Why Gen Z sucks at poker

One of my favorite gen Z terms –

The sidequest.

The urban dictionary definition of this –

“An impromptu adventure or diversion undertaken by an individual, typically outside the realm of one’s primary goals or responsibilities, often characterized by spontaneous actions and unconventional activities.”

I used to do this shit all the time.

Learning new poker variants.

Switching between live and online.

Learning about different ways to make money online.

Or just taking time off to binge new video games.

I was always entertained, but always side tracked, and my upward trajectory in the game was very slow.

What have I learned since those early days?

When it comes to deciding what to do next, there’s really just two steps.

1. Accept everything that happened, and how you feel about it all.
2. Ask yourself what you want to do from there.

Apparently, the order of those things is quite important.

If you skip to number 2, all your unfelt emotions will start to steer you.

If you’re having a big experience that you can’t quite handle, you’ll inevitably switch directions pretty quick.

Big downswing?

Time to take a break and learn some other variants.

Big upswing?

Time to take a break and travel or play some video games.

Everyone goes on sidequests a little differently.

The thing you choose to do isn’t inherently good or bad – it’s always how you go about choosing it.

It comes down to the direction you actually want to go in.

If you make the choice to learn a new game as a means to avoid what you’re feeling, then you’re probably not moving your life in a direction you truly want to, and your motivation to continue on with it will diminish soon as a result. You were just fueling yourself through avoiding what you were feeling. When the emotions you were avoiding settle down, so too does your motivation for the sidequest.

But if you make number 1 your highest priority?

Then your actions won’t be influenced by avoiding the discomfort.

You’ll start to steadily move in the direction you want, without endless sidequests along the way.

——————

In an actual poker hand?

The same concept applies.

When you ask yourself what you want to do before you accept how you feel, you won’t have the same clarity.

Sometimes it won’t change your decisions.

But sometimes it’ll save those massive punts.

Like hero calling the nit that somehow seemed like such a good idea in the heat of the moment.

Or a turn 3bet bluff into a raising range that already had zero bluffs to begin with.

If you can’t accept that there’s no profitable way to continue in this hand, your mind will do its absolute best to come up with a plan to win the hand.

If you can’t accept another player in your pool has been winning a lot more than you lately, your mind will try to come up with a plan to even things out.

It always seems so clear in hindsight.

But hindsight doesn’t get the money back.

If you want to learn how to always keep number 1 as your highest priority at the poker table, and everywhere else in life, hit me up here: