Poker – Breakaway Consciousness

Poker, Writing, And Life – Seeing & Accepting Things As They Are | #Mindfulness | #Life | #Writing | #Poker

“Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.”

“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. ”
― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

BreakwayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
June 19, ,2019

Poker and life share many commonalities, as previously discussed.

That said, in this particular piece, we will also couple writing to it since this also shares many commonalities with the aforementioned, and in the original conceptualization of this write-up, writing and self expression were the main focus. Given the poker theme that gets addressed in this blog at times, I chose to merge all of these to expand upon the ideas a bit. Essentially, we are going to explore some of the commonalities that self-expression has with poker, writing, and how that delves into viewing things at face value and accepting things in deeper ways from a subjective level.

One vanguard commonality that poker shares with life (and writing) is the expression of an individual in the way they play their game. Just like an individual in poker expresses themselves with what they wear, how they speak, how they act, and how they ultimately play, in writing, as in life, it is no different.

In writing, however, the individual uses a different array of tools for self expression. Writers can employ themes, diction, metaphors, arguments, insights, and much more. Tempo, imagery and reliability are also things that can create a huge feeling of kinship between the writer and the reader. All of this allows for thoughts and emotions to be conveyed in countless forms, and for self expression to take place.

In my personal case, I find that when I subject myself to certain emotions conveyed through writing, or even news, and videos, my emotions can get quite affected. Not always, but enough that I have been cognizant of this for a very long time.

Now, allow me a quick aside that merges into what will follow thereafter.

Throughout the full latitude of my life, I have had certain issues with reading thoughts that people share which are negative (or could be seen as such) in nature. These types of feelings and thoughts people share that have a certain ‘negative’ vibe to it are merely individuals expressing themselves. And I say negative loosely, because perhaps a person is simply expressing themselves, and they are misunderstood. Some people might only want to express thoughts on a darker subject, not with the intent of creating a negative vibe to it, but perhaps in a cathartic way. And just because a reader (such as myself in this instance) takes it negatively, doesn’t mean the aim of the piece was to create negativity in its intentional nascent conception.

Though this above example talks about reading from my subjective point of view that stems from my willing exposure to those who express themselves in writing, the same can be said for poker and life in my personal case.

Instances where a player berates another at the tables, or a person mistreats another with disrespect and so on, have always bothered me at a deeper level. And I’m not saying we shouldn’t be affected, only that allowing your emotions to run you over if such is the case with me, isn’t exactly healthy. One can be bothered significantly by an issue without letting that issue overrun them.

Now, if you think about it, an individual’s ‘self expression, whether it stems through the medium of writing, in poker, or in life, that expression is simply one side of the polarity of positivity and negativity, albeit, through the gateway of emotions and the mind.

That a negative circumstance or thought (or my misperception of it) bothers me so much says a lot about me on many levels. Though, what I think it says more than anything is that, even if I have always found such things stressful since my youth, that doesn’t mean I need to let it affect me, if that makes sense. In other words, while every single person has the freedom to express themselves as they so desire, I also have the freedom to accept that in its totality, and NOT let it affect me, and even learn from it if possible, as I am attempting to do now.

I say this because I’m trying significantly to take a slightly more Zen-like mindful approach to reading certain things in particular, which I usually avoid in general due to it causing stress.

Then a thought struck me: just like I can lockdown my emotions in a game of poker and keep them in check, as well as the stress involved in it, why couldn’t I do that in reading or seeing something that bothers me? This doesn’t mean I excuse poor treatment of another human being in any way shape or form, if such has taken place. I am merely stating that I should not allow my emotions to override my logic center, which is something that can easily take place and it’s a social engineering weapon employed often by the mainstream media.

Why do you think the mainstream media nigh always appeals to emotions and nigh never to logic, or even better, a holistic approach? Ponder that one.

Individuals that are highly emotional are much easier to manipulate than those that have a sound and holistic mindset. But just like too much emotion can affect a person, too much logic can as well, which is why a delicate balance has to be struck.

Seeking a delicate balance and a more mindful Zen-like state of being coupled with acceptance of what I s taking place is the approach I have been slowly taking the last few days, and I am appreciating it because one thing I learned a long time ago is that, anything that bothers you says something about you. Anything that bothers you a lot, says even more about you. While obviously, this can be positive or negative, the point is that our emotional response to a situation has endless ways in the way it can play out, and being able to come to terms with it is incredible for seeing the world as it IS, rather than how you think (or wish) it could be.

The world, just like individuals, simply are. And just how I am okay accepting myself for me, as everyone should accept themselves as well, I should be cognizant of others and their thoughts, feelings, and so on.

That need not mean that I need to agree with them, not at all, or give a pass to something that’s downright wrong that goes against what I feel is right. It’s just that seeing things for what they are is one of those obvious, and yet, not so obvious subtleties life offers. It’s not unlike the sky, it’s there, but most people don’t pay attention to it. Not seeing the subtleties in life, is not unlike having a kaleidoscope at hand, and not seeing the countless intricacies that it offers due to its unique perspective. That’s missing out on a LOT of things one could see, and even learn from if exposed to such.

Is the glass half full or half empty? To me, that doesn’t matter.

What matters is what is inside, and what you can learn from it.

In this case, my cup has been half full with fear of myriad things, which has historically affected how I see and accept the world for it is, which is why my stress increases proportional to my inability to accept things, and which has undoubtedly has affected my health throughout my life.

But at least I am coming to terms with it. Hopefully, that’s a big first step in the right direction.

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Author’s Note:

[1] I know I meandered a bit hither and thither, but, there was just a lot I wished to address, and I just took a more instinctual way of constructing my thoughts, rather than a logically structured way in which I aim to follow at times, so if this seems like a lot of spaghetti got launched at the wall in order to seek what sticks, it’s EXACTLY THAT!

[2] I have posted an iteration of this elsewhere in the form of a letter, or perhaps, journal entry might be more precise. I have opted to share it here, though in a significantly more fleshed out way because I think the topic deserves some serious consideration.

This started simply as me putting my thoughts to paper based on many things I had been thinking about of late, with what is shared being that which I thought most noteworthy.

