Last week, we were in Las Vegas.
While we were there to watch our son's basketball tournament, I did manage to sneak in one of my favorite hobbies, poker...
As someone who believes in growth, learning, competition and pattern recognition, poker is something I LOVE.
It has so many life lessons.
Whenever I play, I learn something and file it away.
The biggest problem I have with the game is you need to play continuously, like most things in life, to maintain form and that's where this week's topic came from.
Hand Analysis
I'm going to take you through a hand.
I'll share how I initially felt about it and my realization.
Lastly, we'll talk about how I see that in everyday life and how you can use it to approach life in a better way.
We were playing relatively low stakes: $1, $3 no-limit hold 'em and someone had raised to $6.
I saw two face cards, Queen-Jack suited, not bad. I called, and it was then raised to $21, and we had four callers for an $84 pot.
The flop came down with a Queen and two low cards and we all checked...
The turn was a Jack and I bet $35 into the $84 pot and two players folded and one young guy called.
He was your classic poker player - hoodie on his head, wearing sunglasses...This isn't the World Series of Poker, but sure.
The river was innocuous - a Seven for example, and he led out with a bet of $80...
I was stuck.
I couldn't put him on a hand.
After thinking for a long time, I called and he'd hit a set of 3s (three 7s) on the river to win.
At first, I thought unlucky Clint, another Bad Beat
The longer I sat there, the more I started to think about it...
There was no Bad Beat
There was only Bad Plays on my part.
Let's break it down:
There's $84 in the pot and the flop comes Queen high and I've got Queen-Jack...It doesn't get much better...
I'm only likely behind to Ace-Queen, King-Queen or someone who flopped two-pair or 3-of-a-kind. I needed to test that out.
I should have placed a bet of at least $25 to see if anyone had anything.
Next, the turn card was the Jack, which gave me two pair and likely put me well ahead of most hands the people at the table had.
If I'd bet $25 on the flop and had one caller, the pot would be $134...It would have made sense to bet the entire pot.
If I did, he folds.
We talked about it.
He folds to a pot size bet.
One of the challenges of not playing frequently is that I lose my aggression. I don't pick my spots as aggressively as I should and it was clear.
I hadn't been unlucky
I made two big mistakes
The mistakes were the difference between + $109 and - $91, a $200 difference.
The Lesson
Too often, we look at events in our lives and think we were unlucky...
We don't as often think about what we could have done differently in this situation.
This is the lesson.
More often than not, we weren't unlucky.
Instead, we need to recognize what mistakes we may have made.
When we examine how we can improve this next time, we will learn from our failures and become better at what we're doing.
When you're making major decisions, remember to do a post-mortem.
In a post-mortem, examine why you made the decision you made. What factors influenced your decision-making, and what other options could you have considered? Seek to understand the why behind your decision and evaluate the outcome against your expectations.
Stop blaming luck.
Start focusing on your decisions.
Use the analysis to improve your decision-making.
TGG Podcast
This week on the Growth Guide Podcast, we re-released one of our top listened to episodes with my guest, Derrick Kinney, author of Good Money Revolution: How to Make More Money to Do More Good.
We talked about How Money is Good because you can use it for good. You can use it to change the world:
- Connect your cash to a cause
- Your money to a movement
- Your profits to a purpose
We also dove into the Good Money Framework and the 3 levers of money:
- Earn more
- Save More
- Crush Your Debt
Last Word 👋
I love hearing from readers and I'm always looking for your feedback.
How I'm doing with the Growth Guide. Is there anything you want to see more of or less? Which aspects of the Newsletter or Podcast do you like the most?
Hit reply, say hello, and let me know what you think of Bad Beats and Bad Play.
I'd love to chat with you !
All my best,
Clint
