News talk 2013-12-24: Green Bay officiating

I selected this story to drill home a point I teach about life and about poker. There will be injustices in your daily adventures. Maybe you can expect 1,342 of them next year. So, if only 1,295 actually occur, you’re having a good year.

Baseball players bobble balls and make errors, even the very best fielders. So, should you be upset by their mistakes? Of course not. It’s their overall performance that matters. What about poker dealers?

I’ve never expressed dissatisfaction after dealers made mistakes — even when it has cost me a big pot. In fact, not only haven’t I expressed it, I haven’t felt it. Why? Because I treat unintentional human-inspired events like the weather. It’s just there, just another happening. It might help; it might hurt. The sun might shine; the rain might fall.

Green Bay probably got a bad decision here. But it could have been a different bad decision that might have helped them. In life, you don’t waste important decision-making time fretting about accidental stuff that didn’t go your way. You play on. — MC