I find it highly fascinating how many points of views different circumstances can offer. Not learning from them when you can if you simply make an a proactive effort is leaving life lessons by the wayside. At least, for me that’s how I feel.

And what’s life about, if not about growth, to a certain extent?

Hope you all have a great evening.

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If you find value in this information, please share it. This article is free and open source. All individuals have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Zy Marquiez and BreakawayIndividual.com
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About The Author:

Zy Marquiez is an avid book reviewer, inquirer, an open-minded skeptic, yogi, and freelance writer who aims at empowering individuals while also studying and regularly mirroring subjects like Consciousness, Education, Creativity, The Individual, Ancient History & Ancient Civilizations, Forbidden Archaeology, Big Pharma, Alternative Health, Space, Geoengineering, Social Engineering, Propaganda, and much more.

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Poker & Life – Old Roads, New Roads & Pursing Dreams | #Life | #Goals | #Freedom | #Writing | #Poker | #Inspiration | #Motivation | #Change

“The turning point in the life of those who succeed usually comes at the moment of some crisis.”
– Napoleon Hill

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
– Gandhi

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
June 1, 2019

Life offers infinite choices. Choices are one of the gifts that make life so grand, vast, and intriguing.

Some choices arrive instantly, such as slamming on the breaks not to rear end someone, while others, such as choosing a major in school, allow for extensive thought.

In this blog, choices are a subject that has been written about extensively. This is because no matter what happens, life offers a wide well of choices to draw from on a daily basis, many more than most individuals realize given that so many choices are done on autopilot, such as not having to think about directions to the grocery store. But there’s a lot more choices than the autopilot ones, and many can be significantly life changing.

For quite some time I have stood still on my path, mindful of two separate choices that can be, though not necessarily need be, joined at the hip when it concerns what I chose to do for a living. At this proverbial fork in the road I have pondered long and hard about what to do, which choice to make and the ramifications of each one to a considerable extent. While these choices have been a long time coming in a sense, for years in fact, I knew that eventually the longer it took for me to make these choices, the longer I would have to wait to chase one of my dreams.

Now, to chase certain dreams in life, an individual isn’t always required to sacrifice other things or dreams. Often, individuals can just chase a dream in a manner that doesn’t affect other parts of their life considerably. Other times, dreams can require a certain level of sacrifice, certain choices that you perhaps might not want to (or need to) make.

With this in mind I’ve chosen to stop one of my career paths, which is playing poker for a living, and only focus on business. In conjunction with that however, I have also chosen to take up writing on a more serious basis, hopefully 4-8 hours a day, if not more. Writing isn’t being chosen as a career path, though there are certain financial possibilities there as well that I am open-minded about, but that is in no way shape or form any of my main reasons for choosing writing. If I was concerned about making money or increasing income I would just log more hours playing poker. I simply choose writing because that is what I love doing.

The final portion of my poker bankroll was liquidated and converted into business inventory, as has been taking place for weeks and now. This way I can just pursue the two small businesses as a career in conjunction with writing as a passion as well.

I have loved writing ever since I was a teenager although I never thought about it seriously as I have the last few years. I have grown to love it more and more every single day. It matters not what the topic is about, I love writing about imagination, creativity, inspiration, research, non-mainstream matters, and more. And when you couple that to creative writing in the form of short stories, prose and poetry, I’m in absolute heaven when I write. I can’t get enough of it in all honesty.

Admittedly though, I did contemplate not writing as a passion, because being open-minded by default requires considering all options, even the unpleasant ones, like quitting poker.

But couldn’t I simply add writing to my plate and not quit poker? Yes. Haven’t I been writing somewhat regularly the last few months? Yes. Could I add writing to a more serious extent, even more so than now, in addition to poker? Yes. Would that be the best choice? Not in any way whatsoever.

Why is this? Because if I choose to write regularly, irrespective of what I write or to the extent that I wish to do so, it’s going to require a lot of time to write, but more importantly, to grow as a writer [1]. As Rappaport once stated, with writing, you are either all in or you’re not – not unlike poker! If you’re going to write seriously, it has to be part of your life, if not part of your being. Writing is something that I will absolutely sink myself into and have already been doing so for weeks.

In fact, just yesterday, while at the gym, I wrote 7 blogs while I was there, at least the first drafts of them as an outline format with bullet points; this very write up was the second one of those [2]. I don’t usually employ bullet points as a first draft in writing, but when you’re writing on a traditional notepad and not on a laptop or notebook, streamlining key points is all that matters in my opinion. Such an approach also allows for the honing of logic given the sequential order that’s needed to maximize effectiveness in writing, just like in life, and also simplifies to a significant degree as well. That said, I think doing that and only that at the nascent stages of writing would be detrimental to the process as a whole. I just employ an outline format when need be, and also because I like simplifying, though I think writing in the traditional sense is much better since it allows for thoughts to be written in their full breadth and scope.

Even with all that, there’s a more crucial reason why letting go of poker is a no-brainer and this has to do with health. Poker, by its very nature, is an incredibly stressful game. In a regular every day 9-5 job, you show up, you get paid. In poker, such is not the case. You could go days, weeks, or months (if you’re a tournament player) playing flawlessly and still lose. Some have even gone a full year without any profits, YIKES! Though I’ve played countless tournaments in my life and dabbled considerably in them, this was mostly before the fateful ‘Black Friday’ date that poker went through years back.

Poker is just a game (or career) that creates a never-ending avalanche of stress that most people cannot handle, and even with those that do, it can still affect them greatly, like it has affected me in the past and many others that I know.

Being cognizant that health is my main concern at this point, choosing to stop poker isn’t even a choice. That said, just because I have stopped playing poker doesn’t mean that I had to add writing. But, given that writing is my main creative passion in life and it allows me to vent to a significant degree, thus relieving stress, which is the opposite of what poker would do, I see no reason why not to venture head long in it.

I always knew (or at least hoped) that poker was simply a means to an end, a way to make a living while enjoying the love for the game. The chief binary reasons why I love poker are (1) not only because poker allows more freedom than what a traditional job could offer, but more importantly, (2) poker allowed me to stay home, and staying home was important for someone who’s always had family in mind ever since I can remember.

