Balancing Act: Life as in Poker

I think unconsciously, we are all making decisions on a sliding scale. There are always extremes and we are always adjusting how we live, act and relate based on our mood, our goals, our upbringing etc. For example, there is work and family. How much should we focus on our work and how much time should we spend with our family? In the short term, there is a drive to be at work and make as much money as we can. Be successful. Be rich. But in the long term, we find out that accumulating excess cash at the expense of spending time with our family is an empty pursuit. Not many people on their deathbed say; "I wish I spent more time at the office."

On the other hand, we do need to make enough to ensure our family's security and to achieve some personal satisfaction. So we slide our actions on the "Family/Work scale" that works best for us.

We also have scales relative to Eat/Starve. Friends/No friends. Organize/disorganize. Exercise/relax. etc. Life is a big balancing act where we try to keep things just right. When things are out of balance, we can fall down the evil road of drugs, alcohol or infidelity or some other unhappy failing.

Personally I do yoga once a week. Been doing it now for 22 years and haven't missed a week. Besides working wonders on my weak back, it gives me a chance to reflect on the balances in my life. Many times we are unaware of the scale and we fall into these ruts. I don't say I completely "unskew" my ruts (far from it), but I use that meditative time to make some adjustments.

Poker works almost the exact same way. I'm currently working on a course on Tournament Play during the middle phase. A good player carefully slides each scale in a dynamic way as new information and situations change. For example, in tournament poker it is absolutely critical that you make moves (bluff or semi-bluff). How often you do so is the sliding scale. You may slide toward bluffing a lot if: prior attempts were successful; you are the chip leader; your opponents are playing passive (ABC) poker; good opportunities keep presenting themselves; you haven't been getting good starting cards etc. The good player keeps changing his or her bluff percentage based on everything in his or her poker universe. The weak player plays the same way every time. Being aware in poker and acting on what you perceive leads to success in the long term. And guess what? It's all about the long term.