Gray Matters-The All-In Molecule
Date: Mon, Feb 18, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
If you are on a diet, and seconds is your favorite meal, it’s because the limbic “I want it now” dinosaur brain overrides the Analytical 21st Century “Wait and see” play-it-safe patient reward switch.
Think about the cost of doing something and it’s analytical. Enjoy the feeling of risk, it’s limbic. The money-making potential of this idea in your game should not be underestimated. Your bankroll increases when the left brain gets good at telling the right brain what to do. If you can name your demon, you have a chance to banish it. What motivates you to call or fold, or go all in—fear, or disgust? What inspires you-- the desire to gain something new and exciting—or maybe you just have the stone cold nuts?
Analysis is Paralysis-Think Long .Think Wrong.
Hell is other people, and you usually meet them at a limit table! I spent a year there this weekend. It was three card no foldem holdem. Every hand went to showdown. Almost every pot was a family one, and the size of them were huge. After a while, it was just pushing around chips. I lost interest.
Are Girls Wired To Lose?
Date: Sun, Feb 17, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
"In the poker game of life women are the rake."
In the Hard to make this stuff up department ---The Speed of Trust
We don’t face a global warming crisis as much as an Oxy one. Oxytocin increases trust in humans. It is an opiate-like hormone, the elixir of contentment, the body's own love potion and cuddle chemical. What the world needs now is.... the chemical roots of trust, sweet love, connection and commitment....Oxy,the anti-inflammatory, anti-stress hormone that travels at at a rate of 250 MILES AN HOUR to your brain.
I wrote about DOPEamine and norepinephrine, the neurochemicals of romantic love: The sex of poker. Oxy on the other hand, is the chemical of committed love: The leaks in our poker game.
Oxy surges during breastfeeding, childbirth, sex, cuddling , mother-infant bonding and falling in love; whirlwind courtships which lasts about 14 month. Oxytocin is a molecule produced naturally in the hypothalamus area of th
e brain which regulates a variety of physiological processes, including emotion.
The link between oxy and trust and generosity is so strong, that you would be advised to play cards with as many people who are "on" the stuff. "Calling Stations", "Fish" and "Flounders" might just be OXY Positive. The Devil didn't make them do it, their Brain (oxy) did! A true competitor not only wants to win, that's not enough, you have to lose. S/he has to have a mean streak in them. If you are "high" on Oxy , you are more likely to trust other people with your chips and play loose.
Oxytocin Lite On Tap? Hugs are drugs-Oxy
Women's blood levels for oxytocin after "warm contact" go up,. Even shaking hands can release oxy! starting things off right at the table with a rush of hormones. "How can I get more/less of it?" Accupuncture stimulates oxy, Viagra boosts oxytocin, and of course we can add smooching to the list of "natural" ways to spike Oxy.
"Oh yea Meg, according to The Rough Guide to the Brain, sleeping with someone early on can INCREASE your chances of a long-term relationship. That Oxy thing you know."
One of the biggest trends we are seeing emerge from Internet Poker is the acceptance of messiness versus perfection. In the live cash games we collected experience . In the digital, we canvas. The live world is technique : the digital, "social". Today's poker is whatever you can get away with!
The mess is the message---and that's ok. We get to treat our game , as an unfinished prototype. It doesn’t know everything. Where we are at---Right Here. Right Now.---is the point of power, the starter kit for Generation CASH.
Annette 15_Obrestad's huge success. is a mashup of old school and Earth School. As we know the earth school kills all of its students--It will be interesting to see how long she maintains her level of play. Read my post:
First in” Vigorish is Annette_15’s Gibberish. The Fifth Beatle-- Norwegian Wood=Knowing She Would.
First in vigorish is Dan Harrington’s concept. Being the first player to bet, "creates" the edge of being the first to put your chips into the middle of a pot. OK.
Sklansky’s old school calls it The Gap Concept ---“you need a better hand to call a raise with than you would need to open the betting yourself”. Sure.
Obrestad's WMD’s--Weapons of Mass Distraction --- Thinking like a marine, it's asymmetrical crazy delicious Davey and Goliath warfare--get em scared and then keep the scare on em. Exponentially scared 10x- win without fighting. Is there a poker generational gap? Mos Def.
Annette_15 vs The Alphabet A to Z Poker Soup World
On September 17, 2007 many of us realized that the rules of September 16, 2007 were no longer valid. It is like 9/11 epiphany. The rules have changed. It's a version of not fighting fair, attacking "by the book"holdem concepts--- American Poker strengths--- and using them as a weakness. The threat level has been raised to Code Marshmallow!
Action Dan says "Let Position rather than bet size do the work for you". Sure, but last in money has tournament players thinking about opportunity cost of making it to the money instead of sunken cost of "Pot Committed" money already paid and that you can’t get back.
That is to say, the costs of doing anything is that you’re NOT doing something else instead---like calling last in money. It has exactly the same size effect on your chip stack as “real” costs, but it's much harder to see.
Ok Class, here is ABC By The Book Poker- A is for aces...
Playing by the strategy of the last war, The Powell Doctrine-- Go big or go home! The West vs. the Rest! will get you stuck in Vietnam. The T J Cloutier Doctrine-Aces are the only hand big enough to go broke with in the early stages of a tournament will send you home broke! The Power Of New Americon Poker knows-- No other card has this flexibility that the ace has... to go broke.
Top Three Old School Concepts To Re-Think
Basically, Opponents can be divided into two types ---those that play like Sklansky, Gordon, and Harrington, and those that don't. Guess who does the dividing?
M Factor---there is no survival stage.
Gap Concept---your cards are immaterial more often than not.
First In--- hands of value are based on 1-2-3- 1,your position, 2,your chip stack, and 3, the players you are confronting.
First in Redux---
First in the pot is the old school idea of taking pots down pre-flop or pre-turn using stack pressure. Especially when a tournament is in the money stage. Today, Playahs may go into the game with a larger bank and better cards, they will lose in the long run to the Ballas, who are last in.
This can happen heads up in cash games too. NLH is a game of position, and not only being last to act but also this immediately shows the importance of making a play that leaves you last in.
Phil Ivey did it back in 2005 in Monte Carlo. It can backfire too, if you are playing against Stu Unger, who called Mansour Matloubi's all -in bluff.
Are Girls Wired To Lose?
