The Rules of Engagement

Missed an update on Elsie and Me the last couple of weeks as I nowadays split my time between the poker tables and the........ fruit farm.  That's another story.


Elsie is doing fine, hovering around break even as we enter the actual training.  Everything is installed, time to work.


First order of business is to clarify the MINDSET we are supposed to be in as poker professionals.  So here it is, the first thing I have all my APA VIP Trainees read:

POKER is NOT about making money.  Yes, we measure ourselves by that bottom line, BUT Poker is all about making the right decisions - the best possible decision with regards to that bottom line.  It's about making a decision with the best long-term outcome.  It's about making this decision EVERY TIME, at EVERY MOMENT, and at EVERY CROSSROAD.

The money we make is just the result that REWARDS the decisions we make.  We are not here "to make money" - if you play that way, you will inevitably make the wrong decisions...even when you do get lucky.

DO THE RIGHT THING.  Drop your ego and fold to the outrageous bluff-raise.  Make that positive EV call even if it means you could get stacked.  Use your best judgment with the available information every time.

Do the right thing, and the rewards will follow.

This is how we play.  This is how we live.

My job is to make sure Elsie understands this and shifts his paradigm.  To stop trying to take peoples' money, because they are going to be giving it to him.  Instead of trying to be better than them, he just needs to be the best he can be.  The spoils go NOT to the most-talented, but to the one who makes the fewest mistakes.

Like Tim Duncan, we are going to take high-percentage shots, while the crowd chants "Booo-ring!!!"


Got the mindset down - or at least the foundation.  We will be going back to spot-check this mindset many many many times over the next few weeks.  Any bad beat, burst of good luck, bad luck, or ego can seriously challenge a player's will to keep this mindset.


So on week 2, I gave Elsie a Starting Hand Chart.  The SHC is there to serve as a default.  With no information, go to the SHC.  with tons of hands, a HUD filled with stats, and notes filled with observations, the SHC takes a backseat and we can have what I like to call a more Dynamic Hand Range.

94o is not on any SHC, but if OTB and the BB folds to steals 100% after 700 hands...well, that's a raise.

We combine the SHC with The APA Rules of Engagement - first passed on to me by Dr.Eldoradon in 2009.  Although I hardly ever hear of it anymore, it is still one of the foundations of my training program.

1.  I will never accept a proposition where I will be out of position, UNLESS I am the preflop raiser.

2.  I choose not to be involved in unraised pots.

And of course, the disclaimer:  This is not how we are going to be playing forever, but since this is a training program, these are the goddam training wheels.  They do NOT come off till we say so.