I just finished playing the tournament Half Mil Thrill #5838038 NL Holdem.
The final hand heads up Hand #971891523 ended in a Royal Flush.
How often does this even happen, that the final hand of a tournament is a royal?
Maybe I just set a new record 
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Wow, thatās awesome. But I got to believe a holdem tournament has been won on Replay with a Royal. Nonetheless, 2 Royals within 8 hours today is very cool. Congratsā¦
Very often.
This lends itself to the idea, āPoker is alot like life.ā We spend most of our time getting through the bad things to reach those incredible moments that make you feel wonderfully alive. Congrats on the Royal. The only royal i ever got was when another player got a nut flush in the same hand. That made my day. I wish you the best of luck in the future my friend and many more incredible moments. 
There is a difference between a good decision and a good outcome. Not recognizing and honoring this profound truth this is the source of much pain and loss.
In poker as in life, one level of understanding builds on the next in a developmental fashion. You canāt understand how to evaluate the strength of your hand until you know what beats what. You canāt learn to read until you know the alphabet.
What ever your āleakā is, thatās what will ultimately be your downfall unless you confront it. Many poker players have a craps leak. Many executives have a substance abuse problem.
Selective aggression is the key to either game. Pick your battles, but be willing to go all-in when you do.
The difference between a great player and a world champion is the absolute confidence it takes to āpull the triggerā on a decision without a millisecondās thought or hesitation.
In the short run, luck and variance predominate. In the long run, skill and determination win.
But the long run is much longer than you think.
Bluffing is overrated.
Itās not about you. Be mindful of those around you and you will fare much better than focusing on yourself. Try playing without looking at your hole cards sometime, you might be surprised at the results, and what you learnā¦
While there are so many parallels, and Iāve learned so much from poker that has helped me in life and in business, there is one area where they are diametrically opposedā¦
Poker is a zero sum game. Life is not.
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This is a very eloquent post. Congrats, youāve made my day.
Now onto some points:
I can tell a fellow businessman when I hear one. You have to be able to read people to succeed. One might think playing poker on a computer and not actually seeing someone in person would make it impossible to tell their reads. But human nature will always prevail. The only ones capable of concealing their poker tells are pros that make a living at poker and play the same people over and over again in tournament after tournament. Ring games might be good for a quick cash pick-up from more novice players, but being able to get in the money at the end of a tournament is awesome. Being able to quickly determine the tight from the loose players is absolutely necessary. Within minutes I can do this. How you ask? By playing poker for years, months, days, hour after hour. The only way to get better at anything is through time.
And from a business perspective, the saying is true.
āItās not personal. Itās only business.ā
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
With everything you do, you are telling other people how you want them to treat you.
I like you craig. Blog on my friend.
The only losers are the ones that never try.
Have a great day and spread the poker love!!
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Thanks a lot man, and gl to you in all your games as well!
What you are saying resonates well with me. If you play poker, any Royal is an obvious memorable thing to happen. It can be like one of those āyou remember where you were when?ā events. like JFK, 1st moon landing, or 9/11, although less dramatic.
Thank you my friend, very well said !
Congrats! And I thought coming in first in an Omaha hi-low tourney on my birthday 2 weeks ago might have sent a record, but to win with a Royal has to be record-setting!!
Thanx Lynn 
Winning an Omaha Hi-Low on oneās birthday seems remarkable enough, it is one of the most complicated games, if not the actual top one. And surely you havenāt had that many birthdays so far yet, on which to test your luck 
you are a sweetie, taeto. I have 71 birthdays behind me and hope for a few more!
Congratulations but remember it is re-play and hands are better here lol.
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Thank you! I do see some people say that hands are different. But I also watch a lot of live streams with real dealers dealing real cards, and they get crazy too. So I am not sure if it is just trolling, or there is some statistical evidence to support that it is different on replay.
Omg, video poker and live poker for real cash are two different animals. If you need statistical evidence then you really arenāt paying attention or have never played in a poker room or a casino.
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Oh sure, they are very different, if only for the reason that hands get played quite differently. That is not what I mean to comment on.
Here is a question. Suppose you always apply the following (dumb) strategy: You never fold your hand if there remains any chance whatsoever for hitting a Royal. This maximizes your chance of getting there at showdown. Would your chances for a Royal then be different on Replay than in the casino? (If cards are dealt fairly in NLH, you will hit a Royal once every 30,940 hands in the long run.)
Your chances of hitting a royal are 3 times greater here than in a casino. Take a look at the ā best hands ā replay and then form an opinion. Donāt just take a generic number off the internet.
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I actually did not ātake a generic number off the internetā? I use the assumption that cards are dealt fairly. Or just imagine that each possible combination of cards gets dealt exactly once. You count how many of the combinations result in one particular player getting a Royal. It is very easy to directly calculate the exact success rate.
How in turn do you get to the factor of 3? And why would you not have to include information about the number of Royals that are hit in casinos? Obviously the people who play for money would never use a strategy as idiotic as my dumb strategy, and so they are expected to hit a Royal less frequently than one in 31k.
When I look at my own personal statistics, I have played 292k games on Replay, of which 8 were Royals, about one in at least 36k. Which is fewer than one in 31k. This is consistent with the fact that I use a kind of strategy which is not optimal for getting as many Royals as possible. Do your stats show a much different result?
Because I own a Card Room and thatās my business to know. Video Poker is notoriously known for players staying in when they shouldnāt hence increasing the odds of hitting a royal. No one ever said the cards arenāt being dealt fairly. These are the statistics. People who answer a question with a question most likely have no experience.
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If you really own a card room, you should also be able to make very simple calculations of odds.
And possibly even be able to answer a politely formed question without replying with insults.
I apologize for bothering you, and I am sorry to have caught you on a bad day.
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It was not a bad day taetoā¦