Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Relax your mind and the above paragraph reads quite easily. Being able to read it, despite the rearrangement of the letters in the words, demonstrates the concept of "holism" where the properties of any given system or field of study cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its component parts. Rather, the system as a whole determines how its parts act.  You must have an understanding of the system, some history and experience with it for the comprehension to follow.  If you didn't understand English well, it would be quite a problem to decipher the above paragraph.

Poker holism is an extension of this general holism concept.  To fully understand the game in its many jumbled forms, you need to have a sense of the whole.  The more experience you have with the poker world, its language and history, the more likely you are to be able to interpret the different situations you will find yourself in.

Poker holism would suggest you need both inductive and deductive reasoning to be able to prosper in poker.  With inductive reasoning, you are building up a conclusion from a set of specific facts or observed instances (e.g. all observed hands that opp raises in early position have been big pairs, therefore all early positions raises are big pairs).  Whereas deductive reasoning posits a conclusion based on premises (e.g. all high stakes players have large bankrolls, Isildur1 is a high stakes players, therefore Isildur1 has a large bankroll).  The arguments can only be valid or invalid, never true or false based on the veracity/soundness of the premises.

Poker holism would also suggest that your poker education include a mix of experiential with book, forum and video learning.  It would suggest that having an active connection to the poker community as a whole would benefit you, not necessarily from a playing perspective, but in helping you creating a healthy poker perspective.  Those that neglect parts of this holistic approach will often burn out or become frustrated with the poker economy. 

Abraham Maslow's "self actualization" concept encompasses much of the foundation of holism, where the goal is to be the most you can be. You accomplish this by focusing on not one area, but the development of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials. Ultimately people find identity, meaning, and purpose through connection to the community and world around us. The same dynamics must exist in the poker economy if you are to remain an active long term participant.  Look to learn and experience from many sources from within and without the poker world and your journey is likely to be a long one.

Fingers grip the steering wheel as you speed down the road.  Your senses are alert. You are acutely aware of every thing coming your way.  Any information that can help you gain advantage, help navigate your path, and propel you to your abstract goal is soaked up.  The feeling is one of exhilaration as you progress down the road. You are in the moment, taking it all in, but not with any grand sense of context or the uniqueness of the moment.

Relax for a moment, take your foot off the accelerator, or look out your window and it could all be lost.  The world might pass you by.  The margin for error is that small.  Once your momentum is gone, it is hard to gain it back.

This allegory relates to so many areas of our lives.  I see it all the time with poker players.  Early in their playing, they are so focused and dedicated.  They invest time in constantly learning, improving and playing.  Somewhere along the line they get distracted and rarely if ever recover.  It's hard to recover the hunger, drive and dedication they once had that contributed to their success.  They will rationalize that the view is better out their window. They will say that they didn't want to drive that fast in the first place, but it was a ride they often took for granted at the time.

I notice it even in the microcosm that is my life.  I've been pushing hard for many months with my business.  I try to pay attention to all the areas of the poker world that could affect Poker Curious. I work seven days a week, although I've tried to taper back my hours in the last few months.  When I took my first couple days off in months for my recent family water park outing, it was that much harder to get back motivated when I returned. My focus still isn't back. This hasn't been one of my most productive weeks, for sure.  I need to regain my momentum and focus.   Knowing what life will be like when I have money and a life again isn't particularly helpful in helping me to push through the present obstacles and achieve my goals.  While I generally preach balance, it is too easy to be distracted along the way preventing you from achieving your goals.

Here is a very pretty song "Straight Line" by The Wilton Project that might inspire me back on track.

If you are a parent, then you know that any vacation you go on where there is a pool at the hotel you stay at is bound to be a success.  It doesn't really matter if the weather is good or bad, the outings fun or not.  If you can count on a nice indoor pool, your kids will be happy for hours and hours.  After all these years, one hotel chain finally caught on to the simplicity of that idea.  Instead of placing your hotel near vacation destinations, make the in-house pool attraction so great that people come to stay with you for that reason alone.  This is how the Great Wolf Lodge was born.  

