One of my best high school friends was Al Kearns. Al lived in a hollow about a half mile from my house in Western Pennsylvania. We hunted, fished and played baseball and basketball together for Sewickley Township High School in Herminie, PA.
Al and I would often meet at the baseball field after school to discuss sports strategy. Both of us were highly competitive and we wanted to be winners. We would ask each other questions like what makes a winning team or how can a player motivate himself to be a better player?
My friend thought he had the answer. He came up with it in a single word: momentum.
'If a team can gain momentum, it picks up everybody on the team,' said Al. 'It's almost like a forest fire -- once a team gains momentum, nothing can stop it'
I thought Al's advice was good and practiced it every time I got a chance. In later years after I left Pennsylvania to carve out my fortune in the world, I would watch college football teams and professional teams in the National Football League struggle for victory on the gridiron. Time after time, Al was proven right. A team might go ahead with a touchdown and a field goal and then in the second quarter, the opposing team would get a break.
Maybe a player would intercept a pass or recover a fumble. Suddenly the momentum in the game would change and the losing team would literally suck the energy out of the air and start to move. Unless the other team could regain momentum, it was often bad news for them and they would end up losing.
Momentum is important in every aspect of life, from relationships to job performance. It is especially important in gambling and particularly poker.
I can't tell you how many times I have entered a poker room to play in a tournament or cash game and walked out hours later a loser because I failed to gain momentum.
Don't kid yourself -- those early hands are vitally important to a poker player's success. Winning those early hands increases a player's confidence and provides a solid foundation for the kind of momentum that will carry you to victory.
Here is a good example of what I am talking about. Some years ago I drove to Tumica, MS. to visit an old friend Jack Binion who had open a new casino there after selling out his interest in Binion's Horseshoe to his sister, Becky, and her husband.
My plans were to have lunch with Jack and talk about old times before pushing off for Florida where a writing job on a newspaper awaited me. Jack would not hear of it. He insisted I play in a one-table satellite. If I beat the table, I would have the money to enter an Omaha High-Low tournament that evening.
'It will be a big tournament and first place will pay somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000,' he said. 'You have to try for it.'
Binion would have made a good used car salesman. He convinced me. I bought into the one-table satellite for $60, beat the other players, and found myself checking into a room at Jack's gambling resort.
That night I played Omaha High-Low, a game I was just learning. I wasn't really that good at the game, but almost from the first hand I felt the momentum building in me. Things felt different. I believed I had the edge on the other players and it worked out perfectly for me. I would enter pots with the second or third best hands, get a miracle flop, and beat players who had considerably more experience at Omaha High-Low than I did.
Amazingly, this went on all evening. Almost before I knew it the nearly 300 players had been reduced to 20, then 10, and I unbelievably ended up at the final table. I was literally shaking with excitement.
We players were given a 15-minute break. Jack came over to me with a big smile.
'Are you glad you decided to stay?,' he said. My response was to give him a big hug.
My momentum did not slow down. I later learned that I was playing against some of the best Omaha High-Low players in the country. That didn't matter. What did matter was my momentum and confidence. I continued winning their chips and adding to my stack as one by one, the remaining players were knocked out of the tournament.
When only two of us remained, I shook the other player's hand and wished him good luck. I think I even meant it.
I don't remember what my final hand was, only that it contained an ace and a low card. I pushed all my chips in. He called me with pocket aces and the best hand.
The flop gave me a five-card wheel. The tournament was over and I had just won over $42,000.
Next time you watch your favorite college or professional team warming up for a game, check them for signs of momentum. You can feel it, especially when a team like Alabama's Crimson Tide faces its opponents. Confidence and momentum: they represent an unbeatable combination.
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
Written by LCB latest_casino_bonuses
