I won the Pokemon World Championship at 10. Twenty years later I flew to Salt Lake City to try it again. Here’s what nine rounds taught me, and how I actually did.
My friends kept texting to ask how I did at a Pokémon regional in Salt Lake City. So here’s the post, business lessons and all. Stick around for the result.
If you know me, you know I peaked at 10. I was the Pokémon World Champion two years running, 2000 to 2002. Roll your eyes, but it’s been on every resume I’ve ever written, and it turns out the way you win a strategy card game is the way you win in business. (The cards my family pulled back then are also worth a small fortune now, literally more than a lottery ticket. Fellow nerds: @blastoisekid.)
Super Trainer Showdown Winner, 2000. Swim shorts and Harry-Potter glasses, fueled by maple bacon donuts and pizza.
So after 20 years away, I figured I’d jump back in and go for gold. Thanks to Brittany and the family for indulging me. I went 4-4-1. I’ll get to that. First, what nine rounds reminded me about competing.
1. Reps beat talent.
I walked in with 34 games under my belt: twelve weeks of evenings at shops around Jacksonville after a two-decade layoff. My average opponent was playing 30 to 40 games a week. I asked them. So I had the skill and almost none of the reps, and it showed. I was reading cards for the first time mid-match, learning what they did while the clock ran.
Talent is real and hard to teach. It also loses to volume. An average player with huge reps beats a gifted one who doesn’t practice, every time, over a long enough season. Reps are what turn skill into results and shrink the role of luck. It’s the same reason the agent who runs the listing presentation fifty times closes the deal the “naturally gifted” one fumbles.
2. Pick your deck before you sit down.
I ran Arc/Pika/Tina, the #12 deck going in. Not a meta deck, which is a polite way of saying the math says it won’t beat the field consistently. I knew that and played it anyway. Nine rounds later, the math was right.
Strategy is chosen before the effort starts, not during it. Study the whole field, find the lane where you actually have an edge, and commit to it. Pick the wrong lane and it won’t matter how hard you play. Your market position is your deck. Choose it on purpose.
3. Study the best, then take what works.
The most useful conversations I had all weekend were with strong players from other regions, people who’ll never sit across from me at my home shop. No competition, all upside. The fastest way to the top is to play the people already there, copy what they do, and adjust it to fit you.
Mastermind with people a level ahead who aren’t your direct rivals. It’s the cheapest tuition there is.
4. Curiosity beats judgment.
I asked a lot of opponents why they were there. The answers were all over the map, and none of them were what I’d assumed. Everyone’s playing a different game for a different reason. Judging them tells you nothing and costs you focus. Stay curious. Just remember the reason someone shows up isn’t what wins them the round. Reps and focus do.
5. Luck is real, so earn the right to use it.
Anyone who says luck isn’t a factor has never opened a dead hand at the wrong time. A lucky amateur can beat a skilled player in a single round. Over a season, the skilled, prepared player wins. The job is to have the reps to cash in when good luck shows up, and a plan for when it doesn’t.
6. Commit, or keep it a hobby.
Here’s my honest limit: I’m not willing to trade evenings with my kids and my wife to grind 40 games a week right now. So I won’t be the best again this season, and I’ve made peace with that.
Greatness lives at the extremes, and the extreme has a price. Half-effort buys you the middle, and the middle is a miserable place to live. So either pay the price to climb or call it a hobby on purpose. Both are fine. Pretending is the only bad option.
7. Play the long resource game.
In Pokémon, the player who spends everything for a quick burst usually wins early and loses late. The one who paces resources across the whole game wins the matches that matter. Business is identical. Your time, cash, energy, and attention are the deck. Spend them like the game is long, because it is.
8. Get out of Loserville fast.
Drop your first couple of rounds and the system pairs you down. Suddenly you’re across from people running strange decks who aren’t really trying to win, playing a game you never practiced for. There’s a special kind of chaos at the bottom, and it’s sticky. The longer you sit there, the more your standards drift to match it. Whatever the arena, claw out of the bottom bracket fast. It’s far harder to climb out than to avoid it.
One more thing, because life is short: I love this stuff. The oddballs, the over-thinkers, the people who found their inner nerd and stopped apologizing for it. There’s no one to impress out there. It’s you versus you. We’re all dead in a hundred years, so you may as well enjoy the game you’re playing.
How I did: nine rounds, four wins, four losses, one tie. Thirteen points. I needed eighteen to make day two. High skill, low reps, exactly the result lesson one predicts. I’m running it back at four or five regionals next year, with the reps this time.
If you want to learn, or want your kids to (it’s great for kids: reading, strategy, and real competition in a safe room), check out Cool Stuff Games in Jacksonville or The Woke Poke in St. Augustine. Or email me and I’ll connect you.
“The best players minimize bad luck by playing proven decks and modifying them slightly for their preferences.”
This is no different in real estate.
Onward,
Jon Brooks
Co-Founder, Momentum Realty
This article is a personal essay by Jon Brooks, adapted from his Substack. It is for general informational purposes only. Portions of this page were prepared with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by our team.