Poker

Though the cards you’re dealt are a matter of luck, poker is a game of skill.  You must play whatever cards you’re dealt.  But good cards or bad, over time the skilled player will usually come out ahead.

Poker lends itself to many life lessons.  For example, we don’t control the cards we’re dealt, nor do we control the cards dealt to others. Lucky amulets and other superstitious rituals don’t change the random distribution of the cards. We don’t control the cards any more than we controlled who were our parents or the circumstances into which we were born.

Bad cards happen to good people. Good cards happen to bad people. The virtuous player and the sinner are equally likely to get good or bad cards.  The cards are indifferent. Nothing is more frustrating than watching someone you dislike get good cards time after time, while sitting for hours getting zilch.  But you shake your head, learn to live with it, then go home and read Job.

Sometimes you get unlucky and a good play has a bad outcome.  Sometimes you get lucky and a bad play turns out okay.  Good play means making good decisions, irrespective of the outcome. Make good plays.  It’s good to be lucky.  But luck is fleeting and over time luck evens out.  It’s good to be lucky, but it’s better to be good.  Luck never lasts but skill endures.

Poker, like life, is a rollercoaster.  There are always hot and cold cards, good and bad streaks.  At those times I recall the words attributed to the wisdom of Solomon, “This too shall pass.”

One of the most important lessons for successful poker is, “know thyself.”  Stay humble, knowing that there is always someone certain to be better. A sure path to losing poker is to overestimate your skill and underestimate the skill of your opponent.

When poker, or life, is not going well, there is a tendency to blame the cards.  “It wasn’t fair.”  “It wasn’t my fault.”  “I had no choice.”  These are familiar cries.  However, if as I believe life is a lot like poker, you may not control the cards, but you are responsible to make the most from what you’re dealt.  Knowledge of the game matters.  Experience matters.  Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does make you a whole lot better. You may not control the cards, but you can control a lot.  

Before I go all-in on my poker-as-life comparison, I will point out a few significant differences.  In poker there are no win-wins.  For every hand that is dealt there is only one winner and up to nine losers.  Poker is not a team sport. Collaboration is not allowed, it's cheating. Cheating's not allowed, but lying and deceiving are.  If you’re caught lying, oh well, you made a bad bluff. If you lie well, you’re a good poker player (or politician). 

Happily, I get more out of poker than just lessons in life. I read in a monthly AARP magazine that playing poker helps prevent cognitive decline in seniors.  I was especially pleased that the article was supported by the authoritative testimonials of several neurophysiologists.  They consider poker to be mental exercise.  Poker’s not my vice.  It’s my workout.