Your Love Affair with Poker

Let's talk about love. What is love? Love is the most powerful emotional experience a person can have. Love manifests through an intense, overpowering, all-consuming devotion. Love is, necessarily, based on respect and admiration. Love is the highest of human aspirations.

Believe it or not, if you want to win consistently at poker, this is exactly the type of love you must feel for the game. Do not laugh at this statement. Obviously, I am not referring to the same kind of romantic love you feel toward your spouse or the same kind of life-sacrificing love you feel toward your children. But your love of poker should be a powerful love just the same.

I won't mince words. There is no shortcut here, and there is no faking it. You must feel genuine love. You cannot merely act like you enjoy the game; you cannot pretend that your heart is in it. When you are seated at a poker table, either online or in-person, you must feel with every cell in your body that there is nowhere else you would rather be at that moment in time. Do you know that feeling?

You need an intense and immediate love, not for the money you can make, not for the fame you can attain, but for the wonderful game of poker itself. This is an important point. Many people say they relish the game, but what they really love is the potential 'result' of playing poker. They love the money. If they can earn a nice income playing, that is, of course, a favorable result. Who wouldn't love that? But do not confuse an appreciation of money with an appreciation of the game itself. The two are very different. Some people love the fame that follows from successful play. But again, do not confuse love of fame with an emotional feeling toward the game itself. The object of your love should not be anything that comes about as a result of playing. Instead, the object of your love should be the mere act of playing. Just sitting at a poker table, win or lose, that is what should get your blood a-pumpin'.