In fact, having family has always been a big dream of mine in a weird sense and something I thought about often while growing up. Before my parents’ divorce, my father used to work for FEMA and he had to travel a lot. At times, he was gone for months at a time, with one time him being gone 9 months if I recall correctly. Whenever there was a disaster he had to bolt with no warning. Whether it was the Mississippi river flood, the Oklahoma City bombing, or anything similar, he had to be gone because it was his job to set up the communication networks when things went haywire and nothing could be accomplished during emergencies without communication.

The fact the he made that choice never bothered me or anyone else in my family that I know of. Yes, we all wanted him home, but that’s what he had to do given his career choice. Those circumstances always made me think that if I had the option to not be away from family, then I would actively seek it out. Had I followed through with Aerospace Engineering as I originally planned on after ASU, I knew having a lot of time for family would never happen, which is another major reason why poker always seemed amazing.

While at ASU I spoke to many current or former engineers that worked at Lockheed Martin or other aerospace companies that would venture to campus occasionally, and the vibes I got most of the time were that even though they liked (or even loved) their jobs, they all worked a lot, and a small amount were even downright miserable because they didn’t do what they were told they would be doing out of college even though they were all making great money and a fantastic living in the traditional sense.

Don’t give me wrong, I don’t mind working hard at all, or spending lots of time at work. Working hard has never been an issue. If anything, no matter the job, if there’s anything I could be accused of being is a workaholic. Not the best trait to have, but it’s one that’s true, or at least it was many a year ago. But given a choice, the adage of working smarter over working harder should always be chosen. These days I’ve simply taken the 4-Hour work week approach, whether it was poker or business. Not that I only work 4 hours a week, nay. Essentially, my goal is always to accomplish as much as possible with work (or writing) in the narrowest time slot available at the moment. This approach has kept me focused and saved me from serious heartache whether it was poker or business.

It’s odd because although I played poker for a living for well over ten years, I never went to Vegas. That’s even more mind bobbling due to living in Arizona, which is a stone’s throw from Nevada.

I can hear it now: “YOU PLAYED POKER FOR A LIVING AND NEVER WENT TO VEGAS!?!” My friends will never let me live this down, and I’m sure many are still laughing. No, I have never been to Vegas, even when we only lived 5 hours (drive time) away from Vegas. Eventually I would like to visit, but that’s definitely for the future.

It’s incredibly paradoxical because you would figure that someone like me that loves meeting people, having dinners with friends and family, the night life, dancing and so on, would easily choose visiting Vegas, at least once. But no, Vegas never appealed to me like that. And although I do enjoy the aforementioned inclinations to a great degree and those are things I like or even love doing, like dancing, those past times were never my defaults.

By default, I enjoy writing, reading, thinking, meaningful conversations, and so on. Every single one of those is something I love doing, which is why those are some of my defaults, and not the prior proclivities.

In any case, because of that assemblage of reasons, making the choice to play poker (though it certainly wasn’t set in stone at the time) was a no-brainer, just like pursuing writing as a passion is now. But unlike poker, which was done primarily out the freedom it offered coupled with the potential for profits and income that allowed for the capacity to make a living, writing is strictly chosen as a passion, as one of my dreams.

In all honesty, I couldn’t chose writing if I didn’t have something to fall back on. In essence, the Ebay and Bricklink stores have replaced poker, and allow an approach that significantly decreases stress in more ways than I can express. Also, writing is simply going to take the time slot that poker used to take, as it has for the last 2-3 weeks, with the usual writing that I do sprinkled in the mix that I’m liable to do at anytime, anywhere, for any reason.

Will I ever play again? Heavens yes, of course. My Mom drags my wife and I from time to time to the casino and not the other way around as it might seem [3]. Interestingly enough, my Mom draws a lot of inspiration from that actually. I hope to write about how that inspires her in the future.

Now, am I following writing as a career path? Nope. I will do it because I love doing it, because I have an unending passion for it.

Writing is one of the ultimate freedoms of expressions of the individual. And in an outside-of-the-box sort of way, writing is one of the biggest investments an individual can carry out, not unlike an individual’s proactive focus on health.

Writing as a passion is essentially going to become my drop into the aether in hopes to spawn change at a grassroots level with individuals. The way I have always seen it is like this: if every single post I share within this blog reaches only one person every single day of my life, then that will have meant thousands of people helped over the course of my life. Thankfully, the blog has done way better than reaching one person a day, but I don’t want to try and get too ahead of myself.

I employ this mindset due to a particular scene that played out from the action movie The Core if my memory serves me right. Within the movie, one of the protagonists is stressing about saving the world. Within that key moment, one of the other protagonists goes on to share their sentiments, where they said something along the lines of, saving the entire world is complicated, so why not simplify. He stated that in his case he was simply attempting to save 3 people, which were his family, that’s all. If he could save those 3 people, which were his wife and two kids, then everything else would follow. That simplicity and depth always stuck with me.

That’s taking a huge complex problem, and boiling down to only its core aspects, which allows for significantly less stress and more focus to be had, some of the very things that a sound mindset would employ.

Now, something I have noticed in the alternative research community is that many people share news articles, perhaps dozens, hundreds, or thousands of them over many years and expect the world to change in a heartbeat. Change at that ferocious speed is nigh never going to happen. Not that it cannot happen, it certainly can and it very rare instances has; it’s just that change at that rapid rate is incredibly complicated for innumerable reasons. Such is not how the world operates. The world is fluid, its chaotic, it’s wonderful, its boundless, it’s growing, and it’s a blank canvas at its foundation. Life is a blank canvas that requires constant application of an individual’s dreams for significant change to not only manifest, but to create resonance with others.

Blank canvases and the resonance they create allow for individuals to express themselves as they see fit while affecting the world, whether it is artistically or academically. This self expression allows for creativity to be explored, which allows for roads to be ventured.