Date: Sun, Feb 17, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
"In the poker game of life women are the rake." In the Hard to make this stuff up department ---The Speed of Trust
We don’t face a global warming crisis as much as an Oxy one. Oxytocin increases trust in humans. It is an opiate-like hormone, the elixir of contentment, the body's own love potion and cuddle chemical. What the world needs now is.... the chemical roots of trust, sweet love, connection and commitment....Oxy,the anti-inflammatory, anti-stress hormone that travels at at a rate of 250 MILES AN HOUR to your brain.
I wrote about DOPEamine and norepinephrine, the neurochemicals of romantic love: The sex of poker. Oxy on the other hand, is the chemical of committed love: The leaks in our poker game.
Oxy surges during breastfeeding, childbirth, sex, cuddling , mother-infant bonding and falling in love; whirlwind courtships which lasts about 14 month. Oxytocin is a molecule produced naturally in the hypothalamus area of th
e brain which regulates a variety of physiological processes, including emotion.The link between oxy and trust and generosity is so strong, that you would be advised to play cards with as many people who are "on" the stuff. "Calling Stations", "Fish" and "Flounders" might just be OXY Positive. The Devil didn't make them do it, their Brain (oxy) did! A true competitor not only wants to win, that's not enough, you have to lose. S/he has to have a mean streak in them. If you are "high" on Oxy , you are more likely to trust other people with your chips and play loose.
Oxytocin Lite On Tap? Hugs are drugs-Oxy
Women's blood levels for oxytocin after "warm contact" go up,. Even shaking hands can release oxy! starting things off right at the table with a rush of hormones. "How can I get more/less of it?" Accupuncture stimulates oxy, Viagra boosts oxytocin, and of course we can add smooching to the list of "natural" ways to spike Oxy."Oh yea Meg, according to The Rough Guide to the Brain, sleeping with someone early on can INCREASE your chances of a long-term relationship. That Oxy thing you know."
One of the biggest trends we are seeing emerge from Internet Poker is the acceptance of messiness versus perfection. In the live cash games we collected experience . In the digital, we canvas. The live world is technique : the digital, "social". Today's poker is whatever you can get away with!
The mess is the message---and that's ok. We get to treat our game , as an unfinished prototype. It doesn’t know everything. Where we are at---Right Here. Right Now.---is the point of power, the starter kit for Generation CASH.
Annette 15_Obrestad's huge success. is a mashup of old school and Earth School. As we know the earth school kills all of its students--It will be interesting to see how long she maintains her level of play. Read my post:First in” Vigorish is Annette_15’s Gibberish. The Fifth Beatle-- Norwegian Wood=Knowing She Would.
First in vigorish is Dan Harrington’s concept. Being the first player to bet, "creates" the edge of being the first to put your chips into the middle of a pot. OK.
Sklansky’s old school calls it The Gap Concept ---“you need a better hand to call a raise with than you would need to open the betting yourself”. Sure.
Obrestad's WMD’s--Weapons of Mass Distraction --- Thinking like a marine, it's asymmetrical crazy delicious Davey and Goliath warfare--get em scared and then keep the scare on em. Exponentially scared 10x- win without fighting. Is there a poker generational gap? Mos Def.
Annette_15 vs The Alphabet A to Z Poker Soup World
On September 17, 2007 many of us realized that the rules of September 16, 2007 were no longer valid. It is like 9/11 epiphany. The rules have changed. It's a version of not fighting fair, attacking "by the book"holdem concepts--- American Poker strengths--- and using them as a weakness. The threat level has been raised to Code Marshmallow!
Action Dan says "Let Position rather than bet size do the work for you". Sure, but last in money has tournament players thinking about opportunity cost of making it to the money instead of sunken cost of "Pot Committed" money already paid and that you can’t get back.
That is to say, the costs of doing anything is that you’re NOT doing something else instead---like calling last in money. It has exactly the same size effect on your chip stack as “real” costs, but it's much harder to see.
Ok Class, here is ABC By The Book Poker- A is for aces...
Playing by the strategy of the last war, The Powell Doctrine-- Go big or go home! The West vs. the Rest! will get you stuck in Vietnam. The T J Cloutier Doctrine-Aces are the only hand big enough to go broke with in the early stages of a tournament will send you home broke! The Power Of New Americon Poker knows-- No other card has this flexibility that the ace has... to go broke.
Top Three Old School Concepts To Re-Think
Basically, Opponents can be divided into two types ---those that play like Sklansky, Gordon, and Harrington, and those that don't. Guess who does the dividing?
M Factor---there is no survival stage.
Gap Concept---your cards are immaterial more often than not.
First In--- hands of value are based on 1-2-3- 1,your position, 2,your chip stack, and 3, the players you are confronting.
First in Redux---
First in the pot is the old school idea of taking pots down pre-flop or pre-turn using stack pressure. Especially when a tournament is in the money stage. Today, Playahs may go into the game with a larger bank and better cards, they will lose in the long run to the Ballas, who are last in.
This can happen heads up in cash games too. NLH is a game of position, and not only being last to act but also this immediately shows the importance of making a play that leaves you last in.
Phil Ivey did it back in 2005 in Monte Carlo. It can backfire too, if you are playing against Stu Unger, who called Mansour Matloubi's all -in bluff.
When Bad Things Happen To Nice Starting Hands
Date: Sat, Feb 16, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
People began talking "Remember the plus 45 minutes rule". I started driving extra early for the next few week. I was worried about traffic jams, and allowed myself extra time. This "rule" has continued throughout my years as a driver in the badlands of Southern California, as "The Pursuit of Happiness" LA TV media coverage of high-speed chases turns zeros into heros, and the freeways into abortions. And this opinion--- the 45 minute rule-- wasn't even mine! but heard/herd mentality This crucial concept in behavioral finance is a bias known as "conservatism," which is the natural reluctance to change an opinion, even when confronted with data that suggest you should. They still have the chases . They tend to be like mini- instant- temporary reality shows, and don't go over the top, like the Simpson White Bronco media circus variety. All this "behavior" of being fooled by randomness, even though the roads weren’t any more or less dangerous, not to mention how rare a large-impact type OJ event occurs, but make no mistake about it, they do occur---the law of large numbers says someone is going to win the lottery, and, some celebrity is going to try to outrun the highway patrol. The concept, know as anchoring in behavioral finance--- the tendency to attach or "anchor" our thoughts to a reference point (that OJ Bronco Chase) - even though it may have no logical relevance to the decision at hand---is how I have been treating AJ for years. I always seem to have the best of it pre flop, and some donkey calls and sucks out. 
