It was really interesting to note that on Jason’s show he never knows the episode number. Kind of the way that I forget the episode number every week on PokerSoup. I guess great minds forget alike. The audience for this show is entrepreneurial minded people that are interested in evaluating startup ideas and learning some new insights (sometimes from Tyler). Overall the show gets your brain working. Many times when you are working on growing a business and you intently focus on things and create inattentional blindness. A show like this gives you the opportunity to engage in some higher level thinking, step back and get your creative juices flowing.

Episode 13’s guest was Matt Mickiewicz this kid seems like a nice enough guy, but it was a little annoying that Jason would ask him leading questions. He does the same with Tyler. He’ll say something like “the earth is flat, isn’t that right Tyler, don’t you agree” I hate when people do this, this is a manipulation tactic and seems to come natural to him, I am surprised that this did not come out when he asked his employees about his weaknesses.

The guest was Canadian and has this really annoying accent, though he may be deaf, in which case I apologize for criticizing your impediment.

One thing that Jason does well is pimp his sponsors. Audible.com sponsors the TWIST show, I happen to be an audible subscriber and have been so since 2000. Audible rox. Jason whores out his sponsors like nobody’s business. They get some serious value. I would sponsor twist any day if I sold to his target audience. Not only do you get the exposure from the show, but donks like me that post a review of the show get them exposure as well. If you also could just do me a favor and send a tweet to @audible_com with the text “plz sponsor @pokersouptv http://pokersoup.tv”. Let audible know that pokersoup rox. If you listen to the older PokerSoup shows we pimp our sponsor pretty heavily using interstitial. Jason’s audible pimipage was the inspiration for those advertisements.

Jason is a total link-baiting whore and a great example for anyone else out there that does not know anything about marketing. This review is a fantastic example, he also way over tweets with links to mahalo.com. They generate TONS of traffic. I think that they should do an entire show dedicated to marketing link baiting and creating compelling tweets.

“Jesus Christ!!” Ok this is not a curse word, and any viewers that are offended by “Jesus Christ” should try listening to PokerSoup once in a while. Apparently they have a viewer that bitched about foul language. Get over yourself already. Maybe you should listen to “This Week in Church.”

Someone called the show with an idea where they would rate content based on how it makes them feel. IMO this is a stupid idea. People are not going to search for content based on how it makes them feel. Most people are visually or audibly oriented, there are few people that are kinesthetically oriented. Save yourself time and money and do something esle. I figured that Jason would poo poo this idea but he kind of gave the guy a pass. FAIL!

The next caller was great, he had this idea for creating a site for tweens and teens though college where they can list their academic and extra curricular activities. This is a really great idea IMO. Jason and Matt broke this idea down really well, and offered some great advice. One question that I have is that the barriers to entry for such a venture are pretty low, how do they stay ahead of the game as other established sports related sites that are similar to this, realize that there is a market and quickly adapt.

During the show the connection disconnected. How the hell can that happen? It was really annoying and I almost bailed on the show. I am glad a waited it out, but seriously, you have millions of dollars you can’t get a reliable setup?

Overall this show is really insightful. Great show and I recommend it to any entrepreneurial minded person.

-Blaz

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We arrived in Tampa on Wednesday and stayed at the Marriot at the airport. Somehow my wife got us into the VIP club which entitled us to go to the lounge on the 6th floor and participate in the happy hour and the free breakfast, definitely a nice little perk.

After dinner Gambit picked me up and we headed over to Derby Lane. Derby Lane is a really nice room with a fantastic atmosphere and horrible No-Limit Hold’em players. I like to try to put people on hands which is not possible, but all you have to do is put yourself in a spot where you are likely to be good and get it all in. The opportunities are so frequent that you don’t have to be right all that often to make money.

I was dumb enough to get up from NLH table thinking that the Omaha H/L table would be just as soft. It was not. There were 2 soft spots at this table and seemed like I was unable to get any money from them.

I dropped about $60 but given the opportunity I would just play the NLH game. Gambit posted a nice profit at the NLH table.

The next morning we went to port and got on the ship. Parts of the inside of the Carnival Inspiration looks like a throw back to the 80’s. When you first board the ship you enter in a foyer that is sort of black and purple. With lots of dark tinted glass. The Lido deck cafeteria is decorated with purple tube type ceiling decorations. Regardless of the 80 theme everything was clean and clearly everything is very well maintained.
When we got to our room it was elaborately decorated with birthday decorations as Saturday was my wife’s birthday. It was a really nice touch. Surprisingly the rooms were not as small as I has originally though they would be and there was plenty of room for a crib and fold away bunk bed for the kids.