And in synchronistic fashion, the very road that allows me to make my drop-in-the-bucket type of contribution to help others, also allows me to follow my passion, which is writing. In that sense, choosing writing is simplifying because writing, compared to poker, is a walk in the park, when it comes to stress at least, and almost everything else as well.

But what’s most incongruous and intriguing is that is that, if you think about it logically, what is simpler than doing what you love, which in my case is writing?

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Author Notes:

[1] One aspect of writing that takes a considerable amount of time is editing, particularly in more objective and lengthier research-based pieces. The longer the write up, the more editorial sweeps an individual must do to make sure the writing has quality, unless someone has considerable skill level at editing. I don’t mind editing, and at times it’s even fun, it’s just that editing is not something that’s talked about as one might often think, but at least it’s a developable skill.

For instance, this entire write up took me more than 10 sweeps to get to a satisfactory point and at least a few hours. Could it be better? Probably. But given how much time I had already spent writing this and editing it, I think that for what it is, it gets the point across with no glaring mistakes (that I can see at least). That said, most of my blogs don’t take that many sweeps, particularly the ones that are 2-3 pages long, as opposed to this one, which is 5 pages in total.

[2] I mention the amount of blogs I made first drafts not in a bragging manner, especially since anyone else can do the same, but to show how excited I was at the time that I was finally embedding myself into what I have wanted to do for years, which was writing. I derived a lot of inspiration from these thoughts and still find them incredibly inspiring.

[3] Why would I not be leading the charge to the casino on a regular basis? Because the poker I played was mostly online, since it saves on average 500 hours of road time a year, and for someone that’s incredibly cognizant of time, how precious it is, even if all you get is minutes within an individual, 500 hours of year is lot of time that can be allocated for other things.

[4] I hope to eventually write a book on poker and life, similar to some of the blogs that I have written on this very topic within this blog, but that’s something that I will probably begin to tackle next year. As it stands, my year is already jam-packed with countless ideas and goals that I wish to accomplish or at least begin, but I will take proactive steps towards the goal of writing a Life & Poker book though.

[5] I hope every single one of you takes at least one step, every single day, to whatever goal you wish to accomplish, no matter how big or small. Those individual steps, while seemingly inconsequential, will accrue to a significant degree and eventually snowball into something more magnificent. Or as grandpa Yoda said, “Do or do not, there is no try.”

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Poker & Life: Let There Be Range | #Poker | #Life | #Friendship | #Family

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
May 29, 2019

Poker and Life have numerous commonalities. Some of these have already been discussed in this blog. One salient commonality that hasn’t been discussed is the topic of Range.

Range, in Poker, deals with the latitude of hands that an opponent may have at any given moment. At the current moment in time, Poker has advanced so much so that statistically one can narrow down the percentage of hands that an opponent plays, therefore giving you the ability to know what their Range is. The narrower the range, the tighter the player, and the more predictable they are; the wider the range, the more loosely the player plays, and the more unpredictable they are.

The advantages of a wider range are (1) the unpredictability of the opponent, (2) the more interesting the game plays out because you don’t know what those type of poker players will have, and (3) the higher the profit margin that takes place on a per-hand basis because players will often put you on a hand that’s not the exact one that they thought you had. Life also offers a place where having a wide range would be advantageous, and this is though conversations and kinship.

Where poker has unpredictability in its very nature, life can become quite predictable in certain circumstances – the monotony of work, the rat race, and so on. One thing that is often unpredictable is the latitude with which conversations can take place, which is why they can feature wide ranges.

Just as poker becomes a more interesting (and fun) game while playing (or seeing) people with incredibly wide ranges, life also becomes intriguing in the way subject matter is discussed of countless types. The wider the subject matter, the higher that likelihood a conversation can proceed unimpeded if both individuals just happen to have free time to enjoy it.

I mention the above because today I got in a conversation that lasted many hours with a family member that just moved here, and it was one of those conversations that was highly refreshing – employing an incredible range of subjects – for many reasons.

Although my recollection of the subjects is a bit hazy at spots, I’ll attempt to cover most trenchant subjects. He first talked to me about God (because he was listening to a MP3 about the topic), Politics, Space, Transhumanism, Media, the Constitution, Life, Finance, broad and narrow point of views, and more. It was the type of conversation that’s hard to have unless you know someone is either open-minded, or has the similar outlooks then you.

Within every day conversations, range can also be advantageous because it allows for wider type of small talks, different type of humor that allows people to have fun and/or relax, a wider scope of the type of meaningful conversations one can have, a quicker bonding of individuals and the stronger the relationships that develop due to that.

It’s great to have that boundless interaction with an individual whether you speak to them once or a lot. Genuine kinship is one of life’s gifts and it often does not get the credit it deserves.

Yesterday in fact, I spent many hours talking to someone about her significant other and paranormal topics. Just two topics, but it was incredibly interesting, particularly the paranormal part (chakras, physiological feelings, extra-sensory perception, etc.) because that’s definitely something nigh nobody ever talks about, so I found it quite invigorating.

In any case, the one thing that got me incredibly gloomy is the fact that this family member has cancer. Whereas my Mom had the ability to beat cancer again since it had not spread, this family member has stage 3 cancer and there’s nothing that they can do about it since its spread all over their body. That subject was broached and it definitely wasn’t pleasant due to the ramifications of it, but it’s something that I appreciate for many reasons.

It’s conversations like this that really put things into perspective and really bring meaning to life. That’s why I repeatedly talk about living life to the fullest, for conversations and honest kinship between individuals is one of the ways that relationships cement themselves and grow therein.

One crucial point though, I’m not implying in any way shape or form people need to talk about a million topics to get meaning from life, I’m only giving my own perspective on the matter. What people draw meaning from is incredibly subjective, and expecting everyone to take a one-size-fits-all approach is the very definition of conformity, and it is antithetical to what this blog is about. I only mention range because it allows for flexibility in human interaction, it allows for options to be had at any moment, not unlike being able to draw from a wide range of poker hands when being at the poker tables.

That’s where Life will always outshine Poker, for no matter how much range, fun, or money you can make on the poker tables, nothing beats how much meaning you can get from being with people and how downright life changing that can be.

Those moments are just priceless.

