a little break
Just so everyone knows I'm still sucking in air I decided to post. Rabbi Steve grabbed this from somewhere and I thought it was pretty accuarate.
So, I was playing on Poker Stars the other night in a 27 man sit n' go(which I did win, but that's not what this is about.) When I play online, I'm usually a pretty tight layer. There are far too many overaggressive and loose players to start mixing it up with mediocre hands. I just sit back and fold until I hit a big hand and then make all the chasers pay through their teeth.
I was on a particularily long drought of good hands so my mind started wandering. I started to rethink about a question I had about God, which was "If God supposedly knows whats going to happen in the future but he has also given us freewill, how the heck does that work?" So I'm just kinda going over this vicious circle of thought when I had a realization. I started thinking about a deck of cards in a poker game.
After the cards are shuffled, the winning hand has already been determined. Think about it, after that last shuffle, the order in which the cards are dealt has been determined. The five community cards have already been determined. That 7-3 offsuit might be the best hand because the flop will bring a 7, the turn a 7 and the river a 7. It's already been determined, but you just don't know it.
Yet, the player holding that 7-3 may fold. Because he has been given a choice. He was dealt his 7-3, was the first to act, realized the likelihood that his hand wouldn't win and folded. Its the right decision based on the information he had at the time. In fact, poker is entirely based on acquiring as much information as possible each hand and then properly analyzing the information to make the right play. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong. And sometimes you're right and lose. And
sometimes you're wrong and win. Its the way it goes. But the whole entire goal is to maximize your profits and minimize your losses each hand.
Perhaps this is how God works. Perhaps the deck has been shuffled and he knows what cards are coming. But at the end of the day, he gives us the choice to play our hands as we like. Some of us decide not to pay attention to the info, some of us decide to ignore the obvious signs that they are heading down the wrong path by continuing with a certain hand, and some of us fail to critically analyze the information we've obtained. Meanwhile, others try their best to obtain any bit of info, some of us try to analyze this info to the best of our abilities and some of us try our absolute hardest to make the right decisions, no matter how hard it may be or how little info they have.
The beauty of life is that, like poker, you can make the absolute worst decisions and every once in awhile the deck throws you your only out card. The only card in the deck to save you. And if you can learn from these mistakes and improve your game, you can rebound and turn it around. But if you continue making the same mistakes time and time again, the deck's not always going to be able to bail you out.
On the flip side, sometimes you can make the best decisions. You can make terrific decisions and turn a nothing hand into a big pot with a great bluff, or you can play your monster hand right and double or triple out. But, no matter how great you play, you will lose hands. Big hands. You'll come across some of the worst luck imaginable. You'll slip and fall. But if you continue to strive to improve and learn from what you may have done wrong in those situations, you'll bounce back and get on track.
Now, the purpose of this article is not to play every hand in a poker game because it MIGHT be the best one. It's generally a losing strategy. No, its just a neat little analogy I came up with when I had too much time on my hands.
So, I was playing on Poker Stars the other night in a 27 man sit n' go(which I did win, but that's not what this is about.) When I play online, I'm usually a pretty tight layer. There are far too many overaggressive and loose players to start mixing it up with mediocre hands. I just sit back and fold until I hit a big hand and then make all the chasers pay through their teeth.
I was on a particularily long drought of good hands so my mind started wandering. I started to rethink about a question I had about God, which was "If God supposedly knows whats going to happen in the future but he has also given us freewill, how the heck does that work?" So I'm just kinda going over this vicious circle of thought when I had a realization. I started thinking about a deck of cards in a poker game.
After the cards are shuffled, the winning hand has already been determined. Think about it, after that last shuffle, the order in which the cards are dealt has been determined. The five community cards have already been determined. That 7-3 offsuit might be the best hand because the flop will bring a 7, the turn a 7 and the river a 7. It's already been determined, but you just don't know it.
Yet, the player holding that 7-3 may fold. Because he has been given a choice. He was dealt his 7-3, was the first to act, realized the likelihood that his hand wouldn't win and folded. Its the right decision based on the information he had at the time. In fact, poker is entirely based on acquiring as much information as possible each hand and then properly analyzing the information to make the right play. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong. And sometimes you're right and lose. And
sometimes you're wrong and win. Its the way it goes. But the whole entire goal is to maximize your profits and minimize your losses each hand.
Perhaps this is how God works. Perhaps the deck has been shuffled and he knows what cards are coming. But at the end of the day, he gives us the choice to play our hands as we like. Some of us decide not to pay attention to the info, some of us decide to ignore the obvious signs that they are heading down the wrong path by continuing with a certain hand, and some of us fail to critically analyze the information we've obtained. Meanwhile, others try their best to obtain any bit of info, some of us try to analyze this info to the best of our abilities and some of us try our absolute hardest to make the right decisions, no matter how hard it may be or how little info they have.
The beauty of life is that, like poker, you can make the absolute worst decisions and every once in awhile the deck throws you your only out card. The only card in the deck to save you. And if you can learn from these mistakes and improve your game, you can rebound and turn it around. But if you continue making the same mistakes time and time again, the deck's not always going to be able to bail you out.
On the flip side, sometimes you can make the best decisions. You can make terrific decisions and turn a nothing hand into a big pot with a great bluff, or you can play your monster hand right and double or triple out. But, no matter how great you play, you will lose hands. Big hands. You'll come across some of the worst luck imaginable. You'll slip and fall. But if you continue to strive to improve and learn from what you may have done wrong in those situations, you'll bounce back and get on track.
Now, the purpose of this article is not to play every hand in a poker game because it MIGHT be the best one. It's generally a losing strategy. No, its just a neat little analogy I came up with when I had too much time on my hands.
posted by WesinCalgary @ 6:00 PM
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