Mentalechoes

For a couple of months now I’ve been a casual player of Texas Hold’em Poker with a group of guys I met through one of our work crowd. I’m not all that good at poker, I’m never in the big money at the end of the night, but I’m not the beer bitch either, which is some consolation. I never used to be a gambling man, I still don’t really consider myself to be a gambling man, because the money we put in to play is pretty small, and if you look at it over a whole night for the cost of entertainment, it’s cheaper than friday night out with friends in some bar. After my first couple of sessions I got on the internet to find some play guides to help me out. I was pretty lucky not to get arse raped by the regulars there and so I figured anything to give me more of a playing advantage had to be time well spent.

The one thing that has seriously piqued my interest though, is not so much the game itself, but the intrinsic meaning behind the game. Many students of poker that I’ve read insist that it’s more than just a game of statistics and luck, it’s about the evaluation of where you are in the game, based on who’s around you, and what you’ve got at the time, and trying to get to the top against all odds. It’s as much an emotional game as it is a logical one, and the real trick is to balance your luck with your skill while trying to get better with every hand. To me, that sounds a lot like my day to day life.

I can see a lot of simalarities between poker and life. I’ve even started thinking of poker as a microsimulation of life in a lot of ways. Much like Tsun Tzu’s, The Art of War has been adopted by many business and lifestyle gurus as being a manual on many more facets of life other than actual military tactics, so too do guides of poker teach much more than just the card game. They impart a subtle blend of knowledge that is part human psychology, part scientific rigour, and part luck you just don’t question. Those who come to understand these principles will inevitably be players of skill who will consistently win against players who have no skill.

If only life had the option of a re-buy. Things would be much sweeter!

Padwanna!