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Emotional Bank Accounts: Executive Decisions | #Friends | #Family | #Life | #Help | #Obstacles

“As you grow older, you will discover you have two hands – one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
– Audrey Hepburn

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
May 10, 2019

For clarification purposes, in this blog post an ‘executive decision’ is simply when one person overrides the decision(s) of another or a group.

Under the right circumstances, one can end up using the term ‘executive decision’ with another person when the person is saying they want to go see movie A, when you know they will like movie B a lot more, so you make an ‘executive decision’ to override it. They enjoy the movie more, that’s that. Or, you choose to go somewhere, they say let’s go somewhere else, and that person overrules you because they know you’ll enjoy yourself more elsewhere and they are right. This process has to be a balanced give and take though, for if not a person might just be a control freak and want to call the shots all the time and employing double standards.

Now follow two examples where individuals might make an executive decision when it really matters.

In the first example I will use myself being on tilt in poker, which is an egregious mistake. If you play poker for any decent given length, you will experience tilt, which is letting your emotions and anger (when you lose) override your logic and mindfulness, and instead of playing holistically, you just play downright stupid. When I first began this happened now and then, but thankfully it was something I was able to learn, though slowly. There is no way on earth I could have played for a living without mastering this aspect of emotional control.

Now, in poker there are bad days, and there are really bad days. This is what separates poker from traditional work by a considerably margin. In traditional jobs, you show up, you get paid. Even if you’re having a bad day at work, your worst day ever, you always get paid. In poker, that’s not the case, not even close. Often, you can go days, weeks, or sometimes months without making money, but that’s usually more extreme scenarios, or if you play pot-limit Omaha for instance, since the swings your bankroll takes are massive.

Long story short, there was one time I was playing $200NL and was down a lot of money to one person, and was playing optimally at first. After getting eviscerated for hours, I was letting it get to me, and sure enough, my friend could see me visibly upset, angry, frustrated, basically playing like an emotional tornado to the nth degree. He did what any good friend would do, pointed it out, put his foot down, and I stopped. It took a lot of convincing because I was down a few thousand dollars to this one player, and he was atrocious at that, but that doesn’t matter. What mattered is that I wasn’t in charge of my mind, I wasn’t playing mindfully. I quit soon after that. We would do this for each other, or for other friends, and things would turn out okay. Worst case scenario though, you lose everything, your entire bankroll, which really sucks and it’s something I went through a few times early on, which only cements the lesson of how important it is to be in control of your emotions in the game of poker.

The second example where you might undertake an executive decision would be when someone is drinking. If you know somebody has had too many drinks, you can (1) ask them to take a cab home, (2) you can drive them home yourself, (3) ask for the keys, or if it comes down to it (4) take the keys yourself. I’ve done all those 4 with people and never regretted it once. At the time, it might cause friction if the person has had too many drinks and the person isn’t thinking straight, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry when lives are on the line.

Now, I open with those two examples because today I was in a situation with my Mom who was not doing too well health-wise. Her health was really close to “We’re going to the hospital right now, let’s go.” Let’s just say, it took a lot of convincing on her part but I told her that if she feels just an iota worse, we’re going no matter what; that, or if my instincts just felt the need to override hers for any given reason.

Usually, I wouldn’t be so pushy and take her word for it, but given that a few weeks ago she waited half a day before mentioning that she slipped, smashed her head on the counter and passed out, saying she didn’t mention it because it didn’t seem like a big deal and so on was really bothersome when it happened. And now, after losing my grandma not long ago, I’m even more afraid of the reality of her having significant health problems spiral out of control.

I mention all this because making ‘executive decisions’ between individuals, when the situation is crucial, can be complex and life changing. It can also be balancing act though.

If I’m playing poker, and I get upset after losing some hands, and it’s clear that I’m visibly upset, am I going to regain my composure, or am I going to let my emotions spiral out of control requiring? If someone is having a drink, when is one drink, one drink too many? With health, do you wait for the person to heal, or do you risk it? Do you even know the problem(s)? Those are fine lines if there ever were any.

All of these scenarios are entirely subjective, and that’s what makes them even more complicated. Whether it is one more poker hand, one more drink, or one more hour of someone’s health deteriorating, there is always an incredibly fine line that once crossed, only becomes that much harder to get back too, if at all possible.

I’m just thankful that as of now my Mom is doing better because I don’t want to think what would have happened otherwise. She seems to be doing fine though, so I’m thankful for that.

I would like to hear your opinions on these types of instances, or anything similar.

Where exactly is that line where a certain scenario goes from bad, to worse? When is that moment someone must intervene because you realize if you or someone else doesn’t, then the person’s life or livelihood could be on the line? How do you know when the time is right? Or is there even a ‘right’ time?

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Poker & Life: Pulling The Mask Card, Wearing The Poker Face | #Culture | #Poker | #Life

“People seldom change, only their masks do. It is only our perception of them and the perception they have of themselves that actually change.”
– Shannon L. Alder

“You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you are underneath it.”
– Alan Moore

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
April 17, 2019

In poker, like in life, people wear masks. In both, every single individual wears masks of different types. Due to that, when individuals do decide to pull the proverbial ‘Mask Card’ from the poker deck of life is an intriguing proposition to consider.

Some of these masks are worn as a defense mechanism; some are worn to hide pain; some wear masks to cover up myriad emotions; some wear them only with dealing with specific people; others wear masks to get through the bog that life can provide at times; others wear masks simply because they’ve worn it all their lives and got used to them and forgot they were masks all along.

Nigh ever individual can relate to many or most of the above. Irrespective of reasons, masks are something that help individuals fight through the tides of the day, battle the waves that are ceaseless as we drift among the seas of life.

My argument is not that masks do not have a place, not at all. How people live their life’s is their business. I am merely bringing up this topic because I feel it deserves discussion, or at least ponderance at length.

Due to recent circumstances the last few days dealing with worries and concerns I’ve found myself under some of the premises above. In fact, sometimes, it’s very easy to forget you have a mask on. That said, it often takes someone you know to realize something is amyss before you yourself realize it, or some random circumstance that reminds you, “Hey, you still have that mask on, don’t forget.”

