By: Dennis McCaslin
I have a friend who is a competitive poker player. A very good competitive poker player, I might add. I don't know if people are more shocked that I have a friend who is a competitive poker player or by the fact that I have any friends at all.
I was talking to him last night about recent events in my life. He's a trusted friend, someone I respect, and I was looking for some advice from him on how to deal with what I feel is a very unfair and unjust situation.
He listened intently. When I finished he said he had a little story he wanted to tell me.
He said when he first started playing poker on what he considered to be a professional level, his move up in ranks came on the heels of him being very successful playing poker in a lot of the area casino.
He said at the first professional tournament he played in Tunica that he knew from the moment he sat down at the table he was in over his head. After a half dozen hands, he says he panicked and reverted back to some of the techniques that he had been able to use when playing casual poker with his friends or even when playing in the casinos.
Because he was desperate, he started to bluff. He said he got away with it for a couple of hands and had won quite a few chips back. But then, he said, he started losing again like clockwork. He said it reached the point where if he was bluffing, if he had the better hand, or if he thought someone else was trying to bluff him it didn't seem to matter.
"See", he said, "what happened was I was so bold and off kilter with my bluffs that it took the rest of people around the table a few hands to catch my rhythm and figure out my tells. Once they did that, I was doomed."
"The more I tried to bluff, the worse it got. When I had good cards, I was afraid to play them because I was getting dead stares from the other players. And I didn't dare to try to continue bluffing because I was losing so many chips."
"I eventually figured out, and it's a concept that I use to this day, that you never, ever try to bluff unless you're pretty certain you can get away with it, and you never go all in with what you think is the best hand unless you feel absolutely certain that you have the cards and the other players don't."
In other words what Kenny Rogers said in that song. You got to know when to hold them, you got to know when to fold them.
I've never tried to play competitive poker. I played in a blackjack tournament one time at one of the local casinos on a lark and I bluffed my way to the finals, mainly because I didn't know what the hell I was doing.
I could have and should have won the damn thing. But I had so many casino regulars standing around the table, mumbling and grumbling about me playing as bad as I was and still winning, that I was afraid someone would try to snuff me out before I got to my car.
I deliberately took a hit on 17 hoping I would bust. I did, their "local best player" walked out with the $1,000 first prize and I took second, netting $500. It was $500 more than I had when I walked in, and to be perfectly honest I never should have won that.
People that were standing behind my back cussing me when they thought I was going to win the tournament, started shaking my hand and congratulating me on my effort. After their buddy had "showed me".
Once again, I had no idea of what I was doing. I was just playing the cards that were dealt me based upon the old rule of thumb of how you should play blackjack. Like my friend in his first competitive poker tournament, I got real far down in a hurry and started bluffing like I knew what I was doing trying to dig my way out of a hole. Because no one knew me and had never see me play, I got away with it.
Another thing is, for whatever reason, the cards just fell my way. As the old saying goes, "it be's that way sometime". It wouldn't have surpried to have drawn a four on the final hit I took. She was a red nine and I sighed. In relief.
My opponent had stood on a hard 16. And won because he did. If I had just had faith and didn't give a damn about what a bunch of random people I probably would never want to share a cab with thought of me, I would have walked out with $500 more when I stood on my 17.
Because I didn't persevere and win the tournament against one of their buddies, all of a sudden I wasn't such a bad guy after all. That got me some high fives and cost me $500.
My opponent had a ten showing and had stood with a six in the hole. And won because he did. If I had just had faith and didn't give a damn about what a bunch of random people I probably would never want to share a cab with thought of me, I would have walked out with $500 more.
I ain't that guy anymore. I play to win now.
The moral of the story, as my poker playing friend imparted it to me, is that the game of poker is a lot like the game of life. Sometimes you might bluff your way through some early circumstances, but at the end of the day if you're not holding the best hand eventually you're going to lose. All the bluffing in the world is not going to help you once everyone else sitting at the table has figured you out.
If we apply that to life, what we learn is that while deceit and dishonesty might work for some people in the beginning, in the end everybody's going to figure out who you are. And respond accordingly.
Furthermore, as I was talking to him about the situations and activities that had put me in a dark place in my life for a little while he told me that I should take my Bible and read Proverbs, Chapters 17 and 18. And that's exactly what I did.
Regardless of how you feel about religion or the Bible in general, there's a lot of good stuff in that book that can open your eyes to a lot of situations. After I read what he told me to read I realized not only was he hitting the nail on the head but he was driving a 10-penny nail into a concrete with a 16-pound sledgehammer.
Rest assured, this is not the only advice that I have heard and heeded in the last several months during this ordeal. There are lots of people, probably a lot more people than you would ever estimate, that are standing with me as I continue to walk through this fire.
Back to my poker playing friend. The outcome of his story is that he now plays poker full-time in a lot of exotic and interesting locations and makes a lot of money at it.
I'm talking about a lot of money.
Metaphorically, the one thing that I have learned if you're not always pleased with the dealer or the cards you are dealt, there is always going to be another hand. As long as you haven't tried to bluff your way into a hole you can't climb out of, there is always a chance that you're going to turn out the winner.
I try to not spend a lot of time in casinos nowadays. I'll pop in one every now and then and play slots with the monthly free play on my Players card and maybe invest another $20-$30 to boot . It's a hoot, and to be honest with you it's fairly cheap entertainment. Especially if you are, like I am, a people watcher.
Nothing against you folks to try to bluff and gamble your way through life. I just don't have the heart for it. So I'm going to continue to sit back, wait until I have been dealt a good hand,and have evaluated everyone else's position at the table, and then I'm going to rake in the big pot.
You got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.
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