The Poker
I have to give Chris and Scott credit here. If I were them I would have tried to run the room myself. This would have been a huge mistake. Luckily they hired Jody Russell and Cassie Greene to run the room. These two did a fantastic job, just a few things that I noted were:

• Great dealers – all of the dealers were really good. All of them were experienced, they understood the games and knew how to deal them and how to handle the sticky situations that come up. With the exception that I note below regarding a player.
• Prop players – When games were getting short handed and going to break they filled the seats with dealers that were not dealing at the time. This was a great idea. There were about 140 people in the Ante Up group and with that limited pool of players you have to get someone in these games to keep them alive. I am not sure if they were paid to play or not, I though it rude to ask so I didn’t.
• Mix of tournaments - All of the tournaments were NLH. There were a couple of turbos that I played in and they are basically a luck fest. But they also had a team tourney (which I didn’t play because it filled up too quickly) which looked like a good tourney, and they also had a deep stack main event which Fasso, and Frank, both final tabled and cashed in. In retrospect I should have skipped the turbos and played in the deep stack. I also wanted to spend time with my family and that tournament lasted from 10 am till about 10 pm.
• Mix of games – Most of the time there was a limit hold’em game and a couple of NLH games going. There was a 6-12 HORSE game going which was a little to high for me but eventually they got a 4-8 HO game going which I played whenever it was going.

Overall the room was very very well run. There are some things that I didn’t like that I will get into later.

How’d I do?

I have never run so bad in my whole life. The first night I played 1-3 NLH. I was up early but that quickly evaporated when I flopped broadway with AJ and was beat by a flush. I am not going to talk about all of the bad beats cause no one cares about bad beats. I played my ‘A’ game most of the time with a few moments of ‘B’ poker mixed in there. For example… I flopped top 2 on a Q-T-4 board and then folded the river when J-A hit on turn and river. The player showed me J-7 off. She was in position and she bluffed me off of the hand when I checked the river. I never should have checked the river against this player and she was an astute player that would never miss that opportunity. Yuck, I guess I was tired.

The HO game was fantastic. There were several players that would raise, re-raise, and cap it pre-flop with any 4 cards. This was a 4-8 game played with a half kill. So it was not uncommon to have players straddle on the kill and have each player with $36 or $48 in the pot pre-flop. This game was the most fun that I have had playing poker in years. I lost my ass but I had a good time doing it. I ran really really bad in this game. I flopped 8’s full of fives and had a woman stay to the river and spike a 9 to hit 9’s full. No low. This pot was HUGE. $48 pre-flop per player in a 4 way pot. I raised the flop and built a huge pot. Maybe she had odds to draw, I don’t really know. I held A388, which was a good hand compared to the range of the other players. There was a player, Seth that would raise every hand pre-flop regardless of any situation, he didn’t even look. He made this game HUGE but he only lasted a couple of hours. I did make a couple of mistakes in this game, such as folding a 2-4 and missing a gutterball that would have scooped. There was enough in the pot to make the calls +EV and I folded. I probably made this mistake 3-4 times which is the difference in the trip between breaking even and losing.

Some things that I didn’t like

The food was not all that great. My father-in-law set my expectation very high for the food and I honestly did not think that the food was good at all. I ordered the fish which was really really salty and I could not even finish it.

The Service was also kind of poor in the dining areas. In the cafeteria it took the staff a very long time to take away the used plates so if you get up for seconds you have to stack your plates on top of one another if you don’t have an empty table nearby to dump the old ones on to. The wait staff in the dining room was horrible. My 2 year old son was crying for some juice one evening and they brought our main course dishes before they brought the juice. I must have asked 3 times for it. After that we did not return to the dining room and just ate at the cafeteria for dinner.

The poker room – The card room was in a fairly small conference room and it was hot as hell in there at times. I do not think that it was designed to hold as many people as were in it and it was distractingly hot! The room sort of felt like a prison, the ambiance as not great, dark walls and a metal ceiling. I talked briefly to Scott about this and he mentioned that there is another option for the next cruise that they are exploring. If the other room works out I think it would be much nicer.