There's Big Slick, AK, Big Chick AQ, Then there's Ace Jack, Napoleon, who suffers from the "Short Man's Complex"
I have a nickname for Ace Jack, AJ--- Jack Ass. because I donk off all my money with it, and feel like one.
Ace Jack is also known as Slick Willy-The Bill Clinton. I don't know why, ask Monica or Hillary, oh that's right a Head of State supposed to have a head, never mind...
Ace Jack is my Monica, and like Bill Clinton, I too admit to having an "inappropriate relationship" with Ace Jack! It keeps screwing me out of money. Not any
more, now that I have the secret-- Not, the movie-The Secret- that is about the law of attraction and results.
The secret of poker is about making good decisions. The way to get better is to think about process not results—focus on better decision making and ignoring short term results.
The Neuroeconomics of Real-Time Risk verses Imagined
Car Accidents and high-speed chases can reak havoc on the freeway. I remember LA’s concrete jungle, the 405, the four-oh-five, right by LAX and Wilshire Blvd . It was June 17, 1994, Friday, in Los Angeles, the day it became the world’s largest parking lot.
My Ford Mustang Convertible was all revved up, top down, with nowhere to go. It turned out to be a high-speed chase- the OJ Simpson -Al Cowlings White Bronco thing, an undirected, unpredicted Black Swan event.
The 3 second rule gets usurped by L.A.'s 45 minute One.
You have heard about the three second rule, regarding food that hits the ground, you have three seconds to eat it before it becomes contaminated. Unless of course you are in my condo-I eat my meals over the sink and have the three-hour-bachelor-slob rule! (100 man points!)
Worried if a freeway chase will be covered by the media, a code 10-22, I always looked up in the sky to see and hear a Newscoptor as a predictor. It's been my dipstick for determining if this has now become a newsworthy event. It might be an irrelevant reference point, but this, along with the "45" rule is where I have stood on driving in LA.
Last year, on my way to the Bicycle Casino, however, I threw caution to the wind, as I beat rush hour traffic, and made it from Santa Monica to Bell Gardens in a record 35 minutes time,without the 45 minute cushion ---- I was back to my same pedal-to-the-metal-driving habits, and forgot about the OJ Bronco rule. I finally broke free of its impact on my drive time.
My mental accounting anchor of AJ=Bad Beat. Under mental accounting, I live a personal "storyline " concerning my history with each an every AJ I have ever played , not unlike having a personal Monica relationship with each AJ because I cannot get it through my thick skull that the loses-they are imaginary. It is not about winning or losing. It is about exceling.
A behavioral game theory approach realizes that anyone can get lucky 100% of the time, and, more than that, realize that, good play will have bad beats.
Behavioral Game theory is the more ‘down-to-earth’ approach dealing with one case at a time, especially when Lift Ticket plays with ATC, any two cards- if they don’t know what they’re doing how can you!
The hand that has the highest potential must be a hand that gets played in different ways and in different situations. It's going to be somewhere between the hands that are rarely folded, and the hands that are rarely played. Ace Jack Heads Up is almost never folded before the flop, so we know AJ cannot be the most profitable hand. So keep that in perspective.
Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time. Therefore: Stop Waiting For “Better Spots” To Get Your Money In! Pick a favorite hand--commit your attention to it and play it strong.
If you don’t have attention, you don’t have time, and if you don't have time-er, well time is money. Can't play poker without money.
When Bad Things Happen To Nice Starting Hands
Date: Sat, Feb 16, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
People began talking "Remember the plus 45 minutes rule". I started driving extra early for the next few week. I was worried about traffic jams, and allowed myself extra time. This "rule" has continued throughout my years as a driver in the badlands of Southern California, as "The Pursuit of Happiness" LA TV media coverage of high-speed chases turns zeros into heros, and the freeways into abortions. And this opinion--- the 45 minute rule-- wasn't even mine! but heard/herd mentality This crucial concept in behavioral finance is a bias known as "conservatism," which is the natural reluctance to change an opinion, even when confronted with data that suggest you should. They still have the chases . They tend to be like mini- instant- temporary reality shows, and don't go over the top, like the Simpson White Bronco media circus variety. All this "behavior" of being fooled by randomness, even though the roads weren’t any more or less dangerous, not to mention how rare a large-impact type OJ event occurs, but make no mistake about it, they do occur---the law of large numbers says someone is going to win the lottery, and, some celebrity is going to try to outrun the highway patrol. The concept, know as anchoring in behavioral finance--- the tendency to attach or "anchor" our thoughts to a reference point (that OJ Bronco Chase) - even though it may have no logical relevance to the decision at hand---is how I have been treating AJ for years. I always seem to have the best of it pre flop, and some donkey calls and sucks out. My mental accounting anchor of AJ=Bad Beat. Under mental accounting, I live a personal "storyline " concerning my history with each an every AJ I have ever played , not unlike having a personal Monica relationship with each AJ because I cannot get it through my thick skull that the loses-they are imaginary. It is not about winning or losing. It is about exceling.
There's Big Slick, AK, Big Chick AQ, Then there's Ace Jack, Napoleon, who suffers from the "Short Man's Complex"
I have a nickname for Ace Jack, AJ--- Jack Ass. because I donk off all my money with it, and feel like one.
Ace Jack is also known as Slick Willy-The Bill Clinton. I don't know why, ask Monica or Hillary, oh that's right a Head of State supposed to have a head, never mind...
Ace Jack is my Monica, and like Bill Clinton, I too admit to having an "inappropriate relationship" with Ace Jack! It keeps screwing me out of money. Not anymore, now that I have the secret-- Not, the movie-The Secret- that is about the law of attraction and results.
The secret of poker is about making good decisions. The way to get better is to think about process not results—focus on better decision making and ignoring short term results.
The Neuroeconomics of Real-Time Risk verses Imagined
Car Accidents and high-speed chases can reak havoc on the freeway. I remember LA’s concrete jungle, the 405, the four-oh-five, right by LAX and Wilshire Blvd . It was June 17, 1994, Friday, in Los Angeles, the day it became the world’s largest parking lot.
