The importance of focus

[Minn. Fatz]

I am sitting in our hotel room on vacation playing the latest VP.com contest over the wireless, the one where Aces on the deal gets you 12 bonus draws. Since the response is a little slow, after the deal and choosing which cards to hold I usually hit the enter key twice, once for the draw and once to speed up the payout. At the same time I'm nursing a soft drink and half-watching a movie on the TV, so I have the game sound turned off. Of course I'm playing TDB looking for the big payoff on quad Aces with a kickerI hit the enter key, look down and there it is. "Woo hoo," I think to myself, "that'll help me get  an entry for the second chance drawing." I hit enter again to speed up the payoff. Nothing. Hit it again, and again a couple more times.It's about then that I see the bonus draws light up with quad Aces twelve times. It's just after that I realize the quad Aces were dealt, not one hand on the draw. So the 12K payout I get after throwing away the jackpot hand should've been 24K, and my final score of 21+K should've been 33+K putting me in line for $300 plus an entry into the Tourney of Champs.Fortunately, depending how you look at it, the score doesn't hold up and all I miss out on is fifth place overall and the tourney of champs entry.The takeaway from this is the importance of focus. OK, I had the sound off so didn't hear the bells and whistles, but it was automatically hitting the enter key repeatedly to speed up the game while not paying full attention to what was happening that led to my missing out on 12K worth of points.It's the same deal in a casino. The jackpot in the next row of machines, the player who's blowing smoke in your direction, the snappy Sinatra number on the PA, the waitress taking drink orders, all add up to so many distractions.Yes, always aim to play perfect strategy; never play more than you can afford; set limits and stick by them; don't play tired or sozzled or angry or when it's no fun any more.And yes, take another piece of advice from me and my story:  never lose your focus. Give the game your full attention or sooner or later you will pay a steep price.

[Taurus]

Thank you - very good advice.

[backsider]

Everyone loses their focus every time they play in a casino. Everyone. No shame there. The only thing I have with that is the people who say their mistakes dont hurt their play over time because theyre so small. Cant have it both ways, so do the best you can and FOCUS!

[BillyJoe]

That's what I like about the newer machines, like the one where I was dealt an RF in Double Pay for $64k. The machine locked up the minute it was dealt, so I COULDN'T make a mistake.