Saturday night I went briefly out to play some $4/8 Texas Hold’em at Hollywood Park. It was after I visited my mother and I wanted to just briefly play for a little bit. The table was a little loose for my tastes but as anybody who has read my books or writings know, it shouldn’t matter if you stick to playing your game and adjusting slightly to compensate for any game climate changes (the game goes from too tight to too loose, etc). I was dealt the jack and five of clubs and I was under the gun. Normally, in a regular, “average” game where the players are balanced and not too tight or loose I would fold. I didn’t and I ended up winning big when the board flopped a pair of jacks to make me trips. I didn’t win many hands after that but I left a winner.It turned out to be a profitable evening. I bought in with $120 and left with $148 for a net profit of $28 or about 23 and 1/3% profit. Not bad.
When it comes to investments, people need to do a reality check to see if the percentage that they are making back is sustainable for the money they are investing. Some poker players are probably saying, “That isn’t poker, that is being a coward.”
If quitting with a return on investment (ROI) of 23.33% is cowardly, then I want to be the king of the cowardly lions. I wish ALL my investments could return that much money. The reality is that in poker, a lot of it is depending on luck.
With investments that is true to a point but if your money is supposedly in a “safe” investment that is government insured, you would hope that there would be less risk.
In most investments, if you take a little bit of a chance, you might be rewarded greatly. You need to remember, that often when you play suited jacks and fives, more times than not you will end up losing, depending on the complexion of the game you are playing.
In the coming months, if not years, play your hands and your investments a little closer to your vest. If you are getting a decent ROI on your savings or investments with not a lot of risk, be thankful despite what people are saying about losing money to inflation.
It is better to have money now and worry about losing money to inflation later on just as it is better for a poker player to leave a game with money in his pockets so he (or she) can play another day!
Some more financial information can be found from my new book on Practical Money Making.
Kim Isaac Greenblatt
Kim Greenblatt talks about Sat night poker winnings and investment thinking in his blog, profitable.