So I thought I would start a blog about the ideas that went into my book Unleash Your Hidden Poker Memory. How in the world did I get here?
Well, It started in 2010 about the last weekend in August. I was just starting to train for the Manitoba Marathon and on the last Sunday in August ( a fairly warm one ) and I went for a 10 mile run with my two dogs Johnny and Doyle ( named after Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson ).
Well things were going well on the run until about mile 9 when Johnny didn't look so good. I slowed down to walk with him and Doyle but he was panting really hard and really started to get bad. Little by little he got worse and he eventually collapsed less than a mile from home.
I frantically ran to a phone to call my wife Leissa to pick us up and we really didn't know what was wrong. At first we thought it might have been heat exhaustion but Johnny and Doyle had run in far hotter weather for far longer on many occasions and Doyle was completely fine.
So we cooled him off and waited for him to get better.
That was the worst decision I have made in a long time.
I still feel guilty. I should have taken him to the vet right away because he really didn't get better. When we did take him the vet gave us absolutely horrific news. Johnny's organs were shutting down and he was dying. When we asked why the vet told us they didn't really know but his stomach could have turned and combined with the heat made the problem worse.
I was absolutely beside myself. How could a vibrant 2 year old dog deteriorate and pass away so quickly?
We made the decision to put him down, and I can't remember a time I felt that horrible.
The house was simply not the same after that. We were used to hearing both dogs playing and now it was just quiet. Too quiet.
I couldn't be in the house anymore, everywhere I looked reminded me of Johnny. So I suggested to Leissa that we take a trip that weekend to Minneapolis to try to grieve over our family member and get some closure.
So we did, we all packed up and went to Minneapolis and took an extra long weekend to reflect and try to heal.
While we were out there we went shopping at Mall of America and I decided to split from the family and go see the stores in the mall and if you have ever been there you will know there is one store called Marbles The Brain Store.
I have always been into brain development, puzzles and so forth and decided what the hell, let's see what they got.
Turns out they had a lot of neat stuff in there and one item which I bot started the entire journey down MEMORY lane possible. I saw and bought a DVD that claimed you could memorized playing cards.
I remember when I bought it the skeptic in me said this is most likely the worst allocation of $50 I had ever done but whatever. I bought it and a few other books on memory and recall and tucked it in a bag and went off to meet my family at a nearby restaurant.
We finished our trip to Minneapolis and I promptly took the bags of shopping in the house and forgot about the books and DVD's I had bought for about 3 weeks until I stumbled upon them while looking for something else.
It was late but I decided to put the DVD on memorizing cards on just to see if it worked.
Well it did.
I really couldn't believe it.
After doing the exercises I was actually able to remember which cards had been played with a little help. HMMMMMMM this is cool.
I decided the next day I was going to find time and learn all I could about memory, recall and how to become better at it.
Until my next installment..
Bennett Onika
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