GACKT Official Blog update. Translation below:

The start of this time’s poker Vegas expedition was not bad.

Though getting 4th place in the High Roller tournament as a start could be better…

As I was unable to get 1st place, there were many points to reflect on but I’ll bring it to the next one.
On the other hand, guitarist TAKUMI, who came along with me, laments his poor form.

Poker is something that is heavily affected by and based on your mental side.
That’s why,
I think that there are many players who focus on keeping it based on probabilities
to make sure that they don’t get mentally affected.

But probability is just probability.
Even though there are superstitions and such surrounding that, this is what I think.
Take for example,
only one bullet is loaded into a pistol and you have to put the gun to your temple and pull the trigger after spinning the cylinder.
Only one bullet is loaded.
In other words, you have a one in six chance (around 17%) of dying.
Depending on the person, some might think “That’s a high chance!”while others might think “If that’s the case I won’t die…” when they hear this.
This is exactly the same.

In the first place, the probability doesn’t change.
What I want to say is that, depending on the person, when put in the same situation that includes mental pressure, how they think of the probability is different too.

There’s probably some kind of cause-and-effect relationship between your mentality and the probability.
At the very least, for some reason, there are a lot of people who will think “It will work!” when they’re feeling upbeat despite a low probability, and the cards will actually come in too. There are probably a lot of times when there’s only a 3 or 4% chance and yet they can draw the cards out themselves.
When it’s bad, you won’t be able to get anything even if the probability is 40%.
From the perspective of those who play poker, they would’ve definitely had experienced this and will probably be nodding and thinking 【Such things indeed do happen…】.

That’s why,
even in martial arts, I think that you not only have to train up your skills
but you also have to put a lot of weight in mental training,
otherwise, in the first place, it’ll be a case where you only need to practice your skills.
Actually, even when you look back in human history,
isn’t it our predecessors who taught us that mental training is required in all martial arts and that our minds are always heavily involved in this.

Going back on topic,
today I decided to try participating in WSOP’s main satellite event as .a warm up.

A satellite event,
simply put, is like a qualifier round before the main tournament, so if I win here, I’ll be able to get the entry fee for the main event.

I participated with the thought that this will be a good reference for me to see how the participants of the main event actually play… but
beginning from the end, it wasn’t much of a reference.
This might just be my own opinion though…

In the end,
even if I made my references based on the people playing in the satellite event, more than half of them will be kicked out, and in other words, will disappear. In conclusion, I could only recognise that the satellite event is something like this after all, and strongly felt that this is definitely not a reference for the actual tournament.
Of course, there were good players among them too but
in the end, the only piece of information that I could add to my knowledge was the overall atmosphere of this tournament, and I could not even get the feeling that I understood「This is how Americans play」.

At the very least, I suppose I should keep the reference that a WSOP satellite is like this, just in case.
Furthermore,
you can join the satellite event with $100,
or $500, or $800, or $1000, or $2000, at different entry fees
despite that it’s the same event.

This time, I participated in the $2000 satellite event but
I thought the same thing while playing.
『This won’t be a reference point for the main event…』.

At best,
I only got the information on how to survive each of the satellite events, and that I won’t be able to imagine what the main event will be like without participating in the main event. Simply putting it in words, there’s too much I don’t know.

Furthermore, the speed of the satellite event is fast. If I get used to this, I think I’ll end up feeling as if the main event is too slack.
With this and that, I regretted playing in the satellite event in the middle of it but since I’m in it, I decided to survive until the end, and in the end, although I got through the satellite event, it was close to 4 a.m. when it ended.
And,
after that, by the time all the procedures and such were done, it was past 5:30 a.m..

I’m screwed.
The main event starts from the next day, and yet I’ll have to participate in it without having gotten much sleep.

Honestly, do you think I can produce good results at the main event when I’m in a state of maximum sleepiness?

Since it’s my first time, I’ll enjoy it first.
Anyway,
I want to sleep a little.

Until tomorrow then.
Good night.
Zzzzzzz

Source: GACKT Blog

Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team

Translation © GACKT ITALIA