I have said in the past that I had lost all respect for the show 60 minutes on CBS due to the way they misinformed the public about the legality of online poker.  I even took the time to call the show 50 minutes. However, they recently had a piece on LeBron James that was very inspiring and hit close to home for me in certain ways.

There is no doubt that LeBron James is on top of his game not only on the court, but off it as well.  All of this before he is even 25 years old.

What sets himself apart from the rest though?  Is it that he is stronger? Faster? Smarter?  I believe a vast majority of his success in basketball and now business is due to his frame of mind.  He sums it up well at about the 8 min, 30 sec mark when he says:

You can’t be afraid to fail.  It’s the only way you succeed.  You’re not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.  You have to be able to accept failure to get better.

This quote might seem obvious to some.  But to really think about it, too many people are afraid to fail.  I have come to the realization that I am one of these people.  But at least I have noticed the problem, and am now attempting to do something about it.

How this relates to me

I am not talking about failing at making the fade-away jumper as the clock approaches zero.  I am more concerned with more of the everyday situations.  I noticed that I never acted upon many of my good ideas.  It was as though I had become a huge procrastinator with things I knew could better my life in one way or another.

Take this website for instance, I have been thinking about making this site for well over a year until I finally decided to put the money down to get the domain name.  What took me so long?  The fear of making a website that would become a failure in my eyes.

What about one of my hobbies, online poker?  I haven’t been playing nearly the number of hours that I once did.  What gives?  Even though I am a proven winner in the game, deep down I think about all of the bad beats I have had and shy away from logging in to play when I have a free minute.  Even when I have a win, I play concerned about the chance of losing some of what I just won.  I honestly should be much further along in poker monetarily than I am today if I just put in the hours.

What I am doing about it

It is really hard for me to think of a way to articulate it, but the first thing that comes to mind is the Nike slogan Just Do It.  Psychologically speaking, people are creatures of habit. My old habit was that of procrastination due to the fear of failure.  I have been slowly breaking away from that old habit as I start new positive habits.

I have come to realize that by taking on a project and failing at it, I am better prepared for the future than I was had I not at least attempted the task.  Eventually the failures will come at a lower frequency as I better myself from previous experiences.

Again using this website as example, if this site goes on to not do as well as I had hoped in terms of the number of people that visit on a regular basis then I will feel comfortable in knowing that I learned a ton in the process.  Just a couple of months ago I could not tell you the slightest thing about HTML coding, WordPress, SEO, and much more.  However today I have this website as a testament to what I have learned while at the same time knowing that I still have plenty to discover.

Are you afraid?

Can you relate to much of what I wrote here?  If so, I urge you to join me in attempting to do something about it.  Do some research.  Visit personal development websites.  Start doing instead of just thinking.  You will be much happier in the long run if you do something about it.

Good luck and just remember that it is alot harder to get started than it is to keep going.  So get started now so you can get the hard part over with already!

Watch this hand and make any kind of judgements you want. But know that this is a cash game. When the commentators are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, they aren’t tournament chips, but it is true cash value.

What would you do if you were Dwan?
What would you do if you were Eastgate?
What would you do if you were Greenstein?

At first you might ask why in the world would Eastgate or Greenstein fold such big hands to such a loose player. Then you might say how lucky Dwan was with just pure aggression, and he might not have even known how strong his opponents’ hands were.

….But did you notice how Dwan, at the end of the hand knew exactly where he stood in the hand and even made a side bet with Doyle Brunson (I believe) about who had the best hand (Eastgate).

So Dwan knew exactly where he was in the hand, and went with his read that he could get the others off their hands.

Eastgate was worried about his kicker. But I will never be sure as I can’t get the information directly from him.

But we can get the information directly from Greenstein as his recently talked about it on PokerRoad. Follow the link below to get an idea of how a world class poker player dissects a hand.

Tips from the Bear.

The following is your typical poker conversation. Beware, high level of profanity.

50 minutes, that is what the latest 60 minutes show should have been called. It really would have saved the show if they had just dropped this 10 minute segment on online poker.

First, let me say that online poker is not illegal in the US at this point in time though 60 minutes claims this to be the case. There is no law currently in place that makes the act of gambling online illegal, two laws that remotely come close to this is the old wire act established to prohibit people from making sports bets over the phone. The other is the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. This act makes it harder for one to withdrawal and deposit funds onto sites associated with online gambling. But again, there is no law in place that says one can not play online poker.

I was really disappointed by this 60 minutes piece. Not only did they say that online poker was illegal, when this is not the case, but for an investigative report they seemed to have done 0 investigating (driving by a couple of buildings is not investigating). All of the information that was brought forward was already known by the poker community. All they did was put it in the lime light.

At no point through this segment did they mention other supposed scandals of the past, the UIGEA, or the PPA. They also left out some interviews with people like Greg Raymer, the ’04 World Series of Poker champ.

This truly was a lack of good investigative reporting and it makes me wonder how credible the other pieces they air are. If they continually get facts incorrect and leave out key information, then the show has lost all credibility in my eyes.

I realize that I will have a bias point of view when it comes to online poker, but I am trying to be as neutral as possible. I knew all this information before it aired. I just thought they would at least get the facts straight or bring in some new information into this black-eye scandal for online poker.

I also want to add, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet are the ones behind this scandal. There are other places to play that are much better in terms of security and customer opinions. Two that come to mind right away are Pokerstars and Full Tilt, both the more popular sites for American online poker players.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Well, the day is finally here. The much talked about 60 Minutes (CBS) piece will air this Sunday. It will involve the cheating scandals at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet amongst other online-poker-related topics.

I for one can not wait to watch it. I know it will do some immediate damage to the online poker industry, but hopefully it can do some long term good. The hope is that this will open people’s eyes to the fact that online poker needs to become regulated by the US to prevent this exact type of thing from happening in the future.

There are plenty of other reasons why online poker should be legal and regulated, but for more info on that check out the Poker Players Alliance Website.