Was I Playing Texas Holdem When the Tsunami Hit?

Published on January 13, 2005 By TaBoo Tenente In Misc

Was I Playing Texas Holdem When That Tsunami Hit?

Lately, I've played some poker.

Not just "poker", but Texas Holdem, the Cadillac of poker amongst a parking lot filled with old Datsuns. You only get two of your own cards. You have to share the rest with other players, and there may be a lot of other players.

However, there's only five other cards, given to the table in three increments starting with three cards, then one each on the last two rounds. The winner, as in all forms of poker, completes the best five card hand.

Over the long run I've made money, though not very much. At cetain moments I believed I had built a bankroll, only to count the deposit slips and realize I was only even. As I say, I am up overall, but not very much.

A successful seven-card Stud player has a fantastic memory while the Holdem player has a set of iron danglers. Every poker genre demands that you know your odds, but sometimes in Holdem, you have to know how to forget the odds. In fact, you have to forget everything--just play. Because everyone at your table has read at least three books on Texas Holdem, you know they know everything you know about the game of poker. And they know that.

You forget a lot of things when you play Holdem. A thing called a Tsunami roars in, and Asia loses a corner. I have friends there. . .I think. . .or have they left? I can’t remember. Playing Holdem takes me on-line instead of to the casinos, and my life slips toward virtual living. I lose time, here and there. Some days or weeks go by and sometimes people fade in and out of my life. Then something happens like a Tsunami, and I can’t remember what I’ve lost.

Here’s the other thing: I do not play every day. Entire months pass, and I never play at all. Or, weeks will go by where I play less than an hour a day. Like I say, I am up, but not enough to make it worth playing all the time.

But sometimes I play all the time. And when it’s like that, I almost forget that things like Tsunami matter. Or, more precisely, I want to forget that they matter. Almost I can–I can feel how easy life might be to forget about things, large or small, here or there. And I realize that I probably wanted to feel that way, even before I discovered poker.

Copyright ©2004, ©2005, ©2006 Joshua Suchman. All rights reserved.
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Comments

BigBeaut

on Jan 14, 2005

I just stumbled in to this article and I wonder whether it is intended for discussion, but I want to say that you have written a beautiful piece. I will be checking your other articles regularly.

Very nicely done.

Eric

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