Playing the Hand You're Dealt

As a former mid-westerner, playing cards consumed a good chunk of social time during the winter months. Once the sun and the temperatures went down, staying inside made good sense.

We played cards. Hearts, Spades, Euchre, Spoons, Rook, and sometimes Poker, and for the old people Bridge, card games helped pass the time and was lots of fun.

Since moving to the Houston, Texas area, where moderate weather allows for golf in December, card playing isn't such a big deal. Also, flat screens, big screens, surround sound, and all the home theater stuff has made a dent into one of the worlds greatest pasttimes.

And then Texas Hold 'Em became a nationwide hit. At a Holiday party we were at last year eight year olds were sitting, seriously contemplating options at the Hold 'Em table. Forget the adults and their erudite conversation, the tricked out garage sporting sugar cookies and cards was where it was happening.

Friends of ours, borderline rednecks, pinknecks we'll call them (if they protest, I'd like to remind them that they live in Groceville, pronounced Gross-ville, on a street called Tree Monkey Road and the next town over is Cut-n-Shoot and a barbeque pit the size of a tractor trailer sits in their FRONT yard), immersed themselves in Texas Hold 'Em. Since they were not easily persuaded in the joys of Bridge, we joined 'em.

Texas Hold 'Em is deceivingly simple. Much as baseball fans wrinkle their pointy noses at the barbarians who love football (that would be me, too--the barbian who loves football, I mean), more civilized card players might believe that a game like Poker is for simple minds. That would be a wrong assessment.

Poker reveals human nature in a way that all good sporting events do. Bad and good luck come and go, bad and good hands come and go, impatience is lethal, cowardice will seal your fate and bold, calculated strokes are rewarded. Failing to act decisively when the kill is at hand may result in your own demise. Oh, and there is money involved to make it interesting.

Here is the thing, the best players rise above no matter the hands they are dealt, no matter the mood their in, no matter the foes (I mean players) they face. This, to me, is remarkable. I aspire to this steel-willed, clarity and skill.

I am a novice. My best option is to throw away a lot of garbage hands and stick with strength. This is trying in Hold 'Em because you get punished, good cards or not, by the blinds. You can find yourself swirling in a vortex of $1000 blinds, fighting to stay above the surface looking at a pair of sevens like happened to me last night, only to be bested by a 4 of Clubs on the River by a bully wielding a poopy pair of fours. Like life, Texas Hold 'Em ain't always fair.

That's why I love it. It has grown on me. Bridge, a partner game which is primarily strategic and tactical, counts on a partner communication for success, is still the best card game, in my opinion. But for raw, real life analogies, Texas Hold 'Em, beats all.

You may disagree, but I believe our walk in life, primarily rests on our individual free will. We are given a hand of cards, sometimes a set of double bullets, sometimes threes and fours like happened to me ALL NIGHT LONG last night. Sometimes the aces win, and sometimes the fours win because while our choices our ours alone, there are lots of other cards on the table and other players, too.

Like life, the Poker Table will allow you to rant and rave and curse the unfairness of it all, but it won't help much. The game keeps going and the longer you're out of it mentally or literally, the less likely you'll win. You have just get over it and keep playing. Like a new day, a new hand is coming and you might as well give it your best shot.

The downside of Texas Hold 'Em? Losing. I hate it. Passionately. Not just the sporting nature of it, but the money too. I don't like someone else losing either. Throwing money away is despicable to me.

The only thing, is that when money isn't on the table, people play differently. Like a Bi-Polar patient whose perpetually manic, the player ungoverned by potential financial harm, plays every hand like a winner. It throws the rhythm of the whole thing off. Money has to be on the table, there must be losers--the consequences invoke discipline. I guess that's like life, too. People play life differently when they have absolutely nothing to lose.

The other extreme, which I'm more prone to, is analysis by paralysis. The results of weenie play can be equally punishing. Sitting on the fence, waiting for the perfect circumstances, predicts doom, too. Who, in life, gets dealt the perfect hand? So many successful people, find a winning hand where others see big losers.

My goal, like eveyone else's I'd guess, is to have a seat at the winner's table. Each time I'd like to win the whole thing. True. But since that doesn't always happen, the habits of discipline, intelligence, self-control, wisdom, awareness, and boldness will hopefully get me into a position where I can play as long as possible and someday win.