My Ford Mustang Convertible was all revved up, top down, with nowhere to go. It turned out to be a high-speed chase- the OJ Simpson -Al Cowlings White Bronco thing, an undirected, unpredicted Black Swan event.
The 3 second rule gets usurped by L.A.'s 45 minute One.You have heard about the three second rule, regarding food that hits the ground, you have three seconds to eat it before it becomes contaminated. Unless of course you are in my condo-I eat my meals over the sink and have the three-hour-bachelor-slob rule! (100 man points!)
Worried if a freeway chase will be covered by the media, a code 10-22, I always looked up in the sky to see and hear a Newscoptor as a predictor. It's been my dipstick for determining if this has now become a newsworthy event. It might be an irrelevant reference point, but this, along with the "45" rule is where I have stood on driving in LA.
Last year, on my way to the Bicycle Casino, however, I threw caution to the wind, as I beat rush hour traffic, and made it from Santa Monica to Bell Gardens in a record 35 minutes time,without the 45 minute cushion ---- I was back to my same pedal-to-the-metal-driving habits, and forgot about the OJ Bronco rule. I finally broke free of its impact on my drive time.
Where Attention Goes, Chips Flow
A behavioral game theory approach realizes that anyone can get lucky 100% of the time, and, more than that, realize that, good play will have bad beats.
Behavioral Game theory is the more ‘down-to-earth’ approach dealing with one case at a time, especially when Lift Ticket plays with ATC, any two cards- if they don’t know what they’re doing how can you!
The hand that has the highest potential must be a hand that gets played in different ways and in different situations. It's going to be somewhere between the hands that are rarely folded, and the hands that are rarely played. Ace Jack Heads Up is almost never folded before the flop, so we know AJ cannot be the most profitable hand. So keep that in perspective.
Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time. Therefore: Stop Waiting For “Better Spots” To Get Your Money In! Pick a favorite hand--commit your attention to it and play it strong.
If you don’t have attention, you don’t have time, and if you don't have time-er, well time is money. Can't play poker without money.
Send The Bread To Fred (Flintstone)--Stone Ager Poker
Date: Fri, Feb 15, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
...so easy even a caveman can do it.
The biology of fear for Homo Economicus is about running away from saber tooth tigers, and trying to live past your twentieth birthday. That impulse to avoid lose is so strong.There is a little piece of neanderthal in everyone's game that responds primitively to certain poker situations.
Caveman Fred has been hard-wired by evolution to have a malignant optimism and bullish outlook on things. Fred suffers from an incorrect interpretation of statistics (Gamblers Fallacy). Fred also has an irrational tendency to be less willing to gamble with profits than with losses (lose-averse) and even experiences more pain with a lose than pleasure from a gain (Prospect Theory); choosing a small reward that arrives soon as opposed to a larger reward that arrives later (risk-averse). The future is uncertain.Why wait?
Under the influence of powerful Flintstone emotions and drives, players often end up doing the opposite of what they think is best for themselves, even at the moment of acting. No matter how much we evolve as players, we're still capable of going "Yabadabadoo"!
Put pressure on our Fred —and he responds -- with a rush of adrenaline and the urge to fight or flee. Those survival impulses are hardwired into the oldest layers of all of our brains. Emotions like these can damage our game not to mention devastate our bankroll . When we give in to our old-brain reflexes, we'll probably regret it.
When we feel under attack, we experience a visceral response that may lead us down the primitive path. If we feel shamed, we may withdraw, like the caveman taking flight.(fold) If we feel angry, we might lash out and fight.(Call/Go over the top all-in with marginal holdings).
All behavioral biases have some evolutionary reasons for existing and it's very tough to overcome those deep-rooted impulses! So here’s the Neural Poker Challange--- we have two systems for reacting to risk–a primitive intuitive system and a more advanced analytic system–and they’re operating in parallel. And it’s hard for the neocortex to contradict the amygdala.
Bamm! Bamm! Beat- you -over -the- head- with -a -club- poker is motivated by
"red" emotions -- anger, fear, greed – and by "green" ones --confidence and enthusiasm. Its not a question of if, but when, will our greens and reds light up our game.
The empathy gap is the difference between how we behave in "hot'' states---those of anxiety, courage, fear; and ''cold'' states of even-keeled calm. Our empathy gap impacts our thoughts and behaviors to the point where we cannot seem to predict how we will behave in a hot state when we are in a cold state.
Putting the Odds back into God
You're feeling on edge, but is the fear nothing to fear but devolutionary fear itself? Have you felt this way before? How intense is the feeling? Understanding the f.e.a.r., the false information appearing as real. It is key to getting control. After all, nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists, Herein lies the peace of God
Identify the cause of the feeling. What is the source of it? Trace the feeling back to its source. Explore a way out by feeling the fear and doing anyway---that's where your game expands
I dared to do something different and my poker game grew larger. For me, it was Monday's Fulltilt- Stu Unger- three -barrel- stone -cold bluff I pulled off. It was energizing, a peak experiences much like I had as a track athlete at Comsewogue High School.
I lose money frequently, but in small amounts, and make money rarely, but in large amounts. I am a crisis hunter. You can't avoid crisis in NLH, you must be in a perpetual one that you create. Get lucky or bluff was the selective aggression I used, and poker rewards not only infinite patience, but selective aggression.
Give Yourself A Poker Lobotomy
It's not so much about "counting your outs" and "folding AK in a raise, re-raised pot"-- that cause-effect relationship stuff. It's more about the anti-neuro-poker game--situations. A collection of situations you haven't played yet; of the things you don't know. there is a massive collection of unknowledge,the anti-hands that contain all the hands that may still change your poker life.
The Sex Of Poker logic makes what you don't know far more relevant than what you do know. I considered that many of my Jackpots and big hands were caused and accelerated by their being unexpected.---of me being an anti-gambler. The upshot is that:knowledge leads to action but lack of knowledge can also lead to action.
The “Open Source” world that everybody is smarter than anybody, this is the NEW Herd mentality. WSOP Survivorship Bias-We see the winners who cash and learn from them, while forgetting the huge unseen herd of railbirds -losers. who were making all the right mistakes.
