I May Not Understand Poker, But, I Understand Human Behavior

I was scrolling through Twitter yesterday and I came across a tweet that said "Negreanu is the Trump of poker."  I then went to his twitter feed to see what he was tweeting to try and understand this. 

I don't know anything more about Daniel Negreanu that anyone else.  I know his parents immigrated to Canada from Romania.  I'm not sure if that was before or after he was born.  Regardless, he is Canadian and a hockey fan.  He seems pretty happy-go-lucky but it is easy to be happy-go-lucky when you have built a financial empire.  He also has experienced being financially challenged. Who knows what he was like in those penniless days. 

Regardless, I couldn't find any evidence of Trumpiness on his twitter feed but his latest tweet was interesting.  It invited followers to refer to his latest blog entry, which he described as either short or brief.  It was neither. 

Apparently, he was accepting a challenge from another player to play a certain amount of hands under a format that he was unfamiliar with.  Or something like that.  Really, I couldn't figure it out.  What I could figure out was that his opponent had been baiting him for years and was occupying space in his head rent free. Daniel referred to this guy as a bully.  Amazing.  A guy who is a millionaire has the time and the energy to be affected by an on-line bully. Doesn't he know that bullies only succeed when they achieve their goal of getting in someone's head?  Dealing with bullies is now in elementary schools education, but this guy hasn't figured it out. 

Regardless, I was quite fascinated by his prose so I kept reading.  He went on and on about why he will be severely disadvantaged in this match and he likely will lose.  Well, you know what they say about self-fulfilling prophecies. 

Then, after convincing himself of all the reasons why he was going to lose, he explained why he was going to compete anyway. 

Then, it got a little bit weird.  He quoted a huge passage of Teddy Roosevelt, Jr.  It didn't seem to have a purpose, but it obviously had one to Negreanu. 

So, he is competing in some sort of card competition that he has already psyched himself up to lose.  (Or is he an evil genius trying to convince us so that it will be more of a victory when he does prevail. Bwahahaaha.)  No, it wasn't.  This was the heart-felt ramblings of a guy trying to stand up to his bully.

It makes you wonder what is really going on?  It might be something deep.  Or, it is possible that no one is immune to the "new normal".  I think at some point during the shelter-in-place weeks, we all felt a little bit unhinged and a little bit powerless.  Somehow knowing that even rich celebrities experienced this, well, it is somewhat comforting. Reading this man's rambling makes the human experience universal.  We have all been through something.  Having money doesn't make you immune to problems.  In some ways, more money, more problems.

Everyone needs a way to manage negative emotions.  First step is acknowledging they occur.  If you don't end up managing negative emotions, they will manage you.