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How do you become a poker millionaire? Lessons from the BPC poker/business seminar

Whatever your next step in poker is, ask yourself…

Why are you not there yet, today?

Most people – in all areas of life – have beliefs, habits, perceptions… That limit their life in profound ways.

You might not realize it fully, but ask yourself honestly – are you doing ALL that you could be doing to push yourself to the next level in life? Whether it be in poker, maybe fitness (lots of those resolutions in the air this time of year…) or some other thing you are passionate about.

Chances are, you will have no problem admitting that, yes, you could be doing more.

Why is that?

Why is it, that so many people would fit into this category, and perhaps more importantly – why is it so easily accepted that this is the norm?

The simple answer is, because it’s so widespread. The standards in today’s world are very low, for the most part. Without getting into a huge debate into the social nihilism or something like that, let’s just say that people these days are not very often working very hard towards their goals.

Not saying that nobody does it, far from it. But generally speaking, percentage-wise, that’s a really small number of people.

Now in a society so used to low standards, it can be very hard for YOU to raise yourself above the average (which, as I’ve said, is pretty damn poor in most areas of life).

First, there’s the social pressure of »the tall nail getting hammered down«, or »the tall tree breaks first in the storm«… In other words, people don’t like other people standing out – or more accurately, raising above them.

And they will let you know, one way or another. The eye-rolling, the high noses, there are all sorts of social sanctions to let people know »where their place is«.

But more important than that – in an environment like this, the SKILLS needed to rise are not that easily available. If most people around us are, let’s say, not high-achievers, well… Where will you learn the skills needed to get to levels higher than that?

And, there is no doubt about it, you need skills for that. You can’t just say, »now I will give it all I’ve got!« Well, good for you – but to what are you giving it? What PRACTICAL steps are you going to take?

And how do you know they will work?

As some of you know, or were lucky to even be there, we at BPC organised a poker/business seminar this past summer, to help our CFP students precisely with these sort of questions.

Now, of course we deal with these issues all the time, and teach the skills for poker success through our CFP programs, but we felt it was necessary to have a special event just for that.

To focus on the skill of high-performance.

Dubrovnik FULL

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Over the course of 4 action-packed days in beautiful Dubrovnik, Croatia, Gordon – the founder, CEO and Head Coach of BPC – delivered a series of presentations that left a big impact on those present.

In fact, some – like Steezy, or Goodfake – had huge »aha moments« that completely transformed their (poker) life.

Here at BPC, we realize it takes more to succeed in poker, than just knowing which hands to 3B with (although that helps).

In poker, as in other areas life, if you really want to fly high, a no-bullshit approach to your non-poker environment will be a must.

You need to know how to set up and take practical steps towards your goals, how to create and implement your vision, how to organize your environment, how to create a dream team around yourself that will support and push you (hint: join BPC!), how to adopt the correct mindset, what are the habits that increase your productivity, and so on, and so on.

One of the most annoying and time-consuming things for me during my time in the CFP, was computer issues.

Within weeks of moving to Malta, we had a power-outage in our building, that crashed my computer. The damned “blue screen of death” appeared…

I spent two days reinstalling windows, all the poker rooms, adjusting the settings back to how I had them, all the poker software, replacing files and documents I had lost… It took two days of hard work just to get all functioning, so I could play again.

And it took a week more to get it all running smoothly, the way I had it before the crash.

How much money had I lost because of this?

Hundreds of euros.

I couldn’t play for 2 days, and I couldn’t play optimally for days after that, always dealing with another little thing to reinstall and readjust.

And – that was just to get back to the set up I already had figured out, and knew by heart. Imagine how much time somebody would need to get the set up in the first place, starting from scratch? How much money could you win during that time, if you could just snap your fingers and play, having all set up already?

That’s just one example. And a small one, at that.

Things matter – things that are not connected to on-table strategy.

Another example I can give is sleep patterns. I didn’t have a losing session every time I slept badly. But most losing sessions happened on days where I didn’t sleep well.

Is it connected?

Well, why do you think they don’t let truck drivers drive for 20 hours? Why are they required by law to take rests?

As a poker player, you have to think about your environment outside the actual Pokerstars table, or whatever table you are playing now that Stars shafted everybody…

 

Dubrovnik FULL

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If you have problems with your girlfriend – guess what, it is costing you money at the tables. If you have a messy room, more money lost. Sleeping badly, eating badly? Money lost.

 

Poker, in itself, is not that hard. Life is much harder, at least in the world that we live in. If you suck at life, you won’t be very good in poker. Sure, there might be exceptions to the rule, but don’t count on being one.

There’s always the 95 year old guy who smoked his whole life. That doesn’t mean you can smoke and expect to live a long and healthy life.

You might suck-out even if your life is not optimized for high-performance, but in the long run, the expected value will catch up with you, and your game will suffer.

So make sure to take the »simple« lessons of the poker millionaire to heart, and see your winrate go up. Not just in poker, but in other areas of life as well.

 

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