One of the values that I keep is to have fun. Work hard, play hard. One of my favorite past times is kicking back and playing cards.
This past weekend I was in Rhode Island for my wife’s annual “family reunion.” One night always becomes Texas Hold ’em night.The card table is an excellent place to shoot the breeze and catch up with her family members.
There are four hands in particular that I’ll talk about. The first was a simple hand that came down to head to head play with Suzy’s cousin Ray. He’s a bluffer and I, well I won’t say. Let’s just say this time I was holding a straight and the potential was there for a full house to beat me. All night I kept asking innate, “what do I do?”
As Kenny Rogers says, “you got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em…” Who would know better than innate? Eventually innate told me to play out this hand and I called “all in,” meaning I was betting all of my chips at one time. Wouldn’t you know, Ray folded and I won a substantial pot.
Again, Ray and I faced off around midnight. This time I had pocket Aces with an ace on the table. A full house wasn’t available on the table, but a low straight was. As soon as I saw the ace drop, innate told me to call “all in.” I did.I found myself holding three aces on fourth street.It is even better when your opponent flips over an Ace paired to a King and there’s isn’t a King on the table. I had him beat again, this time bankrupting his chips.
The final two hands I’ll talk about are a different story. Around 1AM innate told me to cash out and go to bed. I was up about $50 on the $10 I invested initially. This time though, I didn’t listen. When you stop listening to innate, innate stops talking to you.It took only six hands for me to lose it all. I got beat on the first hand, no innate to guide me meant no advantage.On the final hand I tried to bluff my way through and Suzy’s uncle had me pinned. I lost my whole stack and $10 on the night.
As BJ Palmer says, when innate tells you to do something, move with all the force of the universe behind you. When innate says to stay your hand, stay your hand. The first time you don’t listen to innate, innate goes cold towards you for a long time. All night I listened and acted. The first time I did not listen, I lost. Then I lost again, and again, and finally again.
The moral of this story is listen to your innate intelligence and act when innate tells you to act.
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