Master All Styles

Poker Helper, Sep 2007

Aikido; Hapkido; Ju Jitsu; Muay Thai; Pa Kua; Taekwondo; Tai Chi Chuan. This is just a small sampling of the many martial arts styles in existence. Anyone who knows me would tell you that I’m far from being a championship ultimate fighter (or simply a fighter). But if I’ve learned one thing from the countless martial arts movies I’ve watched, it’s that to be a good fighter, you need to have knowledge of as many styles as possible so you can adapt to your opponents.

The classic martial arts movies were very formulaic in many ways. Young student has some tough opponent to overcome. Young student gets training from experienced master. Young student, through hard work and dedication, hones his skills to the point of being able to annihilate everybody in the world spreading evil influence. Young student prevails, putting things in proper order.

But within this formula, certain lessons always came through: the importance of hard work and discipline; the importance of being a righteous individual; the importance of being clear-minded no matter what’s going on around you, and the importance of knowing about as many fighting styles as possible.

All these lessons are applicable towards poker. The work you put into your game, the better your results will be. The nicer you are to everybody when playing, the nicer they’ll be to you, and your experience will be much more enjoyable as a result. The clearer your mind is, the better you’ll be able to handle things after taking a few bad beats or making a bad play or two. The importance of knowing as much about as many fighting styles as possible, well, that’s the topic of the rest of this article...

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