A poker game is not static. It's a dynamic, living organism that changes from moment to moment. You have to respond to those changes. You have to be the change you want to see . . In the RW(Real World) change is seen as some “thing” built to last. Would you rather have a TEMPORARY change to your game that lasts as long as it is useful, or rather a LASTING change that continues to last far beyond any limits of usefulness.
Players underestimate, on average, the probability and impact of improbable events. Going completely broke is consistently unexpected, but highly likelyin cash games. Buying into a poker game , unlike buying a car, is a gamble that the future will represent an improved version of the past. And who knows whether that will be true?
Nevertheless, when it comes to NLH, what you don’t know is far more relevant than what you do know. Consider that many huge hands can be caused and sped up by their being unexpected, that case eight on the river for a suck out, a four card flush free roll.
Send The Bread To Fred (Flintstone)--Stone Ager Poker
Date: Fri, Feb 15, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
...so easy even a caveman can do it.
The biology of fear for Homo Economicus is about running away from saber tooth tigers, and trying to live past your twentieth birthday. That impulse to avoid lose is so strong.There is a little piece of neanderthal in everyone's game that responds primitively to certain poker situations.
Caveman Fred has been hard-wired by evolution to have a malignant optimism and bullish outlook on things. Fred suffers from an incorrect interpretation of statistics (Gamblers Fallacy). Fred also has an irrational tendency to be less willing to gamble with profits than with losses (lose-averse) and even experiences more pain with a lose than pleasure from a gain (Prospect Theory); choosing a small reward that arrives soon as opposed to a larger reward that arrives later (risk-averse). The future is uncertain.Why wait?
Under the influence of powerful Flintstone emotions and drives, players often end up doing the opposite of what they think is best for themselves, even at the moment of acting. No matter how much we evolve as players, we're still capable of going "Yabadabadoo"!
Put pressure on our Fred —and he responds -- with a rush of adrenaline and the urge to fight or flee. Those survival impulses are hardwired into the oldest layers of all of our brains. Emotions like these can damage our game not to mention devastate our bankroll . When we give in to our old-brain reflexes, we'll probably regret it.
When we feel under attack, we experience a visceral response that may lead us down the primitive path. If we feel shamed, we may withdraw, like the caveman taking flight.(fold) If we feel angry, we might lash out and fight.(Call/Go over the top all-in with marginal holdings).
All behavioral biases have some evolutionary reasons for existing and it's very tough to overcome those deep-rooted impulses! So here’s the Neural Poker Challange--- we have two systems for reacting to risk–a primitive intuitive system and a more advanced analytic system–and they’re operating in parallel. And it’s hard for the neocortex to contradict the amygdala.
Bamm! Bamm! Beat- you -over -the- head- with -a -club- poker is motivated by "red" emotions -- anger, fear, greed – and by "green" ones --confidence and enthusiasm. Its not a question of if, but when, will our greens and reds light up our game.
The empathy gap is the difference between how we behave in "hot'' states---those of anxiety, courage, fear; and ''cold'' states of even-keeled calm. Our empathy gap impacts our thoughts and behaviors to the point where we cannot seem to predict how we will behave in a hot state when we are in a cold state.
Putting the Odds back into God
You're feeling on edge, but is the fear nothing to fear but devolutionary fear itself? Have you felt this way before? How intense is the feeling? Understanding the f.e.a.r., the false information appearing as real. It is key to getting control. After all, nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists, Herein lies the peace of God
Identify the cause of the feeling. What is the source of it? Trace the feeling back to its source. Explore a way out by feeling the fear and doing anyway---that's where your game expands
I dared to do something different and my poker game grew larger. For me, it was Monday's Fulltilt- Stu Unger- three -barrel- stone -cold bluff I pulled off. It was energizing, a peak experiences much like I had as a track athlete at Comsewogue High School.
I lose money frequently, but in small amounts, and make money rarely, but in large amounts. I am a crisis hunter. You can't avoid crisis in NLH, you must be in a perpetual one that you create. Get lucky or bluff was the selective aggression I used, and poker rewards not only infinite patience, but selective aggression.
Give Yourself A Poker LobotomyIt's not so much about "counting your outs" and "folding AK in a raise, re-raised pot"-- that cause-effect relationship stuff. It's more about the anti-neuro-poker game--situations. A collection of situations you haven't played yet; of the things you don't know. there is a massive collection of unknowledge,the anti-hands that contain all the hands that may still change your poker life.
The Sex Of Poker logic makes what you don't know far more relevant than what you do know. I considered that many of my Jackpots and big hands were caused and accelerated by their being unexpected.---of me being an anti-gambler. The upshot is that:knowledge leads to action but lack of knowledge can also lead to action.
The “Open Source” world that everybody is smarter than anybody, this is the NEW Herd mentality. WSOP Survivorship Bias-We see the winners who cash and learn from them, while forgetting the huge unseen herd of railbirds -losers. who were making all the right mistakes.
A poker game is not static. It's a dynamic, living organism that changes from moment to moment. You have to respond to those changes. You have to be the change you want to see . . In the RW(Real World) change is seen as some “thing” built to last. Would you rather have a TEMPORARY change to your game that lasts as long as it is useful, or rather a LASTING change that continues to last far beyond any limits of usefulness.
Players underestimate, on average, the probability and impact of improbable events. Going completely broke is consistently unexpected, but highly likelyin cash games. Buying into a poker game , unlike buying a car, is a gamble that the future will represent an improved version of the past. And who knows whether that will be true?
Nevertheless, when it comes to NLH, what you don’t know is far more relevant than what you do know. Consider that many huge hands can be caused and sped up by their being unexpected, that case eight on the river for a suck out, a four card flush free roll.
Poker’s Chemical Romance- DOPE-amine, The neuroeconomics of a good buzz
Date: Thu, Feb 14, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
Neurons that wire together fire together---Making money and then making money again is our chemical romance; the love drug Dopamine. It produces a “desire to continue”. Congratulations, you are wired to play poker. Happy Valentine’s Day.
What happens in your brain when your expectations are confirmed — or shattered by surprise. It's a steady flow of dopamine that makes the anticipation such a pleasure. Walking the painted line, tolerating low calculated risks, the safe choices,---it is impossible to settle for what everyone else gets---no matter how comfortable that would make you. The extraordinary opportunities lie in the leaps of faith, the uncalculating risks.