The room was located next to the disco, the bass was cranked up over there and it literally shook the metal ceiling tiles and created a loud tinny vibration sound mixed in the the thunderous booms of the base. The first night I came down with a splitting headache, but I played anyway. This is a pretty major annoyance and I hope that they can get the other room next time.

The first day there was an Ante Up welcome cocktail party. This was a nice touch. Sam Minutello showed up drunk and got up to the microphone and started swearing and dropping f-bombs, which I don’t really mind so much but I would expect more from someone that runs a poker room. I figure the guy is just having fun. God bless him. But some other people stated to me that they didn’t appreciate it.

That night there was a tournament and Sam showed up drunk and started yelling and screaming in the room. He was seated right behind me and it was not pleasant having him scream in my ear. At first I didn’t care, after all he’s just having fun. But after a while it really got old and I was hoping that they guy running the room would tell him to stop. Lucky I was moved. There was an older player seated at my table with 2 hearing aids. Minutello was right behind the guy and screams something at a player at our table, the old man jumped out of seat, scowled at him and had to take is hearing aids out cause Sam was blowing out his ears.

On the last night (Sunday) this same guy (Minutello) was sitting at my 4-8 Omaha game. It was a good game we were all having fun. At one end of the table was myself and another gentlemen, at the other was Minutello and a couple of his friends. They were raising just about every hand which I didn’t mind because when I get a hand I want more money it. But something really bothered me. He said out loud to his friends “why don’t we agree to check it down to the river cause we are not getting any action from that end” meaning they are not getting any action from myself and the other gentleman. So basically they would raise and re-raise with myself and the other guy in the middle and if neither of us gave them action they would just check it down. I like to limp into pots playing O8 and I was really not interested in playing a game where 4 out of 6 players were colluding to flip for capped bets pre-flop. In this scenario I definitely have to play every hand against 4 players that could be holding any 4 cards. I really didn’t appreciate this and was no longer having fun. After a few hands of that I got up. I am really surprised that a poker room manager would do this. I can assure you that I will never play in a poker room run by this guy.

They were also talking about hands while there was action pending which is a not allowed in most poker rooms. If it were just the 4 of them and they just wanted to hang out and have fun then great, but there were other players at the table and I found this annoying and disrespectful. The dealers were unwilling to say anything to Sam. I guess maybe they never know when they may find themselves in his cardroom looking for a job.  It is really unfortunate that no one said anything to this guy, and I am not sure that he would even care if they did.

Most (95%) of the people were really nice. But there were a few people that were jerks. There was another player to my left that hit quad queens. He shows one of his queens and then another player show the nut flush and then he reveals the other queen. So I asked him why did you slow roll that guy? He responded “That’s poker.”  Then some other people at the table said that he did it on accident. But he was right next to me, I saw him do it and it was a total dick move. I was glad to see Scott eliminate him in the team tournament.

Overall it was a fantastic trip and well organized and well run on the part of the Ante Up guys. I would recommend it to everyone.

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In truth poker is not fair, but it is also not unfair.  It is what it is, it is a math and psychological game. There are odds that you will win and there are odds you will lose.  The key is to play in such a manner that the odds of you winning are much greater then the odds you will lose.

Good players get sucked out on more then they suck out on others  because they are putting their money in good more times then they are putting it in bad.

Let’s not forget odds are odds, assuming you cannot make someone fold, there is a percentage of time every pre-flop hand and every hand on the flop can lose.

A guy a few years ago lost with Quad Aces to a straight flush. At the WSOP

We feel it’s not fair when we come out on the short end of the odds. We do not have the same sick feeling when we suck out.  For example, you get it all in preflop with KK and get cold decked by AA, but on the flop you hit the two outer to get the win, are sick about it?  My guess is no.  Do you remember it? My guess is not for long. Do you let it put you on tilt? Or do you tell people you played well?

Let us think about a cash game and one player gets lucky over and over again… does this make this player good? No.  It means they were on a card rush, we all go on card rushes, and the key is to note how they play and make the needed adjustments (card rushes end) or switch tables.

Poker is only unfair to the people that get beat, not to the winner.

Over several posts I will be listing these items and explaining my thoughts.  I am sure many people will know this stuff, hell I even knew it, it just did not sink in properly.

Here is a list of items I will be talking about. Not in any particular order.

