You've been eating sweets/chips, drinking coffee or smoking for example all your life, but one day you suddenly find out, or a new study is done, that nicotine is actually a big poison that is very bad for us and for the environment, that there are lots of carcinogens in coffee, that sweets and chips are not good for us. Because you are conscious, it is easy to give up what you don't need and feel no discomfort, to be flexible and get on with your life.
Same in poker, you learn how to play poker, you learn hand values and combinations. You learn that AK and AA are "monsters" and that losing with AK is a badbeat. In other words, you slowly improve, learn and practise, post your hands on the poker forums etc. But one day you get advice and explanations from good players that it's not profitable to open from UTG (full ring) with AJ or KQ, and they criticise your AK c-betus and says not to c-bet on 100% flops, not to stack with AsAh on 7c8c9c flop with 3 opponents. Or simply that playing out of position is -EV. It's as simple as that, you learn, you learn and you adapt easily to new circumstances and conditions.
But is it that simple? In life and in poker? (I often hear people say about smoking "I need to quit", "I know smoking is bad for me, but...", "I know smoking sucks, but...", and similar things. What if you asked a person why you smoke? What does smoking do for you? Most of the time, you won't hear either answer. It helps you relax!? Ha, don't joke or lie to yourself, don't you know better ways to relax? 🙂
Back to poker. A common saying in both life and poker is "I know I shouldn't do this, but..." and then there's the hero move, the call, or the unwitting all in, which then makes you feel sorry for yourself and blame yourself for not being able to control yourself.
Is it easy to change? Unfortunately, I have to disappoint most of you. Change is very simple and easy. Don't fall for the old notion that habits are hard to break and need to be overcome by willpower or physical effort, habits break in a minute, they break one after the other, and it usually takes a long time before we consciously realise "I'm not doing it anymore", "I don't want to do it anymore", and what an uplifting feeling inside then. We all have countless examples in our midst of people with a "very strong habit" who have changed their life in a single moment, e.g. a hard-core smoker who has been smoking for 20 years quitting, how people change their eating or lifestyle habits in a day. How fears disappear in a second, you have been afraid of spiders all your life, but once you realised how small they really are, you thought "how is a spider supposed to be afraid of me screaming and walking around with a broom". One thought and a habit you thought you would never get rid of was gone.
The habit is in our heads, in our minds, we just need to let it out.
Colleagues, be aware that life is simple.
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