By verneer on August 15th, 2009 (more posts by author)

I decided to by a Eckhart Tolle as someone suggested in the comments in one of my previous blogs. I've also started watching some of Jared Tendler's videos on Stoxpoker with regard to working on my mental game (and reading his posts). As I've said before - I feel like elements of my mental and emotional approach to poker are seriously retarding my growth and progress as a player.

That said, I've been thinking a lot about the role of the ego in poker. From a buddhist perspective, the ego looks to separate itself from others, but since we are all connected, this is unnatural and causes distress. I'm having problems thinking about poker from this perspective.

I play poker because I enjoy it and it's a source of income. Thus, my poker goals are to be able to bring in a certain amount of money every year. In order for me to do this, someone else must lose that money. At the end of the year, there are winners and losers. Poker sites also make money, and thus the net sum is zero. Everyone that wants to play wants to win, so there are those that succeed and those that fail.

That said, I'm having problems seeing how we are all connected when we are playing at the tables or how to view the other players from that perspective. We describe the other players as opponents, villains, etc thus further creating a separation between us and them. How do we bridge this gap and what would the upside to this be for me at the tables?