The Poker Dip?

I bought a little book by Seth Godin a few months back called The Dip. I don’t always agree with Seth Godin, but I think he’s on to something with this concept. I’ve specifically related The Dip to business applications, but might it also apply to Poker?

The concept is that the reward for activity is pretty high at the beginning (I like to think of this as beginners luck). Then after a while, things get bad. Sometimes really bad. This is where lots of (most?) people give up.

Sort of like basketball tryouts in high school. It was easy at first, but it kept getting tougher and tougher. Eventually some kid fell to the ground with a seizure and started throwing up all over himself. He was airlifted to the city hospital. Needless to say, I did not go back to basketball tryouts the next day. I gave up- lest I be the one getting airlifted. I’m afriad of heights. And seizures. And throwing up all over myself in front of everyone (especially in high school) .

Anyway, the point is that the people that pushed through ‘the dip’ made it on the basketball team and were rewarded with cool jerseys and hot chicks.

Maybe my recent poor poker performance is part of a dip? I told a friend that, “now I know enough to confuse the hell out of me and make me lose every game.” He’s pretty smart and he said that’s pretty normal I guess. I hope so. And I hope there’s a nice payout at the end of this dip.