Tommyisms

Everyone plays poker exactly the same way. As they please.

Walking away is easy. The hard part is standing up.

My bankroll is the amount of money I would spend or lose before I got a job. It is calculated by adding my net worth to whatever I can borrow.

He who acts last lasts.

He who leaks least lasts too.

It's never wrong to not play.

No one is tiltless, which means everyone can tilt less.

Seventy-five percent of all poker players think they play better than the other seventy-five percent.

Failure is a growth opportunity.

DNA and cards are digital. People and poker are analog.

I am a revisionary.

The only way to get by without a job is to not have one.

In reciprocality reality, it's not about what you do, and it's not about what they do. It's both.

Saying that position is important at poker is like saying that altitude is important at flying, or that water is important at swimming.

It's the easiest thing in the world, to become a professional poker player. All you have to do is quit your job.

No decision before its time.

Small pocket pairs have good limplied odds.

The best way to play poker is to act like Jesus but play like the devil.

The betting decisions that trouble us most are the ones that matter least.

Each fold builds latent potential.

In poker tournaments, the trophy goes to the last man sitting.

No-limit hold'em is about stack sizes whereas limit hold'em is about stuck sizes.

I'd rather be weak-tight than strong-broke.

There is nothing quite like the high I get from low expectations.

When I keep missing and they keep hitting, I get very flushstraighted.

Game selection to me is not so much about getting in games when I have way the best of it as it is about getting out of games when I don't.

On the river, I provide the rope. The rest is up to you.

The surest way to end a gambling career is to gamble.

Living without controls takes discipline.

Rules are meant to be made up.

I quit roulette when I turned 37.

The most I ever lost at poker was everything.

Confirmation is as good as inspiration.

Tilted poker is like crooked teeth. It's not your fault, and it can be fixed.

To win at poker, you have to be very good at losing.

No brainers are no gainers.

Only you know when you knew better.

My secret is I keep secrets.

Take a beat, take a breath.

Poker is a process of illumination.

It feels really good to not feel bad.

The illusion is that we think we are separate.

I think, therefore I suffer.

I knew that if I ever went broke at poker, it wouldn't be because my best wasn't good enough to keep me afloat. It'd be because my worst was bad enough to sink me.

I can never get even at poker. I already spent the money.

There's really only two positions during a poker hand: last, and not last.

Inevitability happens.

Lending is an inverse freeroll.

Meditation helps my mental game in the same way that food helps me not starve to death.

So close, but so what?

I knew he was going to die the day I met him.

You can't hear what is quieter than you.

I cut myself on the raiser's edge.

The act of coming back to the present tense is the cure for running bad.

It's never too late to start stopping.

The problem is not the problem.

Life is a game of incomplete information.

The idea that ideas are just ideas is just an idea.

Compassion for all doesn't leave anyone out.

Unmade choices remain.

Your poker bankroll is an imaginary wall between some of your money and the rest of it.

Learning how to meditate without using a meditation bench is like learning how to play guitar without using guitar strings.

I eat life and shit paragraphs.