Poker is a game of odds and character

So I took Nate to play poker with the Outback guys and he said almost nothing the whole night and played maybe ten hands (and he slow played those ten) and he walked with maybe seventy bucks. That is a lot by our group standards.

So the first part about poker is simply knowing what the good hands are, knowing the odds. That is the easy part, a little math or a little experience and you are fine.

But the hard part for me is wanting to play every decent hand. There is something about an K/2 unsuited that says "this is your hand" and like a fool I play it. I joked once that the trick to paying poker is hating Satan. Satan says "play that hand" and so you have to say "I rebuke you Satan."

Kind of silly, but the point is that poker requires a degree of character. That is the kind of skill required, not simply the odds but the character that does not chase after every hand because "you never know."

Nate has that kind of character.

Ha ha if the game weren't some kind of spiritual exercise I wouldn't like it!