1. Poker is not fair

2.Position, Position, Position

3.Bankroll – stress

4.Ego-self

5.Ego-others

6.Why Playing too many hands is bad

7.Why Playing not enough hands is bad

8.Playing the player

9.What to bet to achieve the desired goal.

10.Off Table Work

11.Impairment and distractions

12.Remembering people do not give a shit.

I have touched on the subjects in the past.  I wanted to put them all together.

Most of the items listed require a mind set change.  The challenge, for me, it is way too easy to slide into old habits, even though they may not be the best for me and my game.

-JT

I am going to try and play something online that I have actually had some success in, double or nothings. I’m not going to go batshit crazy like I did with them during the month of January where I played 900 of them. Rather I am going to take it slow and steady and try and build up a roll for next years WSOP. I am starting with $12 in my PokerStars account. Early on I am going to have to play only one at a time since I am starting off at the $5 ones. I could drop to the $1 ones but the 10% rake is killer compared to the 4% rake at the $5 level.

I plan on moving up once I have 20 buyins for the next level. I will move back down if I fall to 20 buyins at that level. Here are the questions. How much do you think I could have by the end of September and by the end of the year. I plan on not playing a ton but when I do this will be all I play. The only exception will be an occasional AIPS event due to the bet with the rest of the PokerSoup crew.

GL me. I have lofty end goals (which I won’t list here). Let’s see how close I can get.

I decided to cut my 100K hands played at $10NL a little short. Well more then a little short. I stopped at exactly 30,000 hands. I won 35 buy ins at this level and was on pace to win over 85. So I moved to $25NL.

The short version is I stopped enjoying $10NL. So I tried $25NL. The play is not any better, just more money to win. I played a little over 500 hands and have done well so far.

My life changes are simple. I decided not to drink alcohol. Do I have a drinking problem? No! I am quitting for 2 reasons, I do not need the empty calories I am trying to lose weight get healthy, and drinking has the opposite effect. also I noticed the impact it has on my poker game.

I shipped Blaz my poker tracker graph and he asked why the dips every so often. I looked at them and I was playing and drinking when I lost. Its funny how quickly beer turns me from a winner to a loser.

I have made a commitment to myself to not drink while trying to lose weight, also once I have lost the weight I will not drink if I am playing cards.

Here is my final thought on the whole subject, if I cannot stop drinking in order to lose weight and get into better shape then I do have a drinking problem.

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Over the next thirty minutes, I was up over $100 thanks to the pretty misses on my left and the calling station in seat 7, and had downed a couple Yuenglins. Blaz busted from the Turbo Knockout and it was time to call it a night. I had been rather boisterous at the table, a combination of giddiness from winning and beer balls, and apologized profusely to the dame on my left. I told her I would leave, but she insisted I stay so she could get her chips back. To that end, I promised to play my last hand blind and would call every raise she made. At this point, the whole table perked up.

The geriatrics on my right posted the blinds. I raised blind UTG and covered my cards with chips. The girl next to me FOLDED! It was $4! WTF! Well the rest of the table couldn’t resist and everyone else called my raise. I have no idea what the flop was, but the blinds checked, so I bet. 3 callers and a few folds, then we saw the turn. I bet and got two callers. The river was dealt and again I bet but only got 2 callers. Seat 7, the calling station turns over T8 for a pair of eights. Seat 9 mucked and I rolled my first card. A 3 to pair the board. Seat 7 anxiously wiggled in anticipation – this was easily the biggest pot these folks had seen all night. I roll my second card, a blank 7, rap the table and collect my chips as the dealer pushes the pot to Seat 7. It was a fun end to the night and I amazingly had picked up $65 more dollars to support my drinking habit.

Back to the Super 8 for a few hours of sleep before check out at noon. Blaz and I awoke and set out to find a diner for breakfast. Believe it or not, we passed on the Mexican restaurant who’s sign still read Hillary ’08 and relied on a tip from a local taxi driver. Teplitzky’s Coffee Shop. Outstanding fresh breakfast, fresh squeezed orange juice and a young waitress who was easy on the eyes. After breakfast, Blaz dropped me off at the Greyhound bus terminal and headed back home. If you want real Atlantic City excitement, sit in the Greyhound bus terminal with $2,000+ in your pocket one day…

Till the next meet-up… later.

