I think we shouldn’t run away from a tough game. Within our limits, of course.
As the game gets tougher and you don’t quit but instead choose to face the challenge, something starts to change.
Your brain enters fight or flight. It floods you with powerful chemicals. Neurological signals.
When you stay and fight, your perception slowly shifts.
You develop a fighter’s mentality.
A mentality that wants to take on everyone.
A mentality that wants to fuck everyone.
In this state, the brain is creative and efficient. You are full of inexhaustible motivation and energy. With this fuel, you could even fly a rocket into the galaxy.
Another bonus of this mentality is that you stop caring so much about losing.
When you fight for something as trivial as money for rent, your brain somehow knows that you are a loser. You experience constant anxiety from every lost pot. Subconsciously, it is perceived as a disaster for your survival and reproduction. You experience a lot of stress and a decline in motivation and cognitive potential.
But when the battle becomes bigger than money, when it’s about growth, courage, and becoming a stronger player, something changes.
Be brave.
Magic happens the moment you decide to stay and fight.
It feels like your brain releases courage.
And you ascend.
I have a deep respect for the players who stay and fight.
Not because they always win.
But because they refuse to run.
Every tough game they choose to play changes them a little. Every battle hardens them. Every scar teaches them something.
These are the guys that over time become monsters at their craft.
Ascended players can almost get excited by losses because every difficult spot becomes another chance to sharpen themselves.
That’s why you see an unstudied, aggressive VIP become surprisingly difficult to play against because they’re not shrinking from the battle. They’re embracing it.
Sometimes these aggressive VIPs
put enormous pressure on weaker regs, breaking them.
That’s the predator instinct.
Step across the line.
Because on the other side of fear is growth.
Who you become at the tables in the future depends on the battles you’re willing to fight today.
“Who you are in the aquarium five years from now is up to you.”
— Stefan Burakov
