was no escape. When they got to Frank's fox hole, he stood and raised his hands as his comrades did. The Nazi pointed his gun at him, then smiled. He did not fire. He just inexplicably threw the camouflage netting back over the hole. That night, Frank snuck into the woods and made his way back to the American camp.

Frank was now in his late 70s and he said since that time when he had accepted his inevitable death, nothing can ever get him down. Nothing is as bad as it seems. Everything passes. Money is only money. A career is only a career. If there is love and respect, relationships can be repaired.

Poker is good training for adopting Frank's enlightened outlook of the world. Some stretches you just can't win no matter what you do. The cards are against you and there is nothing you can do about it. You need to get through it the best you can- minimize your losses. Easier said than done as your bankroll dwindles and you wonder how you are going to make rent next month. Then it happens. In one magical hand, all the despondency of the past is washed away. It's like the past never happened. You're back on your feet again.

Utah reached those depths of despair. He hit bottom and lost faith in his quest. But he cleansed himself mentally and reawoke with a soldier's mentality. As Edna said, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."