We might not realize it, but dopamine is our favorite neurotransmitter. The Sex of Poker reward circuit runs on Dopamine. It makes us pursue whatever we think will be rewarding. Life, liberty and the pursuit of a fast buck. "fits like a glove" with neuroimaging findings of alcoholics, and drug addicts. Let's cast a nice halo around poker, call it Yuppie bulemia, for the three C's: guy
s with Cash, Condos and Cars.
The Dopamine Power Diet—In Search of the “All-In” Button
NLH has the short-term effect of windfalls of buckets of luck. That generates a roller coaster ride of greed, invincibility and fantasy ---a flood of dopamine that signals to our bodies that something good has happened. It’s not the win, but the suggestion of it that generates pleasure in the brain, rewards anticipation. Now, for the first time, you can actually get inside the black box, when your game crashes with Neuroeconomics--making "emotional" decisions and their economic sigificance. Brain scientists , who with Hotel Anyware's help, will be the writing the new Super System and (behavioral)Theory of Poker.
Shift Happens
When your third eye and your turd eye are at one—you start to believe your own sh*t, hooked on the belief that you are about to make mo’ money. This creates a midbrain mutiny between dopamine and serotonin. Like any addict, when the bad beat comes, you will go into a painful withdrawal. I think therefore I am—might need a re-write- I don’t know so maybe I’m not. It’s all chemical!
Thinking and feeling differently about lose-Whatever is going on in you is chemical. What could your neurons "want"? It's enigmatic, but basically they wants a jolt of serotonin, norepinephrine (adrenaline) and dopamine. If you can remember--you are never know how you have been, and maintain a malignent optimism, you can live to play another day. The hard thing about this is that it is so easy to do, because feelings are not true, they're feelings...nothing more than feelings.
Poker= f(dopamine flow); Money= happiness
"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy chips, which is kinda the same thing" Ed Reif, Wise and Otherwise,2007
Money is a means to an end. When you get money, you shouldn't experience immediate happiness. Brain research shows, however, that people get immediate pleasure and pain from winning and losing money.
Keep Dope alive. Play Poker. Go with the flow. Why do you think they call it DOPE-amine?
Dopamine is a swiss army knife that does a lot of jobs, but the thing Mr. Science notices most is that it regulates reward. When you win a hand of poker, it's a dopamine spike that's responsible for the thrill that follows. Drugs, legal and illegal-mimic the actions of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical which makes us feel elated; crystal meth is so addictive because it releases dopamine. More than that, The brain images of drug addicts who are about to take another hit are indistinguishable from those of poker players who are making money and about to play another showdown hand.
Getting what you deserve is boring. Having pocket AA, and raking a small pot, just won’t do it. There has to be risk and ambiguity. Don’t you feel more energized when you’re uncertain of the outcome of a hand. When you do a three barrel bluff, don’t you feel more alive, your heart jumping out of your chest, you sweat, your take that dry mouth swallow. I think that a subconscious desire to return to this state affects my game. I bluff too much because I want to experience the feeling I get at these moments…. when you get him to fold top pair, when a scare card is on the turn..This is poker at its finest: If you can think impossible thoughts, you can do impossible things.
If you had a normal “addiction” to, say, crack or sex-there are group therapies for that-but being addicted to “risk” in the poker culture just makes makes you a gambler. Is that so bad, you are wired to invest? Don't they call that arbitrage on Wall Street? Isn't gambling a fundamental brick in the foundation of economic and investment thinking.
So all this stuff about Steroids and baseball, what about brain boosting drugs and poker! I wrote about holdem’s off the wall player, me and my Big (Mike the) Mouth. Mike is America's first self confessed bipolar poker champ – a former speed addict, currently diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, Mike The Corporation is a black market wheeler-dealer, living in the underground economy of CASH. His street cred is good in Vegas--the money faucet runs on tap. He's bankable. Why, because he's now (legally)medicated (zoloft, depakote and ritalin)!
It's one thing to get a natural "runner's high" from the game; but actually ingesting brain-boosting performance inhancing substances to improve your mental focus, memory, recall and reduce fatigue? Wait a minute, where can I get some of those happy pills? It's all legal! Doping in cash and online poker, what's so ethical about this work ethic?
We are all aware that caffine is not a drug, but a vitamin for the long grueling tournament scene. Yet, we would all fail a WADA/IOC-administered drug test based on drinking as little as three cups! Congress is already hearing testimony about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act. I can see a day when the great poker doping scadal is exposed too!
No worries, they'll be a lot of Doctor's notes, with the ADD boutique diagnoisis, just like getting extra time on your SAT! to "accomodate" your poker (L)earning differences.
And now a PSA: If you're gonna get high, play cards-
"There isn't any question about it -- they made me a much better player," 
Paul Phillips, 35, who credited the attention deficit drug Adderall and the narcolepsy pill Provigil with helping him earn more than $2.3 million as a poker player.
Mike “The Mouth” Matusow from Stuff Magazine; May, 2006 Life or Meth-
" I began playing at a level I had never played at before. Every time someone played a hand differently than their norm, I sensed it. Every time someone showed a tell, I saw it.” see
Mike is Mike, working his mac, a whore with a heart of gold, so no judgments here.
Paul on the other hand, is a GUO, a great unlucky one: in order for Mr Phillips to make a small fortune in poker he needed to have a big one---and Paul is a dotcom gazillionaire to begin with. Too much respect for money makes you a bad poker player-That a makes Phillips a great one: He payed 10K x 26 WPT events-Of course eventually he cashed in some---even a broken clock is right twice. What is it about these faloney's who think they can play poker? Ka-ching.
Read my post on The Godfather of Poker-Doyle did "that thing with the thing bada bing-all-in" to Guy aka Moe Greene:
Doyle Brunson took Cirque du Soleil billionaire Guy Laliberté to clown college on High Stakes Poker---to say it was a circus, would be an insult to the bearded ladies, mimes and interpretive dancers. A moment of silence was in order as Guy was nearly drawing dead.
"As Major League Baseball struggles to rid itself of performance-enhancing drugs, people in a range of other fields are reaching for a variety of prescription pills to enhance what counts most in modern life." It begs the question--why is there no stigma attached to these other pursuits.
A Dose Of Genius-No Brain Is An Island
Poker players drug du jour is Adderall , the active ingredient being dextroamphetamine saccharate. You might recognize the root, amphetamine which is closely related to methamphetamine more commonly known as crystal meth, or speed!
