I receive a lot of emails from the members of these websites and believe me, I am glad to get them. The one recurrent theme my regular readers want to know has to do with the advice and strategy I give them on gambling. They want to know, for example, if I follow my own advice.
The answer is - you bet I do!
I worked as a staff writer for Card Player Magazine published out of Las Vegas, back in the days when June and Phil Fields published it. We had a lot of top poker players who wrote columns or contributed articles to our publication. While most of the stories were pretty good, I noticed something that bothered me.
Most of the writers didn't mind talking about their backgrounds, where they were born or grew up, and how they got into playing poker or whatever the game was that they were writing about. But, when it came to revealing their deep secrets on HOW they beat their opponents...
...the writing fell off.
Oh, they were good on generalities. No problem there. But they were reluctant to give up the real information that would help our readers shift the advantage in their direction.
I don't do that. I never have and I never will.
Doyle Brunson, bless his heart, didn't do it either. In his book 'Super System' and the other books he has published, Doyle went right to the race and exposed his hole cards. He told you what it took to make you into a winning poker player. His friends were aghast!
Doyle, they sputtered, you're going to turn yourself into a loser! People will take this information and use it against you. They called him an idiot and other worse names (behind his back, of course).
Brunson's response?
"I am a poker player. I know my game and it's constantly changing. When they catch up to me, I'll just change it. I have a lot of moves the world hasn't seen yet."
Now, that is the mark of a true champion.
I have been writing for LATESTPOKERBONUSES and LATESTCASINOBONUSES for more than three years. Readers who are on losing streaks have written to me pleading for help on how to get them back on a winning track.
The answer to that is easy: STOP playing for a while. Go on vacation.
You know...
...it's really sad for me to return to Las Vegas, one of my favorite cities in the world. I see old friends, fellow poker players who live there. They look older, they have lost weight, and their faces are sickly pale from all the time they have spent in those air-conditioned casinos without clocks or windows.
It is pretty obvious to me they don't spend much time in the sun. They are gamblers, and they are slaves to their addictions.
A while back, not very long ago, I found myself caught up in a losing streak. Lordy, Lordy, I was losing my confidence. I tried various solutions and nothing worked. I was still losing, even at my favorite games. So I followed my own advice.
I took a vacation.
I began spending more time with my lovely daughter Rossana and her boy friend Ken. I started hanging out at the library in Charleston, S.C. where we live, and became friendly with the librarians. They are really nice people.
I am an avid reader and I read even more books -- biographies, autobiographies, books on politics or about celebrities, books on gambling.
I spent a month doing that and then I was ready to return to the green felt jungle. The first day I was back, I won $500!
I did even better the second day. I found myself excited about the game once again, and I knew my fellow players couldn't beat me because I was fresh and they weren't.
Vacations pay off. Take one. You'll see what I mean.
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 ).