Pointledge wins in Atlantic Shitty

Harrah’s $105+$20 NLHE Tourney – $125
Harrah’s 2-4 LHE Cash + $ 15
Tropicana 4-8 LHE Cash + $ 82
Harrah’s 4-8 LHE w/ mini blinds Cash +$ 78
Harrah’s $80 NLHE Tourney + $1,518
Harrah’s 2-4 LHE +$ 65
Total + $1,633

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We say hello and get right down to business. Same characters at this table, just in different seats. Mrs. Right is in seat 1 this time and within thirty minutes, she’s felted and takes off. The game breaks when Blaz and I head off to the tournament, picking up a quick $78 in less than an hour.

The $80 tourney at Harrah’s has the same great blinds structure we saw Friday night, but only $10,000 in starting chips. Blaz and I chip away playing ABC poker and make it to the first break. There’s only 55 runners tonight, a few of the same players from the night before, and the field slowly whittles down. Blaz busts out about midway through and heads off to join the midnight $75 Turbo Knockout tournament. Meanwhile I grind on with about an average stack most of the night and eventually make the final table in about 7th of 10 left.

The final table is an eclectic mix. The big stack is three to my left. The good players are 3-4 to my right. I’m comfortable in seat 6 with chips to steal on my right and left. My recollection of the final table is blurred a little as I got a call from my wife as she was in a minor fender bender in Florida, but I honestly think that event forced me to play even more focused than ever. I was patient, reading my opponents well, and picking the right spots.

The most significant hand came when we were down to 7 players. I had the second or third largest chip stack at that time. The chip leader had me out-chipped by about 3-1 at this point and just had a monster pile in front of him. Lucky for me, he didn’t know how to play big stack poker. Chip leader open raise to 3x UTG+1. It folds around to the small blind who completes and I smooth call with pocket kings. I joke with the chip leader, as I’ve been doing my best Jamie Gold, and announce to him that he shouldn’t pick on my big blind and that I have a monster. He chuckles and tells the dealer to give him some low cards. Flop comes out T, 5, 4 with two diamonds. Small blind checks. I don’t have the King of diamonds, but think I’m good here almost always. I put in a half pot feeler bet and the chip leader insta-raises 3x. The small blind folds and now the decision is mine. Calling the raise was not an option… I’d be pot committed to any turn card at that point, so it was shove or fold for me. I’d seen the chip leader play just about any two cards and two pair, a set, or straight draw were all in his range. I thought for a good minute before folding my kings face up, leaving me with an average stack. The chip leader showed me one of his cards was a 5, so I think I made the right decision here.

The bubble breaks and we are in the money with 5 players left (we all through $5 to the bubble boy as a consolation). The guy to my left still has a massive chip lead and arrogantly declares there will be no chopping tonight. What a great feeling it was to bust him out in third place! The head’s up match was finished in less than 40 hands. I had knocked out most of the final 7 players and had more than a 2-1 chip lead when we got head’s up. I offered my opponent $50 to chop so I didn’t have to play head’s up, but he refused and I swiftly took him out at the knees. Woot! $1,598 first place and my first live tournament score!

Pointledge wins in Atlantic Shitty

Total for the afternoon:

Harrah’s 4-8 LHE w/ mini-blinds    + $       78
Harrah’s $80 NLHE Tournament    + $ 1,598
Total                                                          +$1,638

We planned to play the $80 NLHE Tourney at Harrah’s that night at 8:15, but had time to kill, so headed over to the Tropicana to see if we could find some non-Hold’em cash games. The Trop’s poker room was crowded and seamlessly merged with the service bar and race track wagering station. Blaz and I were disappointed to find nothing but Hold’em being spread, so we started an interest list for an Omaha table, grabbed some chips and took some open seats at a 4-8 LHE table. Did I mention the Trop was crowded? Oh yeah, so my seat backed right up to the service bar which ensured that any drink I ordered took three times as long to arrive as bald gentleman with the oxygen tank 50 yards away who was intently picking horses for the next race. The bartender could have poured directly into my mouth without stretching from my seat. Ugghh, and every discontented waitress in the room would bump my chair with every passing.

Time to leave – wrong. This table was even better than the night before at Harrah’s. Blaz and I sat in the 6 & 8 seats. Seat 1 was occupied by Greg Raymer, Jr. This guy looked like a poker player, raised like a poker player, and called every value bet like a donk. Not quite loose aggressive, but he liked to raise and generally would showdown any two cards. In the 2 seat was Mrs. Right. Not right for poker, but certainly right for this game. A perfect calling station, Mrs. Right went to the river every time she had a pair (not top pair, just a pair). I don’t have a good description of the guy in seat 3, my view of him was blocked by the European and AARP members on my right (not sure which of them the distinguished scent was emanating from, but it wasn’t pretty). Nevertheless, he didn’t stay around long before he was felted and on his way out.

