Step 12. Starting Hands & Selecting Investments

Why NOT to “get involved”

In Texas Hold’em, as in investing, there is far too much education about how and why to make decisions about “getting involved” in the game and about how and why to make decisions when you are already involved (or “committed” as it is often described in Texas Hold’em). Unfortunately, there is very little education about how and why NOT to “get involved”, and how to emotionally deal with NOT being involved. There are many reasons for this:

• Teaching about how not to play Texas Hold’em or how not to invest in securities is not terribly exciting
• It is more simple to teach someone how not to play or invest and the perceived value and price of such education is low
• It is boring.

All of these reasons are incredibly wrong!

People do not realise that learning how to not lose money in Texas Hold’em and investing is at least as important as learning how to win money.  In fact, many of the great Texas Hold’em players and investors would argue that learning how not to lose is even more important than learning how to win.

The starting place in Texas Hold’em for ensuring that you do not lose money needlessly is the way in which you play your starting hands.   The key analogy in investment is the way in which you analyse the huge number of investment choices that you face and decide whether to commit your capital or not.