Propanolol is a beta blocker, and epinephrine is a beta agonist. LSAT school test takers, concert musicians are eating them like Gummy Bears to bypass stress and butterflies. Why, to get an edge, a competitive edge. If somebody gave you a designer drug to improve your memory, would you try it? What are neuroethical consequences of brain doping?
Poker’s Chemical Romance- DOPE-amine, The neuroeconomics of a good buzz
Date: Thu, Feb 14, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
Neurons that wire together fire together---Making money and then making money again is our chemical romance; the love drug Dopamine. It produces a “desire to continue”. Congratulations, you are wired to play poker. Happy Valentine’s Day.
What happens in your brain when your expectations are confirmed — or shattered by surprise. It's a steady flow of dopamine that makes the anticipation such a pleasure. Walking the painted line, tolerating low calculated risks, the safe choices,---it is impossible to settle for what everyone else gets---no matter how comfortable that would make you. The extraordinary opportunities lie in the leaps of faith, the uncalculating risks.
We might not realize it, but dopamine is our favorite neurotransmitter. The Sex of Poker reward circuit runs on Dopamine. It makes us pursue whatever we think will be rewarding. Life, liberty and the pursuit of a fast buck. "fits like a glove" with neuroimaging findings of alcoholics, and drug addicts. Let's cast a nice halo around poker, call it Yuppie bulemia, for the three C's: guys with Cash, Condos and Cars.
The Dopamine Power Diet—In Search of the “All-In” Button
NLH has the short-term effect of windfalls of buckets of luck. That generates a roller coaster ride of greed, invincibility and fantasy ---a flood of dopamine that signals to our bodies that something good has happened. It’s not the win, but the suggestion of it that generates pleasure in the brain, rewards anticipation. Now, for the first time, you can actually get inside the black box, when your game crashes with Neuroeconomics--making "emotional" decisions and their economic sigificance. Brain scientists , who with Hotel Anyware's help, will be the writing the new Super System and (behavioral)Theory of Poker.
Shift Happens
When your third eye and your turd eye are at one—you start to believe your own sh*t, hooked on the belief that you are about to make mo’ money. This creates a midbrain mutiny between dopamine and serotonin. Like any addict, when the bad beat comes, you will go into a painful withdrawal. I think therefore I am—might need a re-write- I don’t know so maybe I’m not. It’s all chemical!
Thinking and feeling differently about lose-Whatever is going on in you is chemical. What could your neurons "want"? It's enigmatic, but basically they wants a jolt of serotonin, norepinephrine (adrenaline) and dopamine. If you can remember--you are never know how you have been, and maintain a malignent optimism, you can live to play another day. The hard thing about this is that it is so easy to do, because feelings are not true, they're feelings...nothing more than feelings.
Poker= f(dopamine flow); Money= happiness
"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy chips, which is kinda the same thing" Ed Reif, Wise and Otherwise,2007
Money is a means to an end. When you get money, you shouldn't experience immediate happiness. Brain research shows, however, that people get immediate pleasure and pain from winning and losing money.Keep Dope alive. Play Poker. Go with the flow. Why do you think they call it DOPE-amine?
Dopamine is a swiss army knife that does a lot of jobs, but the thing Mr. Science notices most is that it regulates reward. When you win a hand of poker, it's a dopamine spike that's responsible for the thrill that follows. Drugs, legal and illegal-mimic the actions of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical which makes us feel elated; crystal meth is so addictive because it releases dopamine. More than that, The brain images of drug addicts who are about to take another hit are indistinguishable from those of poker players who are making money and about to play another showdown hand.Getting what you deserve is boring. Having pocket AA, and raking a small pot, just won’t do it. There has to be risk and ambiguity. Don’t you feel more energized when you’re uncertain of the outcome of a hand. When you do a three barrel bluff, don’t you feel more alive, your heart jumping out of your chest, you sweat, your take that dry mouth swallow. I think that a subconscious desire to return to this state affects my game. I bluff too much because I want to experience the feeling I get at these moments…. when you get him to fold top pair, when a scare card is on the turn..This is poker at its finest: If you can think impossible thoughts, you can do impossible things.
If you had a normal “addiction” to, say, crack or sex-there are group therapies for that-but being addicted to “risk” in the poker culture just makes makes you a gambler. Is that so bad, you are wired to invest? Don't they call that arbitrage on Wall Street? Isn't gambling a fundamental brick in the foundation of economic and investment thinking.
So all this stuff about Steroids and baseball, what about brain boosting drugs and poker! I wrote about holdem’s off the wall player, me and my Big (Mike the) Mouth. Mike is America's first self confessed bipolar poker champ – a former speed addict, currently diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, Mike The Corporation is a black market wheeler-dealer, living in the underground economy of CASH. His street cred is good in Vegas--the money faucet runs on tap. He's bankable. Why, because he's now (legally)medicated (zoloft, depakote and ritalin)!
It's one thing to get a natural "runner's high" from the game; but actually ingesting brain-boosting performance inhancing substances to improve your mental focus, memory, recall and reduce fatigue? Wait a minute, where can I get some of those happy pills? It's all legal! Doping in cash and online poker, what's so ethical about this work ethic?
We are all aware that caffine is not a drug, but a vitamin for the long grueling tournament scene. Yet, we would all fail a WADA/IOC-administered drug test based on drinking as little as three cups! Congress is already hearing testimony about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act. I can see a day when the great poker doping scadal is exposed too!
No worries, they'll be a lot of Doctor's notes, with the ADD boutique diagnoisis, just like getting extra time on your SAT! to "accomodate" your poker (L)earning differences.
And now a PSA: If you're gonna get high, play cards-
"There isn't any question about it -- they made me a much better player," Paul Phillips, 35, who credited the attention deficit drug Adderall and the narcolepsy pill Provigil with helping him earn more than $2.3 million as a poker player.
Mike “The Mouth” Matusow from Stuff Magazine; May, 2006 Life or Meth-
" I began playing at a level I had never played at before. Every time someone played a hand differently than their norm, I sensed it. Every time someone showed a tell, I saw it.” see
Mike is Mike, working his mac, a whore with a heart of gold, so no judgments here.
