I think it was Magnum P.I. who kept talking about this, but he did so because there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. Yes, Tom Selleck’s character knew how very important it was to heed that little set of words.

I’ve lived my entire adult life hearing that voice chirp away whenever I started to get myself into a fix or a bind, and that’s the point where free will REALLY takes over. My problem has always been that I don’t back down or away from any situation that I know I should be on top of, and yes, several times when I was young that steadfastness had almost gotten me killed. This is where my earliest memories are of how theory has no chance up against reality – a concept I use as I teach many others how to play video poker.

So let’s go back to the early ‘90’s when I was a budding, educated advantage player who knew all the ropes. Many, many times I sat at the machines far beyond the time I should have. I gave up tons of sleep just so I could pound my way into the long-term as fast as I could, and I really had no interest in looking back. At the same time that the little voice was mocking me for wasting all my time, it was also scolding me for choosing to spend most of the few days a month I was able to be home, in Nevada - instead of staying home in Arizona with my family. Of course I heard that voice, but it was safely muffled with a powerful addiction to play.

When did the breakthrough finally come where I actually began to LISTEN and REACT the proper way to what that little voice was always saying? Sadly, nothing changed until the day in October, 1999 that I was flying from New Delhi to Manila and while over India, that voice said “Hey pal, you’ve spent 25 years living & flying around the world while being away from your family; You’ve developed a winning video poker strategy that you’ve tested out positively for most of the past 3 years and you did that for a reason; It’s time...” I got on the sky phone, called home, called my office in the UK, and 24 hours later I was home for good. And it was the BEST move I have ever made. Thank you little voice, and thank God I listened.

But it didn’t end there. Once I started my weekly trips to Nevada to play and beat the video poker machines at a nearly 86% clip, that little voice became a very good friend of mine. Now the challenges, as simple as they seemed compared to those that I faced in the years prior, had to do with making sure I always did what I said I was going to do while playing. My strategy was not simply to sit there like a robotic zombie anymore; it was to progress until I won my goal (or lost my trip-allotted bankroll) and to immediately get up and leave the state until next time. And there was not – and still is not – one time where that voice has ever been ignored.

There are those who say it’s not possible to do what I do on such a consistent basis, and those are the people looking at it all from the other side of the street. It is illogical to try and apply long-term rules and theories to a short-term approach that relies on reality to dictate the outcome. I wonder what that little voice in the back of their minds is REALLY telling them...