When we come across an obstacle, people typically do one of three things:

• Turn back
• Get through it by any means necessary
• Get to a vantage point to see if the reward is worth the effort to overcome the obstacle

For a long time, I was very much the second person.  Call it an ego thing, call it stubbornness, but I did whatever it took to achieve a goal.  Sometimes at great sacrifice to myself.  I don’t believe this is necessarily a bad thing, as I think we all need to build tenacity.

However, after the past few years, I’ve come to change my thinking.  I’ve come to value the “resources” it would take to acheive some goals, and I realize that often a goal is not worth the sacrafice.  So, before I dedicate my time and energy, I put some due dilegence into making sure the outcome is worth it.  This saves unneccessary effort.

The takeaway from all of this is to keep the end result in perspective and realize what it’s value is.

I was in a poker tournament last night where there was a relatively large contingent of women poker players. At one of the tables there were 3 women and 6 men. The 3 women were taking down the men left-and-right, and many of the guys being taken down are very good. I watched as one of the men leaving table said, “Women shouldn’t be playing poker.” While, I do not agree with his remarks, I do think that women have an advantage in poker. There were two things I saw happening to cause everyone of the women get a birth into the final table.

1. The men wouldn’t let their ego fold to a woman

To be honest, I have fallen victim to this before as well. Even when I knew I was beat, I still stuck in the hand regardless because I did not want to lose to a girl. I would try showing who’s boss by trying to buy the pot, only to lose more of my money. In our society men still feel like they need to show their prowess.

2. They win on the river.

There were an exceptionally high number of wins on the river. The women playing seemed to stick in a hand all the way to the river, even when it was a long shot. The women would get their draw, against the odds, and win a huge pot because of the men trying to buy it early. I observed one main reason why the women were still in the hand on the river. They wanted to show the men their resolve, by not getting bought out of the pot. As the case with most newbies, they would rather lose a lot of their money, then face the possibility they got bluffed. I am not saying that women play like newbies, I’m more saying they feel compelled to defend their ability to be playing with the boys. I watched as some of the guys that normally try to muscle everyone out, suddenly not be able play their Brunson-type game, and they slowly got knocked out of the tournament.

As I too fell to at the hands of one of the woman last night, I can at least say that it wasn’t my ego that kept me in the hand, rather a very very poor read. When all was said and done, we had our first female winner in the Austin Poker Tour.