Some people might argue, shouldn’t you be authentic the whole time? What is the use of masks? One moment, and we will address that in a bit.

First: Riddle me this batman: do you know of any single place in which people are 100% authentic, and if so, what takes place in that locale? Ponder that for a minute.

With the above in mind, my contention that follows is that people wear masks all the time, for the most part. Some might instantly argue, “Well how do YOU know what most people do?”

It’s not just me that knows, but many people in fact, those that are least exposed to it. What do I mean by this?

What’s the one place where individuals can see people of myriad backgrounds showing their true colors? Facebook. People will do and say things on Facebook that they would never carry out in ‘real life’ in a million years. Keyboard cowboys abound many screens, and trolls are out in force. There is no better place to see what people will do when they do not wear masks than on Facebook and social media.

There is no better place to see this war rage between individuals in myriad social strata than in Facebook, it’s always an endless flame war. Words said in endless waves of anger, tirades made from the most hateful thoughts that individuals can manifest, all of which lead to no understanding, no common ground under which to move forward. While many arguments aren’t that intense, a lot of arguments hold no regard for human dignity and respect. This is (1) a failure of communication, (2) culture principles, (3) common sense, (4) education, (5) and the manipulation of the divide and conquer left-right paradigm. Each of those incisive elements, concurrent with other ones, al provide the veritable foundation upon which the flame wars burn and lead to the very division that the powers that be revel in.

All social media platforms provide a veritable armor under which most people feel safe to share their true feelings; feelings that many times people wouldn’t share with complete strangers in real life but waste not a nanosecond in telling strangers online in far larger numbers. This is not everyone, not by a long shot, but a sizeable part of individuals on social media platforms do this.

This type of circumstance seems to showcase why masks in society have a place.

Imagine what would happen if people went around their days doing in real life what they do in social media? To say all hell would brake lose, would be putting it lightly.

Such circumstances show why maybe its okay for people to be a little reserved in their thoughts by wearing masks. Not because they shouldn’t air out their thoughts, but the way it’s done is nothing but adding gasoline to fires that will never be put out, not under the current circumstances.

Perhaps its just how society is evolving with the fusion of traditional communications with social media platforms, perhaps its something else. But the same way that masks help society from becoming overly antagonistic (in modern times at least), masks help individuals from having to deal with uncomfortable situations that they understandably don’t want to deal with [1][2].

With the above in mind, we can gather that masks certainly have a place in society. When an individual chooses to wear is their business, but to say that masks have no place in society is akin to saying people have no right to privacy, or people on poker tables shouldn’t have a poker face.

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[1] I say, ‘In modern times at least’, because I think that if we were to take individuals from a century ago and transpose them on modern social media, the discussions that would take place would blow out of the water anything people do in modern times. The average discussion would be much more enlightening because they were a culture of character, and not a culture of personality. The distinction of this was learned by me from Susan Cain’s phenomenal book on introverts called Quiet – The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop talking, though the idea stems from another author. Psychologist Cain expounds upon it saliently, however. This book is highly recommended.

[2] This was reference with me not wanting to vent with certain people in person about my current situation, though I did and do certainly vent to others.

[3] I deliberately used the Phantom Of The Opera type of mask in the post as a symbol for the individual having to wear a masks throughout most of life, just like in the story. Moreover, I love the mask because (1) I enjoy ever variation of the Phantom Of The Opera Story, whether it is the movie, the play, the video game, or in a book; (2) the opera and story make a great metaphor for life, and (3) the mask serves as a fantastic representation for Halloween, which is my second favorite Holiday between Thanksgiving and Summer time. I would also like to write an analysis on this story and turn it into a much larger metaphor, but we will see about that.

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Piercing Perspectives #2: You The Individual Are Extraordinary
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The Individual, The Foundation Of Society

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About The Author:

Poker & Life: Playing The Ignorance Card For #Safety | #Life | #Obstacles

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
April 11, 2019

Following along the lines of using poker as an analogy for life and your imagination to play the “friend’s card,” below we are going to follow that with a suggestion on some of the ways individuals can play the “ignorance card”. You might be asking, why in the world would anyone want to seem ignorant? Follow along below and it will all make sense.

A few weeks ago I was walking to the parking lot somewhere getting books, when I noticed the lady in front of me speed up while walking. At that moment, I knew she was nervous of being followed so I decided to ‘tie my shoe’.

Why would I “tie my shoe?” Because nobody should ever be in an uncomfortable situation, especially given how it was obvious she was afraid of being followed while I was merely getting some books in the car. Moreover, ‘tying your shoe’ adds distance while adding subtly.

The point remains: sometimes there’s simple acts an individual can undertake that helps bring comfort to people, even if they never realize it like that woman did. She has no idea my tying my shoe wasn’t in fact that, not even close. She bolted like lightning.

Another circumstance under which an individual can play the ignorance card through the ‘tie your shoe’ method is when someone’s behind you, whether it’s the grocery store, the mall, parking lot, wherever. As I’m sure most of you would agree, one need not know that someone’s up to no good in that circumstance. The feeling of having someone behind you or close to you that you just don’t know – or even if you do – is not one of those feelings most people aren’t okay with. Heck, even having someone you know hovering over you sometimes feels uncomfortable. Totally understandable.

I only toss out the idea of tying your shoe so you can let a person walk on by because many times I’ve seen people speed up, which makes sense at times, but if a person really is a threat that might not do much [1][2]. In fact, an individual might end up cornering themselves and move away from safety. Staying around crowds and so on is one method that helps counteract that.

Whether it is ‘tying your shoe’, ‘checking out’ an item, stopping to ‘check your phone’, there is no limit to the ways that you can play ignorance and in fact be operating under total vigilance. The options are limitless because they all operate under your imagination. Don’t overlook anything.

One thing poker taught me is that sometimes the best way to stay ahead of someone is simply to seem like you’re ten steps behind.

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Author’s Notes:

[1] For the love of all common sense in the world do not ever take your eyes off the person if your instincts are going ballistic.

