Entitlement has been long discussed by philosophers and ordinary people alike. Do you think people receive what they truly deserve? People commit the right actions expecting to be rewarded in the end. Some people do evil things aware that they can be punish for their wicked actions. In a perfect world that’s how things supposed to work. But we all know that’s how things happen.

Whenever you found a wallet full of money and return it to the owner, you are expecting that you’re going to obtain a reward for your honesty. The funny thing is that if you’ll do that nowadays, you’ll receive a thank you certainly but rewards, doubtful.

At school you grind yourself to study the subject you like and just skim through the subject you don’t like much expectant that you’ll get high results for your hard work. But it turned out that you got an ace on the subjects you only skimmed and a passing grade for the subjects you burn your candles on.

Employees who are working hard expect that they will get a salary grade and then luckily a promotion at their respective work. But it is a fact that a lot of deserving people got ignored during promotions and many diligent employees got laid off and their salaries cut.

What I mean is that people always think that they are worthy of something for their efforts but sometimes it is very probable that you’ll get a very different outcome.

A fine example of poker entitlement would be Phil Hellmuth. Phil is identified for saying this statement: “If it wasn’t for luck, I guess I’d win them all.” This individual considers that playing with a good game plan give him the privilege to win. But now he’s knowledge is a little wider for he acknowledges that luck is a key factor in poker, but he still believes that a superior hand will win against an inferior one all the time.

This reasoning blinds Hellmuth on further factors in poker. One instance of this would be his rant against Adam “Roothlus” Levy during the 2008 WSOP Main Event. In the early hours of the event, both players are deep stacks: Phil has a pair of 9 and he raise the bet, on the other hand, Levy called with QTs. As the hand played out, Phil spiked a set on the turn, but the 9 gave Levy the nut straight; after losing a large pot, Phil slashed into Levy and demean his play. The fact is Levy’s the one who played ideally, making the best of his hand. Phil was just so enraged that he starts out with the best hand and still been beaten after he hit a set, that he permitted his logic of entitlement to make him turn blind towards the progress of the game.

They were both having deep stacks, Levy is in position and Phil has a loose reputation. Phil mentioned at his river bet if he’s good enough to play QT. It just means that his range can possible take in QT but he still called Levy an idiot for playing the same hand.

If you desire to be a disciplined poker player you must get rid of any sense of privilege you may posses. In playing poker you need to be aware that you must bet your money to the best possible situation and let the chips fall into place. We usually experience that our good hands are defeated and weak plays are rewarded but all things will be balance in the end.

The only thing you are entitled with in a poker table is to be dealt with cards. And then all the outcomes will depend on the decisions you make during the game and of course a little brush of fate. Nevertheless, you’re decision making will be the turning point in the end, luck will determine when you win.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 1:46 am and is filed under Poker Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.