Poker and Politics

Hey there. How's it going? Sorry I haven't written in so long. You know how it is. Time just flies by. I've been busier at my real job and it is summer so we have been going out a lot more. Time gets away from me and I've hardly even played much poker lately, let alone write about it. And the olympics are on...

I played yesterday and got crushed again. I lost a big hand early on, then spent four hours slowly rebuilding until I was almost unstuck. Then I was felted when my pocket kings got ambushed.

 I used to take losing at poker very personally. I would feel sick after a big loss, and I would berate myself for ever thinking I could play this game. Thoughts like you are not good enough to be a winning poker player would loop in my head and I would feel like I deserved to lose because I was so stupid. Lately, however, I find it easier to shrug off the losses. I don't get that I deservered to lose because I suck thought anymore and this, I think, is a good thing. I think it would also be a good thing if I reacted to my winning sessions with a similar emotional detachment, but I still feel elated after a win. I think my problem is that I still attach a sense of self worth to how I do at the poker table. There is a feeling that if I win big, it is because I deserved to win big and if I busted out it is my own damn fault and I am therefor an idiot. Such thinking is, I think, pretty common. It feeds addiction in gamblers - winners keep chasing that feeling that they deserve to win because God loves them and losers keep punishing themselves because they feel they deserve to be punished. Hmmm...

After my bust-out I met my friend from Nashville at the bar. We talked about various things, including politics, and I quickly forgot about what an idiot I was. While we talked about the U.S.A. it struck me that the "you deserve what you get" mentality that I feel so strongly (although lately less so) at the poker table, is similar to what the right wing in States believe - the myth of the meritocracy; that if you are a good, hard working person you will succeed. And if you don't succeed it is probably because you are not good enough or lazy. It is easy to see why rich people believe this - even those who basically inherited their wealth - because it blames poor people for their own poverty. And poor people are like the losing gamblers who believe they deserve to keep on losing. They become addicted to punishing themselves because they believe they must be flawed in some way.

Let me take the analogy to another level; in America the rich and the poor are not equels competing fairly at the same poker table; no the rich people own the casino. They can not lose. And the reason they can not lose has nothing to do with merit, or hard work, or that Jesus loves them. The reason they can not lose is that they are the house. They have the edge and over time they will always win. So of course they vote to keep the system in place. I have heard a lot of people wonder out loud - why do so many poor and working class people vote Republican? It doesn't make sense! I think they do so for much the same reasons the losers keep going back to the casino - they are dreaming that maybe they will win this time. That maybe they can show that they are good enough too. And when they lose they will not blame the casino, they will blame themselves.