[2] If you’re really concerned with safety, don’t even bother with tying your shoe, simply change directions. Do it as often as you need to, for that’s the only way to be sure someone might have it in for you. I’m not trying to be funny here either, am totally serious. Worse comes to worse, you were wrong, no big deal. But if you’re right, those simple acts might make all the difference.

It didn’t strike me to share this until now, but I found it important given the serious ramifications these circumstances can have for myriad circumstances. It doesn’t matter who it is, what’s suggested are simple things that can be done that might make all the difference in the world. And that’s what its all about, making a difference.

For what its worth, I play this particular card all the time, there’s just no reason not to.

More importantly, I mention all this to show that imagination has a lot more ramifications then merely creativity. While creativity is usually what I couple imagination too, imagination can save someone’s life – it does so all the time. This is why I will continue sharing it over and over again because people just underestimate the use of imagination in life. These are merely a handful of the circumstances in which imagination can help. More will be discussed in the future. Hope this helps.
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About The Author:

Poker Flashback: Swimming With Sharks, Swimming With Whales | #Poker #Life #Mindset

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
– Randy Pausch

“Life, like poker has an element of risk. It shouldn’t be avoided, it should be faced.”
– Edward Norton

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
April 7, 2019

Poker is not only an intriguing game, but it can be breathtaking as well.

Just like life, poker offers a wide array of emotions that whip you through a roller coaster faster than you can keep up. The main emotion, in my contention, that most run of the mill poker players employ is that of fear. Having been the staple image of this player myself, I am now (in hindsight) able to share many of the things that I didn’t see at the time which prevented me from growing faster that I could have as a player. Overcoming fear in poker took time, but for that to take place, I had to jump into the deep end – into the realm of sharks.

Playing with players of superior skills is always a learning experience (or should be!), if players take the time to learn the gems of wisdom available. If not, it’s merely a waste of time in my opinion, unless you are a recreational player, and even then, they like to learn. In that deep end where sharks swim, where monsters creep, some of the most heart-rending and gut-wrenching circumstances can take place.

These circumstances will test your will power, your poise, your perseverance, your faith in yourself, your mindset, you gall, and every other emotion you can think of. The faster you become immune to all negative emotions, the faster you will grow as a player. In these respects, life is no different.

Holding even an ounce of fear is like holding a snowball that at any point can begin rolling down a hill and turn into a damn avalanche before you know it. Just like an avalanche can start from the smallest of snowballs, absolute recklessness and devastation can plague the player if they are not wary and of an incredibly sharp and precise mindset. Overcoming this fear changed my life and allowed me to go from a small-stakes player at the time, to a mid-stakes player. For a cursory glance of how that took place, a few interconnected stories follow that helped me overcome some of my most pressing issues concerning fear et al.

‘Back in the day’, would be an appropriate opening, making money in poker was much easier than it is now. The skill level required was far less, and the profits that could be made per hand, per hour, were kind of out-of-control. That said, high-skill level players have always been around, it’s just that the fields of players were much larger, there was way more fish than in the last few years, and quite a few more whales. In that sense, the game has evolved with time. With the rise of the internet, personal coaches, online coaching skill, poker programs that help analyze your game, and other factors, have all contributed to making poker a more analytical game than hitherto considered.

In the last few years, if you didn’t evolve as a player, you weren’t just going to lose given the considerable increase of skillful players, and the player pool as a whole, you were going to get downright eviscerated. To that end, ‘sink or swim’ would be an incredibly precise adage. And in the deep end, monsters lie; monsters that will crush you without a second thought; players that will rip your heart out and feed it to your children. It’s all part of the game, though, and you really can’t take it personal. That would be an egregious mistake.

When you are on the table, though there might be friends, everyone that plays in that ring of fire is to be treated as the antithesis of your being. One of these players, one of these whales, was named YL08.

But unlike most whales, YL wasn’t just a whale that wouldn’t fight back, he was Moby Dick, the great white whale, capable of destroying you by the very nature of their being. I say ‘their’ because we did not know whether this player was a man or woman. It doesn’t matter though, they were a poker player, and in poker, men and women can be just equally skilled; the only reason women do not get more notoriety is because, like many other games, poker is a male dominated game due simply to sheer numbers. There are incredible women that play the game though, such as Annie Duke, Liv Boeree, Annette Obrestad, who was in fact rising through the ranks at a incredible rate back in those days, Vanessa Selbst, Jennifer Harmon, and many more.

That said, YL wasn’t just a player. Players come and go, like the wind. YL was an experience. This person came out of nowhere and embedded himself into the midstakes of poker, on the website Full Tilt, and became widely known, even though that person fit the definition of a ‘whale’. Their imagination was off the scale. Nothing was off the table. At any time, anywhere, for any reason, YL would do anything. And in a game where players love predictability, he was the antithesis of that. YL had an imagination that was so off the scale, the closest person one could probably compare him to was Durrrr, who was a high stakes player of the same type of mindset.

Tom Dwan (Durrrr), as well as Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonious, the owner of Cirque Du Soleil (yes, the owner), all played the highest stakes at the time, which was between a $50,000 and $100,000 buy in. That game was out of control. There were many half-a-million pots, and a few million-dollar pots during those times.

For us peons playing for chump change in comparison, a smaller version of what was taking place. We down on the bottom of the totem pole were playing for $200-Buy Ins in this particular game. Talk about orders of magnitude! Even so, just because the buy-ins were $200, didn’t mean a lot of money wasn’t on the line. Those were the biggest midstakes games I ever played, which is why I had to evolve incredibly quickly or I was going to become a statistic, merely another person that took a shot and fell by the wayside.

In fact, the games YL was involved in, were so intense, with so much money moving, that it wasn’t uncommon for there to be hundreds of people in line just to take a shot. For comparison, the average $200NL might have had a handful of people in line, maybe. Now for the kicker: when YL sat down, he sat down for a long, long, long time, sometimes a day and a half if my memory serves me right. But YL sitting down didn’t mean anything unless he had a bankroll, and that he had in spades.