For my birthday, I decided to take my family up to the Grand Mound, Washington version of Great Wolf Lodge. It is one of 12 located in North America.  The lodge forces you to stay there in order to partake in their water park. They create a fun, if expensive, all inclusive family friendly environment to roam your whole stay in your bathing suit.  They have a wave pool, basketball pools, obstacle courses, baby areas, three story water extravaganza fort along with water slides and four rides that tower 5 stories above the floor.  We had a fun, if exhausting trip.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Zimba broke her toe exiting the Howling Tornado ride the first day, but she was a trooper and watched the kids and I tear it up.

Some quick observations of hers from the sidelines:

• Even with hundreds of people in the facility, she didn't see one bathing suit duplicated
• Obesity is very much an issue in America, even in the young
• Even with the high expense, water parks are a draw to all ethnicities, with one Indian grandmother doing all the rides in 3 piece full arm/leg length sari coverings.
• Lastly, even with my packing an extra 12 lbs these days, Mr. Zimba still cuts a decent figure amongst the dads of America.

If I told you to get up on stage right now.  Drop your draws and perform.  Could you, with the world watching?  I don't mean it literally.  I mean it figuratively.  Forget your draws for a minute.  Let's say it's a speech to the world to save humanity in a moment of crisis, or a comedy routine in front of tons of people you don't know, would that make it easier or less shocking? If you have never done something before, how do you know you can do it?  That's right, you don't. You never have before.



If I give you some time before you have to perform, how does that change the situation?  Some of you might search your past, for similar instances or experience.  Others might try to problem solve the situation in their mind.  Some might decide that if you practice enough, you would be ready when the time comes.



You may turn to me and say I have confidence in my abilities, I will make it to happen regardless.  That's a good answer, I suppose, but what is your confidence based on? I'm sure there are some instances where you do something completely right the first time you do it, but I would argue it is rather rare in a pressure packed situation like I'm describing.  The only reasonable solution is preparation.

It doesn't matter whether you are an athlete, entertainer, politician or poker player.  If you want to perform well under the spotlight, at the highest levels, you need to work hard and prepare.  We look back at Michael Jordan, or today at Kobe Bryant, as the most physically gifted basketball players of their generation, and yet they had the reputation for always working the hardest in practice.  Why would they bother, if they were so much more gifted and confident? Because they knew that the only way to be able to perform well at those crucial moments is to be prepared. That last second buzzer beater was practiced thousands of times.  They imagined in their minds all the possible scenarios.  They drew from prior similar experiences.

It is not enough just to want it.  You need to prepare for it. You need to do it, before you do it, if you know what I mean. Experience is no guarantee that when the time comes you will nail it, but it sure beats any other option I know.

From time to time, I like to share some of my adventures I've been through that helped shape me...

The waves lapped along the bow. The skiffs and outriggers approached from all directions. A chaos I had never seen before was about to ensue.

Let me set the scene. We were aboard the 1912 built MV Liemba steamer heading south on the longest lake in the world - Lake Tanganyika. The MV Liemba has served as the main ship serving the lake for many decades.  The ship was scuttleged twice between the two world wards. Once by the Germans and raised by the British.  Then again by the British when the Belgian arrived in the area. Her last major refurbishment was done in the late 70's.  She covered the 420 miles length every week dutifully, starting in Bujumburu, Burudi, where we boarded her, along Tanzania and down to Mpulungo, Zambia. 

What the MV Liemba lacked in comfort, she made up for in rugged dependability. We had arranged our transport too late to arrange a first class cabin, so we slept on board with the nearly 500 others on this converted cargo and passenger vessel.  She made only two stops on our journey. One in Kigoma, Tanzania near the Gombe Streams park made famous by Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research and close to Ujiji where Stanley met Livingstone in 1871 and uttered the famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?".  When we landed in Kigoma, we took a bush taxi to Ujiji to see the plaque and the general area of their meeting. Stanley was a remarkable man who organized an expedition of 200 men who searched for eight months to locate the famous Livingstone who was a hero at home for his African expeditions and crusade to end slavery.

Our only other official stop and port of call would be our final destination in Zambia, but that didn't mean we didn't have regular exchanges of people and goods.  All along the long lake, the locals would bring their skiffs and boats out to the ship.  The MV Liemba didn't stop, only slowed somewhat, so the scene was always chaotic.  Some boats ferried people looking to embark, or allowing others to disembark.  Others brought goods to be sold or transported. There was no order to the process, those that arrived first got best placement, but it was competitive and unorganized.  Ropes were heaved up to the ship to steady their placement. The queue could be several boats deep. The deck of the MV Liemba was much higher, so people had to be lower down, or climb up. Each time bodies or good could end up in the water or injured. Mostly, through the chaos, people and goods came and went.  It was quite an experience to watch.

A couple vids I found that begin to give you a feel for the environment, although some of our situations were much more dramatic.

A wise man once said that to experience the richness that life has to offer, each day you should have time to laugh, to contemplate and to cry. As I get older, music seems to play an increasing role in eliciting those feelings from me.  Music is my regular companion as I work. Music provides me energy. Music provides me solace.  Music inspires me.  Music makes me cry. I may numb myself from the intensity of life's challenges, but I have no insulation from the power of music.

For the twelve years I owned my art gallery, I played non stop African music from hundreds of CD's I had collected over the years.  To the outsider, it might seem very similar, but with 52 countries contributing different styles of music, it really was a rich variety of musical offerings.  It provided the ambiance and context for gallery visitors to be transported to a part of the world that created the beautiful art that we exhibited.

Nowadays, the music I listen to is much more eclectic.  It often varies with my mood. I share the occasional video in my blog, which gives people a sense of some of what I like. I thought I would share one video today that powerfully captures some of the important daily elements that I spoke of above.  It's somber and contemplative. The lyrics are beautiful and thought provoking.  The piano and cello effectively tug at your heartstrings.  It is anthemic and pleading.

"Dumbed down and numbed by time and age, your dreams that catch the world, the cage, the highway sets the traveler's stage, all exits look the same.  Three words that became hard to say..."

I And Love And You by the Avett Brothers

People seemed to enjoy my last travel piece, so here goes another one...

At the time, I didn't know this would be my last visit to the last country on earth. I simply boarded the plane in Portland.  Twelve hours later I was in London. Twelve more hours were spent at the airport awaiting my connecting flight.  Another twelve hours down through South Africa to my final destination, Zimbabwe.

The year was 2005. Zimbabwe had been suffering greatly for years.  A combination of corrupt government, hyper inflation, lawlessness, aids, and famine had wreaked havoc on the country.  And yet, its talented artisans still toiled in the hot African sun, so I came.  I flew half way around the world to secure some of the best stone carvings in the world.

They are called Shona sculptures, after the tribe that the majority of the sculptors come from.  They are carved in a range of stones from the hard verdite, springstone, opalite, serpentine to the soft, carvable by a knife, soapstone.  The range of colors and textures are almost endless.  The subject matter and form differ almost as greatly; from modern to primitive, abstract to realistic.  It was all there.  All I had to do was travel the country, find it, negotiate, and figure out a way to get it back to my Portland gallery.

This year, I wasn't met at the airport by a BMW 7 series, but a beat up old Peugeot.  It looked like its life had been prolonged 10 years past its prime; washed daily to preserve the look despite the ever-present scratches and dents.   The tires were completely bald, with the threads on the verge of bursting.  And burst they did. After clearing the two police barricades as we departed the quiet but modern airport, we drove past a couple closed gas stations. The whole country was suffering from fuel shortages, rationing and 'black marketeering' now dominating the distribution.  The normally bustling roads seemed abandoned.  Within several miles of the airport, one of the tires blew.  I was told there were no replacements in the country, so your only option was to repair the one you had, over and over.  After changing the tire with the spare that looked in worse shape, we limped back to the homestead.  The guard opened the metal gates, and we drove through the high walls with broken glass on the top.

I wasn't staying at some posh resort or hotel, but at the home of my usual host, a Shona sculptor friend of mine.  Anyone who owns a half decent home needs these security precautions to protect their possessions and their safety.  In the courtyard sat his prized BMW 7 series, under a tarp, idled these days as it was too expensive to run and brought too much unwanted attention.  It was a big letdown to the young sculptor's ego to travel around in that humble Peugeot when he had worked so hard to gain status with his other cars.  He was a well known musician and sculptor, but he was also a dogged survivor of Zimbabwe's harsh current conditions.

The rules for this trip were quickly laid out for me.  I was never to go anywhere alone.  I would only travel during daylight hours. I was always to have a driver and another person/guard to watch my back as I traveled around on my buying trip.  No more evenings going to see live music in Harare.

In years past, the strict currency laws required I travel almost daily to the banks to exchange my traveler's checks and get the proper documentation.  Things had devolved to such a point that people ignored these regulations, as the banks didn't have any cash or exchanged it at such an unreasonable rate that the black market was the only option.  Hard foreign currency was king. The customs personnel would be bought off later.

