Poker News

Donald Woods Jr.

My friend told me that his wife gave him an ultimatum. Since she just happened to be a very intelligent woman whom I have had the pleasure of meeting, I considered the source a good one. She extended him an opportunity to choose between his beloved cards/dice/horse-racing addictions or lose her to a “long shot”; new suitor. Well, since his marriage meant more to him than anything, he accepted the forced challenge. The specifics were somewhat garbeed but, there was a request to attend Gambler’s Anonymous classes. Now, most of you, card players-do not either recognize or know it but you-are gambling. If the insignia on the game plate says, $15-20 on down to 1-2 dollars for any game of hold’em, stud, hi-lo split, Omaha, or any other variations, guess what? You are gambling. Gambling could be described as: some form of risks involving return on investment where the outcome is truly in goubt. The key component in that statement is the part about IN DOUBT. Since poker is now readily available on the network, cable channels, an astute person-such as my friend’s wife-can observe the games being played relative to what her man is experiencing. Naturally, from that the short-term understanding why there is no money in the account is: he/she is gambling! If you look at it from the standpoint of a person on the outside looking in, there are two kinds of players those that win and those that do not! The ones that do not win need to attend Gambler Anonymous, period! Conversely, in my entire life I have never heard someone tell a winning player that he/she needs some sort of diversion/help/ therapy or utter a negative phrase about his or her sessions. The only thing you may here is when are you going to go back and win some more money.

To be honest, many of you really do not have winning at the forefront of your agenda for a variety of reasons. One rationale is: winning or losing is not relative to your existence, therefore playing badly; playing every hand has no bearing on whether you in fact survive. The second scenario involves a person with long-term goals with a commitment to beating the game through the arduous task of preparation and patience, not to mention a sizable bankroll. The final analogy involves the most common description that I can think of right now………….YOU ARE SICK WITH IT! That’s right, some of y’all got it bad, and that ain’t good. Don’t make me start telling it here tonight.

Now, do you want to know who you are? Here is a little test. If you’ve been knocked out of the tournament two hours ago, have not played a side game of any kind, don’t have any money left, don’t know any first names of any the players left in the tournament, and you are waiting to see who wins while falling asleep in a chair…YOU ARE SICK WITH IT. If you here a person across the room holler JACK-POT and you run to see if you know somebody at the table, YOU ARE SICK WITH IT! Speaking of which, why is it that the person on the P.A. system always hollers out: “Attention a jackpot has just been hit on table 55 to the tune of ten thousand dollars. Why don’t you come on over and see if you know anybody in the game, it’s the table behind the flat screen TV! The winner is in the plaid shirt to the dealer’s left.” If I just described you in any of the aforementioned scenarios, you can just hook up with my friend and car pool to the Gambler’s anonymous meetings and save a buck on gas, cause you?re surely going to need it.

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