My mention in the Oregonian.

YAY!

Steve Woodward of the Oregonian quoted me twice in the Living section today.  He’d contacted me about a month ago about Portland blogging and my opinions and such.  It was a nice plug. Thanks Steve

Thank you also to everyone who wrote in to tell me to read the Oregonian today. That’s awesome!

Last night I went to play poker.  I started taking lessons from JawnnieAce last summer and they are finally paying off. Not that I win, but I think it’s finally safe to say I won’t be down to my skivvies first anymore.

The first few months were about terminology and practice and etiquette and numbers. But last night I had an epiphany of sorts as we all sat around the table.  JawnnieAce told me one day that our lessons would move from the technical to the real game, “you don’t play the hands you play the players.” I wasn’t sure what he meant until last night, so I suspect our lessons will take a whole new direction.

It happened when I came in, they’d been playing for an hour or so already so my stack of chips had been being blinded. I could already tell who was about to go out, as their enthusiasm for playing was already beat.  It was a long day and work so I settled in just wanting to relax and play but because I was so tired, I sort of ended up people watching more than playing.

It occurred to me a couple of hours later when we’d gone from 8 players to 4 that I play the way I live.  Call it fatigue or hunger or whatever, but the “life is like a game of poker” metaphor popped up.  I know I’ve heard it somewhere but it suddenly became obvious and all-together relevant.

I play like I live. Cautious and withholding until I know what I have then it’s no-holds-barred and I leap in with a giant bet.  I’m okay to loose it if I must, because I’m sure that it’s worth the leap. But when I’m not certain, or when I’m busy thinking about something else – I creep along, checking my bets and waiting for someone else to screw up or the River to save me at the last minute.

My game has got to change.

Once I realized that I bleed myself out and dangle at the edge of the game like a bored hooked fish, I understood – I need to risk more. Care less about losing and take more running jumps. Maybe not so much in Poker, but definitely in life.

I watched others play and wondered if what little I know of them is also reflected in their game. One guy plays high, constantly.  Large brass ball bets that freak people out. The regular bluffer actually had a decent pot but ultimately lost it in one fell swoop to the player to his left that as far as I can tell, is a reader. She waits on the rhythm sort of swaying up a little and down a little like a dancer and when she sees her opening she pounces and wipes you out!

I watched them all and forgot to really play my hands as I wondered about these people that I hang with from time to time and realized that, I don’t actually know them.  Worse yet, to be a better player, I need to know myself better too. Weird.

As I was leaving, JawnnieAce touched my knee and gave me a look of approval. “You played really well tonight.”

It’s foolish, I know, but something inside me beamed a little that my teacher thought I was doing okay.  He’s four years younger than me and sometimes he surprised me with these penetrating looks that make me think he’s ancient. Long blond hair and an easy smile mask his true hand and I know that much.  He is the greatest bluffer of them all, quite simply because he tells you what he has eighty percent of the time – and lets you fall on your sword guessing at the other twenty.  If that’s the way he lives his life – I am most intrigued. I can’t wait for our lessons to go deeper into the exploration of the motives behind the game. He’s a player, and I want to learn.