By the time the game was in full swing, with many hours logged, It wasn’t uncommon for there to be $5,000 to $10,000 on the table between everyone, with the lion’s share usually between 2-3 big stacks, YL at times being one of them. That was in fact very common. At times, the amount of money was closer to $10,000-$20,000 on the table, depending on how many people player with large bankrolls played besides YL.

The story doesn’t start with me, ironically, it begins with my roommate, which was also playing poker for a living at the time. He was the superior player at the time, being a notch or two ahead of me. The only thing I had on him was my ability to spot whales from a mile away. We both balanced each other out in that sense. I learned an incredible amount about poker from him and I wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t for him having helped me out and so on. Now for the story.

My roommate was the first one to sit with YL, and to make a long story short, he won somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000 that night. The second time he played I don’t recall how it went though. I believe he won another $1,000 or so, maybe more. Most of his sessions were wins though. He just had the luck of the draw and sat down with YL the first two times. Each of us would be checking constantly searching for YL’s screen name, given that YL was the walking definition of a lottery machine, and when he paid out, he paid out big. Life changing big. The next couple of times I found YL first, I took a crack at YL, and I really wasn’t ready for what happened.

Like Dorothy, I felt like I was swept up by a tornado from the instance I sat down at those tables. Not only did I have to contend with facing YL, which was like facing Darth Vader on steroids, but also with whoever else sat down, usually being a shark. Those games had lots of sharks. The amount of aggression I faced was unprecedented, and for a timid player who was playing way too tight trying to make the right play when in fact I was making the wrong play, it left a lot to be desired. That first game I lost $500. The game after that, I adapted slightly, but still, it was a loss.

The losses weren’t the relevant part here, it was my play – my mindset. My mindset was that of something akin to a newborn shark that hadn’t swam with other sharks, and although shark in mind, wasn’t shark at heart, not until you become a predator yourself. And for that, you need to begin becoming a shark. That, or just become a statistic. And there was no way on earth that I was going to do that. Come hell or high water, I was going to stick it through no matter what came. That’s when everything changed.

My roommate took the time to point out many of the flaws I showed in those first two games, which I thought were big at the time, but were in fact INCREDIBLE MASSIVE. They were so glaring in hindsight, that I wish I would have changed my mindset quicker. It wasn’t that I wasn’t bankrolled at the time, I was. I had already been playing for a couple of years and was doing well. The issue was that it was like entering another dimension. It’s like waking up, expecting to see the sun outside, and before you know it, you’re seeing dragons. Dragons everywhere. And they’re lighting everting on fire. You want to wake up, but you can’t, you’re stuck. The only way to get through, the only way to survive, is to begin slaying dragons, and fast, or get burned to a crisp while running like a coward.

Realizing this, my evolution came around in drastic fashion. In life, like in poker, nothing changes you like being pinned against the wall with no other options but to change. That type of mindset shift changes everything. It’s downright priceless. It turns you from feeling like a snowman in a blast furnace, to feeling like you are piloting your own veritable death star. At that point, everything changes, life changes. Even if poker is done, you as a person change.

Life offers very similar circumstances, but of varying flavors. Each of those flavors is a circumstance which will test us, sometimes repeatedly, until we change, shift, or adapt. And each of those options contains a lesson, or quite a few.

Irrespective of that, some lessons are best learned slowly; and some lessons, like putting your hand on a stove, must be learned on the spot. And nothing burns more incredibly than getting your ego pulverized, like mine did during those early games. Thankfully, I was able to evolve as a player, as a person, and began winning at a win rate that was unprecedented in many ways. Though admittedly, I was incredibly selective as well, as I always was, except I didn’t mind swimming with sharks.

And like Captain Ahab, I, like others, found my great white whale.

But unlike Captain Ahab, I wasn’t going to let the great white whale, Moby Dick, destroy me. Because my mindset wouldn’t allow me, not anymore. And YL went on to destroy many players, absolutely wiping out countless bankrolls during his reign. It was the stuff of legends.

But the best part about it?

When you change as an individual, when you change deep down inside in ways you never thought possible, your perspective changes, your mindset evolves, your life changes, forever.

And there’s just no price you can put on the freedom, and the range that such a shift in mentality, such a shift in mindset gives you. I consider myself fortunate and grateful for even having the opportunity. Half a century ago, such opportunities did not exist. Now, opportunities in poker and in life, litter the landscape like candy on Halloween, all there for the taking.

Just as one door closes, another door opens. The beauty in life is that life always provides opportunities, and in those opportunities, you the individual can change, or you can remain stagnant; you can push yourself to the limits of your imagination and beyond, or you can remain comfortable; you can sink, or you can swim.

And when you open your own doors, whatever doors those may be, and begin slaying dragons left and right, begin chopping up sharks into fillet, not only will your mindset change, but your whole being. In fact, you will no longer have to worry about sharks. You will not have to worry about anything.

Instead, the sharks will have to worry about you.

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Author’s Note:

Believe it or not, this is the short elevator version of this overarching story, if you can believe that. It could probably easily be 10 times longer and still barely scratch the surface. There are just too many elements to make note of, too many games that were played, and circumstances that were fluid to account for all of them in their totality. My aim in this write up was about striking a balance with all elements considered. I realize this story is a bit verbose, but I wanted it to cover as much as possible, without going too overboard, though I feel in a sense that perhaps I did. Context is everything, and I wanted to make sure the context was there to add depth to how certain circumstances can maybe seem insurmountable, and yet, never be so, as long as you don’t give up and your mindset holds on, no matter how hard it may be.

I’m not going to pretend that all circumstances in life are the same, they are not, not even close. But there’s usually possibilities to be explored, though sometimes it takes incredible outside-of-the-box type of thinking. Or better, a there-is-no-box type of mindset.

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Imagination Rises Out Of The Jaws Of Defeat
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Consciously Creating The Road Of Change, The World Of Tomorrow
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Have You Ever Walked On The Moon?
The Opening Salvo, The First Minute
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Piercing Perspectives #2: You The Individual Are Extraordinary
Piercing Perspectives #3: The Divide & Conquer Left Right Paradigm
Piercing Perspectives #4: Poker As A Mirror For Life
The Individual, The Foundation Of Society

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About The Author: