In games of chance, what separates a player from a winner and are they mutually exclusive?

It takes some skill to be a good poker player. Certainly one needs to know the number of cards in a deck, how many suits in each deck and what the different hands are and which hand beats which. One must also be very good at math and be able to figure the odds of any card or hand showing up in the game and memory is an exceptional bonus.

Poker is more than a game of "chance;" chance takes the power away from the player. Poker is a game of choices that lead to a desired outcome and for a true winner there is no "luck" or "chance."

In order to be a successful player, one must know why they are in the game in the first place. Are they there just for the sake of being in the game or are they there to win. There is the love of the game and the winning, but there is also losing.

Poker is much more than randomly playing each hand, it is a mind game as well. To be a successful player, that is, to continually stay in the game one must be able to put energy into the game and then be able to take that energy and more from the others. A game of cards is a "closed system," and cannot sustain itself unless there are bets, and that means something has to be added. The addition is collateral, value or energy added to the game to keep it going, it is fuel that drives the game, when the money or collateral is gone so are the players.

All players know that in order to stay in the game they must continually feed the pot. The odds are that everyone in the game will win hands and lose hands and no one will win or lose all hands. So gamblers play odds and the odds are calculated during the game. Each player expects to lose a few hands and by playing the odds skilfully they will be the major winner at the end of the game. The game may include only one or many hands until the player stops putting energy (collateral) into the game.

In games of chance all participants are winners whether they have losing hands or not. The reason for the game is the game and an opportunity for the players to demonstrate their thoughts about themselves in a social interaction. Each player gets back from the game what he/she has mentally put into it, and the rewards are as individual as the player.

Who determines the winner in a game of poker? Most would agree it would be the one that walks away with the pot at the end of the game. However, this definition is really superficial because the root causes of the players are not considered. If one is playing long term strategy then walking away from the game a loser is only an illusion, it may well be just another step on the way to being a winner. So the strategies of others may never be judged accurately because the philosophy of any one particular player is unknown.

What separates a winner from a player or a loser with long-term gamblers is the internal thoughts of the player himself.

A player has many skills and control over how he plays his hands. He has some understanding of how other players play their hands from his own interaction with them. If the game is being played honestly the player has absolutely no control over the cards he receives as they are drawn randomly from a deck or several decks.

Some players stand out as winners over time because they continually win their hands, and yet all players have exactly the same odds or chances of getting the same cards from one game to another.

Is it that some players simply play their hands with more skill and can calculate the odds better or read the other players better? I believe it goes deeper than that.

When one looks around the table you see other players, you do not see their minds. It is the mind that drives the body, the body is the illusion of the player that turns over the cards, but the mind is controlling the game. It is the mind that creates the desire and the body that displays that desire physically.

One's mind is the source that predetermines the outcome of the game. If it is within one's thought process that he/she is a loser, then that is reflected in the physical part of the process, in this case the game. If one's root thought is that he is a winner then the game will also reflect that thought in real life. If one considers her or himself just a player that is how the game will be played out. He will never be a consistent winner or loser but will go along with the ride as one who enjoys the game and breaks even.

All of these kinds of players can be considered winners at some level of understanding as the results of the game reflect their most inner thought about themselves and why they are in the game.

A winner does not go to the table to play poker. A winner does not consider him or herself a player. A winner has only one root thought and that is that he/she is a winner and that can only be reflected physically as one who wins most of the hands and walks away with the pot. It can not work any other way. If you know yourself as a winner then your life has to reflect that, it is a universal law. What you think must be manifested at some level of physical existence. All thoughts are manifested as physical things or circumstances. To the extent that one's thought is known as truth; is the degree that it will be physically observable.

You cannot truthfully say that you are a winner if it is not observable physically. What you are displaying is a physical lie, you are lying to yourself about who you are and you are not in contact with your inner truth. If you say that you are a winner and consistently lose, you have displayed your ability to lie and fool yourself.

If you say that you are a loser and you consistently display that physically, then in fact you are a winner by your own definition because you are successfully creating what you know as you truth. You can never fool yourself. Your true thoughts are always displayed physically for all to see. It is also important to realize that you can never be judged accurately by others or even yourself unless the root cause for the physical observation is known and to know that one must communicate with the spiritual part or inner thought process of the individual.

If one knows oneself to be a winner in poker then that person is in direct control of the cards, they are no longer randomly distributed. The players root cause will control the cards so that the player is manifested as a winner. The spirit will know the hands of the other players and will cause the appropriate cards to be displayed, all participants act together in agreement at some level with this arrangement so there are no random losers and the winner is already known. The only exception to this is that the player may be playing the game from the superficial physical level. The ego always has the last word and his conscious thoughts about how to play any hand may get in the way.

If all the players have folded at the table except for yourself and another then you would guess at what cards he holds and would calculate what cards are needed to beat his hand. If you are playing the game at a strictly physical level you might be thinking "Royal Flush," when all you really need is a pair of threes and you would have severely limited your odds of winning. A true winner would only hold the thought of winning knowing that he could, without the burden of having to figure out the winning hand or second guess his natural process for creating winning hands.

A player's most inner thought is always reflected accurately at the poker table.

In physical life a persons most inner thought is always displayed accurately in his/her daily life. Judgements are always inaccurate and cannot reflect your truth unless the purpose of the mind is known.

To know oneself as a winner, one must demonstrate winning physically. To know oneself as a loser, one must also display that physically. To experience either one of these things physically then you must know that it was your thoughts that created the experience, not anyone else's. You must also know that you can change your thoughts about who you are at any time and allow the process to reflect those thoughts physically and you do that by simply knowing what it is that you desire, and you do not try to control the process by allowing the ego to pick the winning cards.

A winner considers a losing hand as another step to winning in a game of strategy. Therefore the losing hand is actually a winning hand. All steps for a winner are winning steps because they bring to him/her what is desired, and the outcome is always visible or made real in physical terms.

You cannot play to be a winner; you are a winner first, then you become a player. A winner never gambles to win; he wins because that is who he is.

If you go into a game to prove yourself a winner, you cannot be a winner; at best you can only be someone who is trying to "prove," himself a winner. Winners, losers and players are mutually exclusive; you do not have to be one to be the other.

A winner can never be a winner from need, desperation or addiction (illness) but from knowing that he is a winner in all aspects of his/her life and it comes from the most fundamental aspect of who you are, from spirit and even these aspects cannot be judged because they may be part of the strategy or process that takes one to what he desires. The game is never over until you say that it is, until you get up and walk away from the table.

Roy E. Klienwachter is a resident of British Columbia, Canada. A student of NLP, ordained minister, New Age Light Worker and Teacher. Roy has written and published five books on New Age wisdom. Roy's books are thought provoking and designed to empower you to take responsibility for your life and what you create. His books and articles are written in the simplicity and eloquence of Zen wisdom.

You may not always agree with what he has to say. You will always come away with a new perspective and your thinking will never be the same.

Roy's style is honest and comes straight from the heart without all the metaphorical mumble jumble and BS.

Visit Roy at: http://www.klienwachter.com