Tony Soprano sat between Blaz and I. He was pretty short-stacked when we sat down, but doubled-up two hands in a row early in the session. The rest of the Soprano family came in (because they’d lost all their money playing Poker and Slots) and soon Tony had busted out and left. The 9 seat was occupied by The Asian. Splashed around some in pots, but basically just limp folded and listened to his iPod. Seat 10 was the only real poker player at the table. This very attractive young lady sat down about 30 minutes into our session and played solid, aggressive poker. Unfortunately, with three players at the table, it didn’t take long before the fish in seats 1, 2 and 3 departed and we ended our session. A positive one for both Blaz and I, an extra $82 in my pocket would cover my buy-in to the night’s tournament.

Total for the morning:

Tropicana 4-8 LHE Cash                                    + $ 82
Total                                                                          - $38

Blaz doubles up early in the tournament and I’m still finding my footing. This is only my second live casino tournament and first in Atlantic City. I’m scouring the room and 6 tables trying to find the sharks that are here feeding on AC tourist. Well, my eyesight isn’t that great, but at the first break, Blaz and Snarf let me in on the secret… there are none here! The people sitting at these tables have all seen poker on TV and play a pair (not even top pair) as the stone cold nuts. This place is awesome!

Second break comes around and we are all sitting just below the average chip stack with about 35 of the 60 runners left. The structure has been really good, 20 minute levels and small jumps, giving lots of play for the starting stack of 15,000 chips. My only real complaint is that the chips have no denominations on them, so early on, trying to keep track is a bit painful, but gets easier over time. Coming back from the break, the average chip stack is probably only an M ~16, so action should heat up (of course, there are only three people in the room that know what M means…).

I’m moved to another table, and shortly after the second break, Blaz comes over to let me know he’s busted out and heading to the cash games. It’s not long and we’re down to two tables with Snarf and I still treading water. With 14 players left, I decided to make my exit. The table chip leader is in the small blind on my right, I post the big blind, there’s a limper from mid-position… chip leader completes and I check my T6o. The flop is a beautiful KT6 rainbow giving me bottom two pair. Chip leader checks, I put in a half pot sized bet, mid-position calls, and the chip leader shoves all-in. I don’t contemplate to long… the chip leader definitely doesn’t have pocket Kings, and my T & 6 almost eliminate the other two sets. He’s got to have top pair (this guys not smart/tricky enough to shove with a straight draw)… I call. To my surprise, mid-position player calls too!

Flipping our cards over, I’m delighted to see that I’m slightly ahead in this three way pot… the chip leader indeed had K7s for top pair and mid position had a naked Ace. The turn is a harmless three followed by a 7 giving the chip leader a better two pair and takes out two players. I’m speechless, but don’t regret my play. Only 6 players got paid, so this was my opportunity to chip up or go home. I limped off to find an empty seat at Blaz’s 2-4 LHE game and started to grind back my losses. Snarf joined us about 20 minutes later after busting around 12th place.

It was getting late and Snarf was driving back that night, so we made a relatively early exit from Harrah’s. Blaz and I headed over to the Taj to grab my gear from my neighbor’s comped room, then headed to the Super 8 for some rest.

Grand total for the day:

Harrah’s $105+$20 NLHE Tourney                    – $125
Harrah’s 2-4 LHE Cash                                         + $ 15
Total                                                                          - $110

The co-host is a little goofy, but I suspect this was part of the plan. I have been able to sift my way through the show’s odd areas to get a lot out of the podcast.

I compare the theories of the podcast to something that I learned from a hypnotherapist friend. My friend told me that I needed to experience the negative things, not shun or hide from them. Once I had experienced the negativity, the pain educed would reveal itself and every ensuing time negativity would be less painful, eventually disappearing entirely and allow me to move on with my life.

Tommy talks about living in the now, not thinking about the past or the future.

Both of these strategies help reduce the emotion derived from a negative situation. This helps us see things as they are and not how we feel them to be.

The short version: Keep your head in the game, whether it be in poker or life.