Just A Little Competition
In this light, poker is merely a game, like any other game, in which the player with the tallest stack wins.
In Positively Fifth Street, James McManus claims that middle age's bodily ailments now prevent him from participating in physical sports, but haven't reduced his competitive spirit. Hence, poker, whose only requisite physical exertion is riffling chips. Jay, too, used to play basketball and volleyball, but a bad back and shoulder have forced him to the sidelines. Or, more accurately, to the card tables, where his recent success on Friday nights has earned him the nickname Stacks. Could there be a sportier nickname? And then there is John Ruby's yearlong battle to have his name engraved on a plaque. ("Tell her about the trophy, Dad," says his 18-year-old daughter Lisa.) John and his longtime friend compete for the trophy by tallying up who wins the most -- "or loses the least," John amends -- over the course of a year at their home game.
"It's who is the better player between the two of us, that what it's all about," John says.
All right, then. That's what it's all about. The wide world of poker is just a community in which all of its citizens are invested in the same thing, and that thing is not to win money specifically, but to engage fully in something, to partake in a game you care about, to strive and compete, to test the limits of your own mind and your opponents' will.
No need to worry, then, right? To my question, is poker any different from bowling or chess, the answer is, fundamentally, no. It is a sport, like bowling, an intellectual exercise like chess. Well, except, maybe, a tiny bit sexier.
And to the question, have I noticed a poker-related "change in personality" in Jay, the answer is "yes." But, as the experts and literature and experienced poker players tell me, it not a change I should be worried about. It is a change that reflects a growing investment and mastery in a new endeavor. So, like anyone rooting for their bowling and chess-playing loved ones, I listen to the morning-after stories and cheer my player on.
Go, Stacks, go. Keep on rising.
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