Phillips - Zen and the art of poker: timeless secrets to transform your game

Be the ball.

From the movie Caddyshack

The exotic mysteries of the Eastof Zen Buddhismcoupled with the nuts-and-bolts psychology of cardroom poker? Images of Japanese gardens, wafting incense, and robed monks sitting in silence in... Las Vegas poker rooms? Enigmatic and elusive Zen wedded to tells, river cards, and rebuys? Is such a strange overlap of the two cultures possible? And if so, whereand at what pointsdo these two high arts intersect?

To the Western layperson, the most familiar example of Zen may come from the movies, or sports: the marathon runner who runs within himself; the golfer, bowler, or basketball player who is in the zone, playing effortlessly, and so on. Such examples are, needless to say, superficialhardly representative of Zen after a lifetime of trainingbut they do hint at a meaning.

A similar condition sometimes occurs in the game of poker. The great poker players, through a lifelong discipline at the game, eventually attain a kind of Zen state, one in which they are perfectly attuned to the rhythm of what is taking place in front of them.

Consider the following quote from poker writer Rex Jones:

All the great mystics of the world chose the middle path, the one between endless joy and endless suffering... The greatest mystic of them all, Gautama Buddha, knew that there were many methods of achieving enlightenment. Why not the game of poker? Poker has all the attributes of a great meditation technique. Its a mind game of the first order. It calls for a knowledge of math, psychology, strategy, tactics and self-discipline.

There is indeed an almost Zen-like state that takes place in poker, as the hours slip by and the game reaches a comfortable rhythm and the light changes in cardrooms and outside the windows of riverboats.

It is similar to the state of people who are in the thrall of some other activityone that, for the moment, dominates them and justifies their existence. Such a hint of inner nirvana, at least for its devotees, could also be said to occur during poker.

On a practical level, as a tool, how effective is Zen? Is it a technique so powerful that it will guarantee to make you a winner? Will possession of the Zen state give you a vast secret superiority over other players? This approach looks at Zen the wrong way. Zens influence is primarily on us. It cant influence outside events (except by example perhapscalmness, patience, stillness, and so on, which others may see and adopt). It cannot change outside events. (It cannot change the cards.) We will still lose. However, it will give us mastery over ourselvesand in poker, this is crucial.

Certainly one of the most widespread failures in the realm of poker is emotional control. This is a failure so large that its impact rivals playing the wrong hands, not knowing the correct percentages, or raising and betting at the wrong times. Zen addresses this problem.

Most poker players, by nature, would be unlikely to adopt Zen as a way of life, or as their primary philosophy. The notion of stillness, calmness, and patience, however, they do likein a secondary way, as a toolbut not at the price of it being their primary lifestyle. Gamblers (and poker players), as a group, are generally celebrators, carousers, escapists, libertines, and libertarians; many of them operate with a half smile and a twinkle in their eye. The great majority love life too much to enter into any transaction in which denial, austerity, and self-effacement are major currency. (At the most advanced level, a certain monklike asceticism and dedication often do reign, however.)

Still, if there is some part of Zen that can help them, they are interested.

You may notice that some of the ideas in this book are similar to others. Their importance is great so they may be phrased in different ways and restated in slightly different forms and shadings. This, too, is Zen.

The points where Zen and poker touch or overlap (or even where Zen ideas begin to overlap with one another) are not always clear-cut. Like different sides or facets of a diamond, each idea represents a slight turn of the gem to the next facet, often bearing close relation to concepts that went before. There is, accordingly, some overlap and blurring that occurs, until the outlines of a larger picture emerges.

Any high-stakes poker game, especially among experienced players, is as much a ceremony as any Zen ritual. It is a carefully choreographed give-and-take of power, rhythm, parry, thrust, withdrawal, and retreat. Mastery and virtuosity appear. One of the central assumptions of Zen is that any activity can be raised to the level of perfection. Poker, as with other activities, fits this category. Lets begin.