The currency was in such hyper inflation that negotiations of the black market rates changed each time I engaged in them that month, varying up to 20%.  The soaring inflation made their money nearly worthless. The government hadn't been able to generate newer higher denomination notes, so when you exchanged US $2000 for instance, you had to pack the equivalent Zimbabwean millions of dollars in a suitcase.  Unlike previous trips, there was no way to be inconspicuous with a money belt under your shirt.  As an art dealer going around to individual sculptor's homes and studios with suitcases fulls of cash, you were constantly a target to be robbed, or at the very least be solicited at every turn to relieve you of some of that cash. 

In the following years they have printed new bigger notes, that are almost equally worthless, but less bulky.  Ever wanted to be a billionaire?

Fortunately, the artists were still thrilled to see me.  They were reliant on my yearly buying trips.  They were aware that the world economy had slowed, even if not nearly as much as the Zimbabwean economy. That year, I represented one of the few Shona sculpture galleries who chose to come in person, despite the dire conditions.  They were hungry for business, but still savvy as ever in their negotiating. 

All over Africa, negotiating for most things you purchase is a necessity and high art form.  It is to be relished, not avoided, by both parties.  Fixed prices don't exist.  They enjoy and expect the communication, the give and take.  The sculptors have a keen sense of who their buyer is and how much they can try to charge them.  My former partner, an Americanized Zimbabwean, and I joked about it all the time.  In the early years of the gallery, when we alternated buying trips, he was always able to get better prices than I could, because he was Shona and spoke the language.  But the artists were also savvy enough to know that the Nike's he wore indicated he wasn't living in Zimbabwe, and thus they charged him a higher rate than they would a local Zimbabwean.

Due to the nationwide shortages of fuel, on this trip, travel planning was critical.  I couldn't just roam the cities and countryside scouring it for good art and artists.  I had to focus on predictable pockets where I would have reliable results.  Thankfully this wasn't my first trip, and I had an established network of artists I had worked with for years. We bought a 40 gallon drum and arranged for some fuel from a gas station owner.  That was where some of the fuel that did get delivered to the gas stations went, to the highest bidder.  I was willing to pay a premium, to ensure some ability to travel each day. 

After securing one drum, we arranged a couple special one day trips up north.  One trip we traveled to the mythical stone community of Tengenenge, where many credit the Shona sculpture movement originated in the 1950s and where hundreds of artists still toiled.  While I'm personally not a big fan of some of the styles from that region, it is an inspirational environment with thousands of sculptures spread through hundreds of acres under the trees and throughout the village.

The second special trip was to an aids orphanage where we contributed funds and tried to set up an ongoing association of helping.  It was an inspirational and equally disheartening setting, where hundreds of children had been orphaned, but were cared for in this big community of volunteers and nuns.

I will spare you the details of the bureaucracy, shipping challenges, bribes paid, and government hassles.  I survived the trip and succeeded in purchasing some lovely sculptures, some of which are currently warehoused after my gallery closed down.  I couldn't have pulled off the trip without my prior years of experience and connections. Zimbabwe has sadly become the last country on earth, not just alphabetically, but least desirable place to live due to having one of the most despotic evil rulers who has beaten down his people and destroyed its once impressive infrastructure.  The level of suffering is tremendous.  Although I was trying to be a positive influence and support the positive aspects of their rich culture, it ultimately became too much. 

Some day in the future, I would like to return under happier circumstances.  I wish the people well.

On Timex's Where To Go From Here blog post, I commented...

"I completely respect your thoughts and feelings, but I would say it's not what you do, but how you do it that counts. No activity is innately more meaningful over another, until you give it that meaning.

I agree with the comments saying grab a backpack and go off and travel the world for a while. Don't rely on your wealth, try to live as sparingly as possibly and visit underdeveloped parts of the world. Explore, observe, experience, and keep an open mind to the possibilities. GL"

On further reflection, it sounded a bit trite, as most short comments will sound.  I think I can explain my thoughts more clearly on why I would suggest throwing on a backpack and beginning your journey.  Much of our lives are consumed with creating a solid financial base for ourselves.  You have been fortunate enough to do that in poker at the tender age of 20.  You are left with the search for meaning and connection.  I feel the best way to begin that process is to take yourself out of your comfort zone.  Put yourself in unfamiliar situations.  Soak up everything you can.  Try to view the world how others you've never met do.  Evaluate the possibilities and your choices.  Don't start with an agenda or plan, but allow your journey to define you. 

