I've never been much of a gambler, though I'm certainly grateful for the fact that this particular addiction has worked to the benefit (albeit with some detriment) of Native American communities over the past 20-some-odd-years.
And, while I'm not much of a card player anymore, I have an affinity for card-playing analogies that goes back to my days as a juvenile offender doing time in correctional facilities where I learned to play the game of spades. In every urban juvenile detention facility I ever visited, playing spades was second only to smoking Kool 100s on the list of number one priority pastimes. We did it by marathon. And it was deadly serious--cause the ante was, well, what else? Kool 100s. So the better you were at it, the more Kool 100s you had to either smoke yourself or to use as capital and/or petty cash in the market economy of the "inside." In the social structure of the juvenile detention facility, popularity and prestige were determined to a large degree by your ability to play--and play to win--this game. Took me a while to get the hang of it, but hey--the power of addiction is fierce--and my self-preservation instincts as a chain smoker kicked in pretty quickly back then. Before long, whatever else spoke for or against me in this "prison population," one thing was clear: no one wanted me on the opposing team in a game of spades. Nopity.
(Yeah, I'm still trying to get over my badass self).
My great grandmother, the last person in my immediate family to have lived on the Reservation and the last person in said lineage not to have fallen prey to the perils of alcoholism and the attendant social dysfunction (like "doing time"), was a passionate card player. One of my most treasured possessions is a 1984 article from the Green Bay Press Gazette titled "Old hat: City Sisters first voted in 1920." It features a delightful image of my great grandmother, Maude, (then age 98) and her sister, my "Aunt Olive" (then age 95) at the voting booth. (Unfortunately, I do not have the original, only bad copies-or that image would be my desktop!)
The text (by Tom Murphy):
Herbert Hoover? "Heavens, no!"
Warren Harding? "Who ran against him?"
FDR? "The best president we ever had."
Richard Nixon? "Who could vote for him?"
There's a bit of pixie-and a lot of spunk-in 98-year-old Maude Rasmussen and her sister, 95-year-old Olive Campbell, who provided the answers above.
Ronald Reagan is too old to be president," said Olive. "He's a nice man, pleasant and all that, but too old."
Maude agreed with her younger sister but allowed as how the president "might be good at Spite and Malice," the ladies' favorite card game.
If there is no doubt about their partisanship, there is also none about doing duty.
The sisters voted Tuesday at the Green Bay Fire Station No. 6. ...
Independent and proud. Alert and quick-stepped.
Olive admitted voting for Walter Mondale.
"That would be telling," said a more impish Maude when a reporter pried.
They did not mind the 13-minute wait to vote. A photographer's mention of their ages brought smiles of admiration from the 35 other persons at the cramped, four-booth polling place.
...If Olive and Maude were aware of the odds against their man winning Tuesday, it didn't show. This was, after all, 25th presidential election held in their lifetime.
Old hat.
In 1920 they voted for James M. Cox. He ran against Harding.
So what's that got to do with my new-found intoxicant, Obamania?
He's a poker man. Just as I suspected. Texas Hold Em is his game:
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Long before he became a political rock star with designs on the White House, Barack Obama was known to his friends in the Illinois legislature as a fearsome poker player.
During weekly games of Texas Hold 'Em with his fellow state senators, Obama played a 'tight' style of poker - patiently waiting for the right cards, folding when dealt a bad hand and taking few unnecessary risks.
"He knew the chances of winning and he knew he was going to walk out of there even, or ahead, almost every time," says Illinois state senator Terry Link, a former poker partner who had his wallet emptied by Obama on many occasions. "He never went into a game like a riverboat gambler."
Obama used the same strategy he brought to the card table in Illinois - cautious and somewhat conservative - as he weighed the risks of running for the presidency in 2008.
Win or lose, Obama's White House bid likely to pay dividend
Here are the "rules" for Texas Hold `Em:
Most Texas Hold 'Em Poker games start with the two players to the left of the dealer (the button) putting a predetermined amount of money into the pot before any cards are dealt, ensuring that there's something to play for on every hand. This is called "posting the blinds." Most often, the "first blind" -- the player to the left of the dealer -- puts up half the minimum bet, and the "second blind" puts up the full minimum bet.
Each player is dealt two cards, face down. These are known as the "hole cards."
Betting Begins
A round of betting takes place, beginning with the player to the left of the two who posted the blinds. Players can call, raise, or fold when it's their turn to bet.
The Flop
After the first betting round, the dealer discards the top card of the deck. This is called burning the card and is done to ensure that no one accidentally saw the top card, and to help prevent cheating.
The dealer then flips the next three cards face up on the table. These cards are called the "flop."
NOTE: Eventually, a total of five community cards will be placed face up on the table. Players can use any combination of the community cards and their own two hole cards to form the best possible five-card Poker hand.
After the flop, another round of betting takes place, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer (the button). During this and all future rounds of betting, players can check, call, raise, or fold when it's their turn to bet.
Fourth Street
The dealer burns another card and plays one more face up onto the table. This, the fourth community card, is called the "turn" or "Fourth Street."
The player to the left of the dealer (the button) begins the third round of betting.
Fifth Street
The dealer burns another card before placing the final face-up card on the table. This card is called the "river" or "Fifth Street."
Final Betting and The Winner
Players can now use any combination of seven cards -- the five community cards and the two hole cards known only to them -- to form the best possible five-card Poker hand.
The fourth and final round of betting starts with the player to the left of the dealer (the button).
After the final betting round, all players who remain in the game reveal their hands. The player who made the initial bet or the player who made the last raise shows their hand first.
The player with the best hand wins.
I don't know. Looks to me like we're heading into the turn on Fourth Street.
Now I don't know whether it's such a good idea to rely on Internet strategy tips for winning presidential elections in this country, but whatever the Democrats have been relying on for the past two election cycles sure as hell hasn't been working. Here's what the the Net advisers have to say about Fourth and Fifth Street:
Fourth Street and Fifth Street
Also know as The Turn and The River, respectively, the fourth and fifth community cards give you two more chances to either get out of the pot before you lose even more money -- or increase your winnings.
At this point, it's likely there will only be one or two other players still in the pot with you. The best advice here is to be cautious. After fourth street, don't stay in the pot hoping for a straight or flush, unless you can do so on a check (that is, without putting more chips into the pot). Although there will be times when you would have drawn the straight or flush, they will be outweighed by the times you wouldn't.
The bottom line is this: Don't allow yourself to get sucked in too far with a weak hand.
That said, there is a point where the investment you've already made virtually dictates that you hang in there. It's useful to measure this in terms of percentage of your chips. For example, if you've already committed 40% of your chips to the pot, another 5% isn't that much. This is a gray area, so once again the best advice is to be cautious.
I don't know whether these little tidbits will do much for those folks still worried about whether Obama is going to "sell them down the River." I do know, however, that when it comes down to winning and losing the really tough battles in life, the lessons I learned at the card table in the various "houses of D." have served me far better than anything I've ever learned in any other educational setting I have had the privilege of visiting.
And that's another reason I'm keeping my bets on Obama-until he decides it's time to "fold."
One thing is clear, he would not even be in the game if he did not have a card or two left to play.
Stay tuned. ;-)
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