Member-only story
Life Lessons at the Poker Table
An indispensable lesson is how to eat after you lose.
There is a never ending debate over whether poker is a game of luck or a game of skill. Of course, it’s both.
In all the time I played Texas hold ’em poker, I can only remember once drawing four of a kind. My hole cards were a pair of deuces. That was nothing to write home about until the flop delivered the other two deuces and there I was — sitting on quads.
Everybody had checked prior to the flop. On being delivered quads, I made a small bet after the flop. I thought I was signaling nothing more than a low pair.
Whatever I was signaling was enough to screw me, because I’m damned if everybody didn’t fold! The Poker Gods gave me four of a kind and all I got to show for it was the antes. Life lesson: size is in the eye of the beholder.
I was most often playing poker in a clubhouse belonging to an apparently all-white organization known for charitable work on behalf of ailing children, which did not make the game legal but made it unlikely to draw law enforcement attention. The nearest casino was a long drive and losing money was my…
