That’s the title of my first poker psychology article. You can read it and about 200 others at cardplayer.com. I’ve also published articles in other places, 30 videos, and nineteen books about the psychology of poker, negotiating, selling, career strategy, adjusting to college, and other subjects. Many of my publications discussed the dangers of arrogance.
A recent tweet reminded me of that old article.
“At 24 I quit my 5 figure job as a college grad and booked a one-way ticket to borgata to become a poker pro.
“I don’t know how to play the game yet and figure almighty stack is a good place to learn.”
Apparently, almighty stack had started a thread, “the greatest in the world.”
That young man’s arrogance blinded him to reality. A sensible person would know that he can’t quickly and easily learn enough to succeed as a pro.
He reminded me of my own youthful arrogance. Because I had won steadily when I was in the marines, I dropped out of college and drove to California to become a pro. I had the good luck to go broke quickly.
I’m very serious. You may think it’s bad luck to go broke, but it forced me to take a hard look at myself, accept that I wasn’t good enough, go back to college, and earn a psychology Ph.D. If I hadn’t gone broke, I might now be a pathetic grinder, struggling to survive.
POKER IS A GREAT TEACHER FOR COMPETITORS
If you keep your mind open, poker will quickly teach you lessons that will help you to succeed in business, a profession, and many other competitions, including the classic competition for mates.
David Sklansky and I discussed some of those lessons in our book, DUCY? I reported others in Business Is A Poker Game. One of poker’s best lessons is: Your most important decision is game selection.
If you pick the right games, you win. If you pick the wrong ones, you lose. But arrogance prevents many players from learning that lesson. They can beat small games, but go broke again and again in larger ones.
It’s not just the size of the games. It’s your opponents’ skills, styles, strengths, and weaknesses. Las Vegas is “The graveyard of hometown champions.” They’re the best players in their hometowns, but the Las Vegas games are too tough for them. They often think, “I was just unlucky.” They come here again and again, but most of them can’t survive.
Daniel Negreanu is a perfect example of how a rational player reacts to going broke. He admitted in Card Player that he repeatedly came here and got busted. Instead of blaming bad luck, he analyzed his mistakes, fixed his game, and made millions.
Countless lawyers, doctors, accountants, and other professionals never learn that lesson. They could be highly respected in small towns, but go broke or have mediocre careers in big cities. The competition is too tough.
The same thing happens to businesses. If they challenge the wrong firms or compete in the wrong way, they fail. If they unemotionally analyze the market and compete against the right companies in the right way, they succeed.
Sexual competitions have the same pattern. Some men and women don’t objectively analyze their competition and their own attractiveness. They try for mates who are out of their class and don’t adjust their strategy. They strike out again and again. Many of them never learn, and they live lonely lives.
MANY POKER PROS FAIL BECAUSE OF SHORT BANKROLLS
Several authorities have written guidelines for the minimum bankroll needed to survive as a pro in various games, but some arrogant players think those guidelines don’t apply to them. They believe, “Other pros may need that much, but I’m so good that I need much less.” Unfortunately, since losing streaks are almost inevitable, pros need large bankrolls. If they have short ones, they’re gone.
The same arrogance causes countless business failures. When I taught in Carnegie-Mellon’s graduate business school, I often read that insufficient capital is a common cause for new business failures. Many people who started businesses had read the warnings about undercapitalization, but – like the poker pro wannabes – they thought, “I’m so good that those rules don’t apply to me.”
TOO MANY POKER PROS DIE BROKE
They may be great players, but they can’t accept that others are even better. Here’s an excerpt from my article, “Why Do So Many Poker Pros Die Broke?”
“Most of the specific causes discussed here have one common factor: arrogance. Self-confidence is essential for a pro, but you shouldn’t believe, ‘I’m too special to die broke.’
“No, you’re not. You’re just another talented player, and it’s happened to many talented players. Are you more talented than Johnny Moss, Stu Ungar, Devilfish Ulliot, and Gavin Smith? …
“Johnny won the first two WSOP championships, but he ended up dependent on the Binions’ charity. Stu was history’s greatest no-limit tournament player, but he died in a crummy motel. He was a junkie, but drugs weren’t the only cause for his tragic ending. Devilfish and Gavin won millions in tournaments and cash games, but Phil Hellmuth and other pros are running charity tournaments to help their families.”
Arrogance about the effects of getting old is a major reason for going broke. Aging damages short-term memory and thinking speed, and poker demands both. They may have been great players once, but aging affects everyone. Because they can’t accept that fact, they believe they can still beat the big games. If they accepted reality and moved to smaller games, they could keep winning, but they are too arrogant to move down. So they go broke.
It’s as if Michael Jordan tried to come back to the NBA. He was among the greatest of all time, but he’s not good enough to play there today.
NOBODY IS INVULNERABLE
No matter how successful you are, if you’re too arrogant, you can go broke or worse. For many years I worked on Wall Street, teaching selling and negotiating psychology. Several extremely rich people, including a few of my clients, ended up broke or in prison.
The best example was Mike Milken, “The Junk Bond King.” He made over $500 million in one year, and he thought he could do whatever he wanted. He broke many laws, was fined $600 million, and went to prison. Many other rich people – both on and off Wall Street – felt the same way and destroyed themselves.
ARROGANCE ABOUT YOUR HEALTH CAN KILL YOU
Poker pros, Wall Street wizards, and many other people aren’t just arrogant about their skills and sexual attractiveness. They may be foolishly arrogant about their health.
Everybody should know that smoking kills, but millions of people smoke. Our doctors tell us that being overweight shortens our lives, but about two-thirds of all American adults are overweight. It’s the same arrogance that causes the other failures, “Those rules don’t apply to me.”
Ignoring the rules about health is extraordinarily arrogant and stupid. You can recover from going broke, but death is forever.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Arrogance is a problem for almost everyone, including you and me. We want to believe that we’re special, that we can ignore the rules that apply to other people, and still lead long, successful lives.
The sad fact is that we can’t ignore those rules because we’re not that special. No matter how much we dislike those rules, we must follow them or destroy ourselves.
Let’s make it really simple and easy to remember: Our ego is our enemy. Protecting it causes costly, even deadly, mistakes.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Arrogance is a problem for almost everyone, including you and me. We want to believe that we’re special, that we can ignore the rules that apply to other people, and still lead long, successful lives.
The sad fact is that we can’t ignore those rules because we’re not that special. No matter how much we dislike those rules, we must follow them or destroy ourselves.
Let’s make it really simple and easy to remember: Our ego is our enemy. Protecting it causes costly, even deadly, mistakes.
Dr. Al Schoonmaker
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