The best way I can probably explain it is to share one defining journey from my life.  I've written about multiple individual adventures that occurred during the trip, but not so much about what the trip meant as a whole and how it served me.  I was 22 or 23 at the time. I had graduated from college, but still didn't have a concrete sense of what I would do.  I flew from suburban Philadelphia to Nairobi, Kenya.  I was to meet my best friend from my Kenyan exchange trip from a couple years earlier.

Our goals were simple.  With our backpacks, we were looking to travel for as long and as far as we could throughout Africa.  We wanted to get a sense of the continent, not just Kenya that we already had a familiarity with.  We wanted to experience as much as we could.  We were looking to spend as little as possible to prolong the journey with the funds we had, but also to experience what life is like for those in Africa, as opposed to what our privileged lives could have afforded us. Each day we would wake up and evaluate the new day.

Our first thoughts, after reconnecting with our old friends and home stay families in Kenya, were to head from East Africa to West Africa, but our plans changed regularly as we encountered revolutions, closed borders, and tropical rainy seasons. Some countries we spent a day in, some countries we spent several weeks.  Some days we hitch-hiked, others we rode local 'bush taxis', country buses, trains or boats. None of it was glamorous or luxurious.  We ate what the locals ate.  We stayed in very inexpensive local hotels, hostels or occasionally camped.  We used our limited Swahili and French where possible to remove ourselves from the cultural imperialism that is American culture.  We wanted to be seen as individual travelers, not defined by the country we came from.  We wanted to avoid the overland trucks with hoards of similarly minded travelers.  We avoided many of the backpacker hot spots.  We were interested in soaking up the local culture, history, cuisine, flora and fauna.

After four months of traveling together, our interests and attitudes diverged and my friend continued on to South Africa to eventually get a newspaper internship, while I continued my journey on my own.  We parted in Zimbabwe, the country that years later that I would eventually return to many times as an art dealer.  I loved my time in Zimbabwe; the people, its culture and geography.  I even think I began to fall in love with a young woman there named Senzeni Tadii Kanyangarara.  In the brief time I knew her, she was unlike any other African woman I had known before or since.  Time and space prevented us from developing our relationship. She died tragically in a car accident a few years later.  But I was richer for having met her.

My father contacted me while I was in Zimbabwe and indicated an interest in seeing me, so I made arrangements to travel by land and air over war-torn Mozambique, through Malawi and Tanzania, back to Kenya, so we could travel for a little while together, showing him some of my life there.  After he left, I decided I wanted to continue to West Africa, our original destination. So I flew to Cameroon to meet up with a Peace Corps friend working on a Elephant preservation project in very northern Cameroon.  I then continued my journeys throughout West Africa, eventually ending my journeys in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire where a Belgian, friend of the family from my childhood days in Africa, lived.

All in all, I traveled for 9 months, the last 4-5 on my own. I averaged spending $10 a day (granted it was 20 years ago) which covered food, lodging, transportation and entertainment.  I visited 15 countries on that trip. I encountered so many cultures, tribes, languages, geography, cuisine, weather, that it would be hard to recount it all.  Thankfully, I survived without any major health scares, although I had brushes with malaria, amoebic dysentery, and jiggers. I had my fair share of adventures, many of the which I've shared in my blog over the last several years.

I came away with no greater sense of what I would do with my life, but a greater sense of who I am and what the world was about.  I had gained experience and wisdom from the lands I traveled through.  I had gained friendships and an awareness of the diversity that makes up this planet.  I appreciated the hospitality I was shown by people who had so much less than me. I had removed myself from the comfort zone that was America.  I had removed myself from the expectations that others had for me.  For that time, I lived only to travel, explore and connect. I felt so alive. I had tested myself in ways I could never have predicted.

Where you choose to travel may differ.  What you want to accomplish or see may differ.  But do it.  Take yourself out of your comfort zone.  Experience the world as you never have before. Open up to the glorious beauty and tragedy that makes up this amazing planet and discover yourself.  Many good wishes to you on your journey.

Send me a postcard!

Warm regards,

Zimba