Paul on the other hand, is a GUO, a great unlucky one: in order for Mr Phillips to make a small fortune in poker he needed to have a big one---and Paul is a dotcom gazillionaire to begin with. Too much respect for money makes you a bad poker player-That a makes Phillips a great one: He payed 10K x 26 WPT events-Of course eventually he cashed in some---even a broken clock is right twice. What is it about these faloney's who think they can play poker? Ka-ching.
Read my post on The Godfather of Poker-Doyle did "that thing with the thing bada bing-all-in" to Guy aka Moe Greene:
Doyle Brunson took Cirque du Soleil billionaire Guy Laliberté to clown college on High Stakes Poker---to say it was a circus, would be an insult to the bearded ladies, mimes and interpretive dancers. A moment of silence was in order as Guy was nearly drawing dead.
"As Major League Baseball struggles to rid itself of performance-enhancing drugs, people in a range of other fields are reaching for a variety of prescription pills to enhance what counts most in modern life." It begs the question--why is there no stigma attached to these other pursuits.
A Dose Of Genius-No Brain Is An Island
Poker players drug du jour is Adderall , the active ingredient being dextroamphetamine saccharate. You might recognize the root, amphetamine which is closely related to methamphetamine more commonly known as crystal meth, or speed!
Propanolol is a beta blocker, and epinephrine is a beta agonist. LSAT school test takers, concert musicians are eating them like Gummy Bears to bypass stress and butterflies. Why, to get an edge, a competitive edge. If somebody gave you a designer drug to improve your memory, would you try it? What are neuroethical consequences of brain doping?
Shopping While You’re Hungry and Playing Poker When You’re Broke: The Hail Mary Mistaken Agenda
Date: Wed, Feb 13, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
Pain For Sale: “My brain made me re-buy !”
It is impossible for us to learn what we think we already know. At some point in our game we realize the poker world is divided into two categories, JOES that learn something new everyday, and PROS that un-learn something everyday. Guess who does the dividing?
Playing Poker When You Are Broke: The Hail Mary Flutie's Miracle in Miami Mistaken Agenda raises the risk of getting nothing over the possibility of a windfall! Winning in this way also has a way of turning money into problems. See an episode of THS Investigates: Curse of the Lottery!
Been there. Done That. Rockstar Poker--When you lose, you lose money and when you win you lose the value of money. Allow me to sound like a thing from another tax bracket, and quote some proud members of the right wing conspiracy, “We rich are different. We know when to leave.” Think Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing? Most of those guys knew when to bail. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Most poker pigs end up making hogs of themselves. They never get disgruntled. You can never get enough of what you really don't want.
On the other hand, Poker is about living with and moving through ambiguity---The Biology of Fear: Fight or flight—doesn't allow for that. Guys like Warren Buffet have leapfrogged over this common inate weakness---the inability to stay in the scary situation to create a better future response. There’s an evolutionary advantage to being able to hold off the reflexive fight-or-flight response while you work out a more sophisticated analysis of the situation and your options for dealing with it.Your left Brain Knows the 60/40 end of a proposition--- when to hold em and when to fold em--- when you have some competitive advantage over somebody else is so money. Don’t bet, Don’t gamble, Don’t invest, unless you have some competitive advantage.
Poker is a game of partial information, and when you have a competitive advantage you have to take into account this and, more important, behavioral factors. Read my post: What You Think Is Right Is Wrong With Your Game---The power of mind over money is rooted in mental bias .
What we perceive as reality is only a canvas waiting for us to draw upon it any picture we want. Create a whole new set of beliefs that allow you to see from a WTF carefree state of mind, as well as a set of beliefs that always compel you to act with rational self interests. You want to reach a point where you’re playing without hesitating, very much like the way Eli Manning played the last minutes in The Big Game. 
There’s a saying, Biology is biography---the sum total of your “stress”ful thought creates your health/dis-ease situation—Ulcers, once badges of distinction of “Hard working” Fortune 500 executives, has begged the question, Why don’t Zebra’s get ulcers?Shopping While You’re Hungry and Playing Poker When You’re Broke: The Hail Mary Mistaken Agenda
Date: Wed, Feb 13, 2008 Professional Live Tournament
Pain For Sale: “My brain made me re-buy !”
It is impossible for us to learn what we think we already know. At some point in our game we realize the poker world is divided into two categories, JOES that learn something new everyday, and PROS that un-learn something everyday. Guess who does the dividing?
Playing Poker When You Are Broke: The Hail Mary Flutie's Miracle in Miami Mistaken Agenda raises the risk of getting nothing over the possibility of a windfall! Winning in this way also has a way of turning money into problems. See an episode of THS Investigates: Curse of the Lottery!
Been there. Done That. Rockstar Poker--When you lose, you lose money and when you win you lose the value of money. Allow me to sound like a thing from another tax bracket, and quote some proud members of the right wing conspiracy, “We rich are different. We know when to leave.” Think Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing? Most of those guys knew when to bail. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Most poker pigs end up making hogs of themselves. They never get disgruntled. You can never get enough of what you really don't want.
On the other hand, Poker is about living with and moving through ambiguity---The Biology of Fear: Fight or flight—doesn't allow for that. Guys like Warren Buffet have leapfrogged over this common inate weakness---the inability to stay in the scary situation to create a better future response. There’s an evolutionary advantage to being able to hold off the reflexive fight-or-flight response while you work out a more sophisticated analysis of the situation and your options for dealing with it.Your left Brain Knows the 60/40 end of a proposition--- when to hold em and when to fold em--- when you have some competitive advantage over somebody else is so money. Don’t bet, Don’t gamble, Don’t invest, unless you have some competitive advantage.
Poker is a game of partial information, and when you have a competitive advantage you have to take into account this and, more important, behavioral factors. Read my post: What You Think Is Right Is Wrong With Your Game---The power of mind over money is rooted in mental bias .
What we perceive as reality is only a canvas waiting for us to draw upon it any picture we want. Create a whole new set of beliefs that allow you to see from a WTF carefree state of mind, as well as a set of beliefs that always compel you to act with rational self interests. You want to reach a point where you’re playing without hesitating, very much like the way Eli Manning played the last minutes in The Big Game. There’s a saying, Biology is biography---the sum total of your “stress”ful thought creates your health/dis-ease situation—Ulcers, once badges of distinction of “Hard working” Fortune 500 executives, has begged the question, Why don’t Zebra’s get ulcers?