Are you reading about sex or poker? You think about it several times a day. Your mind wanders off to think about it during odd times and in odd places. You have thought about it in the car, at work, and at the dinner table. Heck, you have to admit you’ve often even dreamed about it! Even when you consciously try NOT to think about it in order to focus on something else, you still inadvertently allow thoughts of it to pop into your mind! When you finally do get a chance to do it, you instantly start to think about when you can try again (and maybe get better the next time!)

So, what do you think? Is that above paragraph about sex, or is it about poker? I guess it really hardly matters, because they are nearly equally enthralling and captivating for many of us. I know many guys (and some ladies, too) who spend a goodly portion of their days daydreaming about one or the other. I have one poker buddy who jokes that if both occur in the same day, it is as close to Utopia as you can get here on Earth.

Let me take a moment to pose a hypothetical scenario. After about 7 levels of an online tournament, you have a nice chip stack and are likely to cruise to at least a cash finish. About that time, you get that enticing stare and wry smile from your partner as he/she moves up the stairs and towards the bedroom. You know that you could log off of the poker website that moment to go to the bedroom and log onto … ah, you know. You also guess that if you play out the tournament, the opportunity will have passed and your partner will probably be asleep. So, what do you do? I’d bet that most of the people reading this article would quickly decide to play on for the win. The psychotherapist might say to that decision, “Hmm, very interesting.”

Back in 1943, Dr. Abraham Maslow penned a famous article outlining his theory of the “Hierarchy of Human Needs.” His theory is one of the most widely accepted principals in the realm of psychology today, mostly because it just makes good sense. Like a pyramid, he placed basic needs (physiological needs such as food & oxygen) at the base with self-actualization (being true to self, moral, thoughtful, etc.) at the top. He contended that we (all human beings) must have the lower needs met before we can move upward and grow. It is funny that we will so often deprive our basic needs due to poker. Sex is one of Maslow’s basic human needs. We are compelled to procreate. Food is certainly one as well. Yet, I recently saw a man so desperate to stay at the table during a rush of hot cards that he bartered three red chips ($15 USD) for a 99 cent pack of Tic-Tac breath mints from a guy beside him. He was so hungry he devoured the mints as if they were a succulent steak. Expelling waste is a basic need. I know most of us have held “it” until we’ve cramped before sprinting to the bathroom in an emergency mode, just to avoid missing the deal of the cards.

I suppose that this means I should be altering Maslow’s hierarchy to better suit us poker players. Carlisle’s Hierarchy of Poker Players’ Needs will have poker at the base. Check that; winning at poker will be at the base. After all, isn’t that what essentially drives us? I will have competition, profit, and the need to revel in the power of check-raising down low on that pyramid, too. Sex, food, water – those incidentals will just have to come later. Expect my report in an upcoming journal of the American Psychological Association. I’m sure that Dr. Maslow would have understood, if he would have been a poker player.

In addition to being a columnist for many of the top poker magazines in the U.S. and Canada, John is a National Certified Counselor (NCC) in America. He has a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from West Virginia University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from Lock Haven University. You can arrange for interviews, speaking engagements, or find out more about the psychology of poker by emailing carlisle14@hotmail.com.