{"id":6540,"date":"2023-07-23T08:27:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-23T12:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=6540"},"modified":"2023-07-23T08:27:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-23T12:27:31","slug":"being-a-goat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2023\/07\/23\/being-a-goat\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a Goat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a “Sunday Story”. There’s no politics today, just a story about the World Series of Poker – and being a “goat”. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goat Hood<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was a coach for over forty years. I coached wrestling, cross country; and for forty years I coached track.\u00a0\u00a0Over the time, I learned a lot about how my athletes dealt with pressure, from their first competition at a dual meet, to the State and even National levels.\u00a0\u00a0One of the lessons from all of those competitors was that everyone needs a \u201cgoat\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of recent definitions of \u201cgoat\u201d.  Maurice Greene, world record holder and top US sprinter of the 1990\u2019s (two Olympic Gold Medals, five World Championship Golds) had the letters tattooed on his shoulder.  Who wants to be a \u201cgoat\u201d?  According to Greene he was the Greatest of All Time \u2013 the GOAT!!  Michael Johnson, Carl Lewis, and the soon to be introduced Usain Bolt would all take exception to his Goat-Hood, but those Gold Medals clinking around his neck, for that moment, were pretty convincing.  So was his then-world record time of 9.79 for the 100 meters.  That\u2019s pretty GOAT-ly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NFL 49\u2019ers Jerry Rice and soccer legend (and now Miami player) Lionel Messi also have GOAT tattoos of one kind or another.  Greene was the best in his event, and inarguably so were Rice and Messi.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companion Goat<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019m talking about a different kind of goat, one more closely related to the four-legged, hard-headed, sure-footed animal (not those weird fainting goats).  In horse racing, the thoroughbreds are the very definition of \u201chigh strung\u201d.  They are always \u201con the edge\u201d of training and temperament.  Every change makes a difference, from the jockey to the trainer to the track.  And every successful thoroughbred learns to adapt to new stables, new noises and new smells.   Good trainers find some way to \u201cnormalize\u201d the situation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s plenty of money, maybe the trainer brings along a stable horse, one that the racer is used to.  But another \u201ctrick\u201d is to use a different animal as a stable mate.  Back at home, the thoroughbred lives with an actual goat in the stall.  Then when it\u2019s time for the \u201cbig race\u201d, the goat goes along for the ride.  The goat\u2019s \u201cjob\u201d is to keep the horse calm, to make things feel like \u201cat home\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So as a track coach when I qualified a single athlete to the Regional, State, or even the National meet; I always took a \u201cgoat\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Their job was to enjoy the ride, hang out and warm up with the \u201cHorse\u201d, and\u00a0\u00a0keep things calm in a highly charged championship environment.\u00a0\u00a0It also let me be the coach, rather than a split coach\/goat.\u00a0\u00a0That made my job easier, the trip more enjoyable for everyone, and it let the \u201cgoat\u201d see what the \u201cbig leagues\u201d of competition were all about.\u00a0\u00a0Someday maybe he (or she) would need their own goat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tournament Poker<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not a card player, but we once had a poker tournament as a fund-raiser for our track team. It was the smokiest room ever. That’s where I learned the basics about what’s called \u201cTexas Hold-em\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s seven-card poker.\u00a0Each player is dealt two cards face down.\u00a0\u00a0Then there is a round of betting.\u00a0\u00a0Next, three cards are placed face up on the table.\u00a0\u00a0All the players can combine their two down cards with the three on the table to make their hand.\u00a0\u00a0Another round of betting occurs.\u00a0\u00a0Then \u201cthe turn\u201d, a fourth card is placed up on the table, followed by more betting and a fifth card, \u201cthe river\u201d is placed up.\u00a0\u00a0That completes the seven cards for seven-card poker, two down, five up.\u00a0\u00a0A Final round of betting, and the best hand wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tournament poker isn\u2019t the wild-wild west kind of card betting with money and whiskey on the table (and a pistol underneath).\u00a0\u00a0In tournament poker you \u201cbuy in\u201d, and get a number of chips to play.\u00a0\u00a0The tournament then goes on until one player has chips left.\u00a0\u00a0He (or she) is the winner of the tournament.\u00a0\u00a0It’s kind of like Monopoly – the winner has all the Monopoly money – the chips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Series (WSOP)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I got a call from my nephew Chris the other day.\u00a0\u00a0He was in Las Vegas (he sent me a photo of fireworks there on the Fourth of July), and he loves tournament poker. But I didn\u2019t know that he entered in the World Series of Poker – Main Event.\u00a0\u00a0There are over 10,000 participants in the tournament, each with a buy-in of $10,000 ($100 million total).\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not winner-take-all, the winner gets $12 million. The rest of the prize money is divided so that if you make the top 1500 players or so, you get at least $15000.\u00a0\u00a0That pays for your “buy-in” and expenses. The longer you last in the tournament after that, the more you get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Chris was in Vegas, by himself, in the World Series of Poker. It’s the biggest poker tournament of the season, a tournament so big it goes on for a total of ten days.   He didn\u2019t need advice about poker (at least not from me), what he needed was just someone to share his experience, talk through his decisions, and just be that other person \u201cin the stall\u201d to smooth things out. Chris needed a goat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He first contacted me on July 10th<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019d already been playing for a couple of days, and there were\u00a0\u00a0\u201conly\u201d 1520 left in the tournament.\u00a0\u00a0That number turned out to be critical:\u00a0\u00a0the first level of the \u201cwinning\u201d $15000 was 1507.\u00a0\u00a0Get to that, and the entry costs were paid and he was making money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Stall<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We talked about the same things I would say to my athletes.\u00a0\u00a0Sure there were the technical aspects of the game, but there were also all of the issues created by days of focus and concentration.\u00a0\u00a0Tournament poker is about the cards, but it\u2019s also about reading the other players, and determining when to \u201c\u2026hold\u2019em or fold-em\u201d (thanks Kenny Rogers).\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes you might even have the best hand, but it\u2019s not worth risking all of your chips (going \u201call-in\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0And sometimes you have no choice.\u00a0\u00a0After all, it\u2019s called \u201cgambling\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So my key words were \u201cfocus and the goal\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Keep focus for games that lasted for hours, often until the early morning hours, and a tournament that lasts for days.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And keep \u201cyour eye on the prize\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Sure it\u2019d be nice to win $12 million.\u00a0\u00a0But the longer you could stay at the table with chips, the higher up the \u201cprize money\u201d chart you\u2019d go.\u00a0\u00a0Advancement and survival;\u00a0\u00a0that\u2019s the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paying Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It went on for three more days. Chris played the \u201csmall ball\u201d game, folding a lot, taking chances when he had to, and building his chips carefully.  And we texted and talked at breaks.  He let me in on the experience of his poker competition, a whole different world to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all of those other National contests, it was a competition. Chris didn\u2019t make the \u201cfinal table\u201d, a guaranteed cool million.\u00a0\u00a0But he did end up 102nd, the top one percent of the tournament, and earned a $67,700 prize check.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s happy with the money.\u00a0\u00a0But, he’s a competitor, a “Horse”. He wanted to go further; for the money, but even more, for the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’ll go back, I\u2019m sure. He\u2019ll use his experience to improve his game.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s still a card game; in the end, how the cards fall determines a lot in poker.\u00a0Like any competition, you can’t control “all the variables”. Sometimes, you just go “card dead”. Luck plays a role. But when he does return to Vegas, I hope he needs another “text-goat\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It was a fun ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h5>\n\n\n\n