Poker Articles

The following article is slated to be Andy Glazer's column in the next issue of Poker Digest. Because of its timely nature, Andy wanted it on the web as soon as possible, and received permission from Poker Digest to let it run here at PokerPages first.

The Inside Straight:
"Getting It Back Right Away" a Poor Strategy
By Andy Glazer, "The Poker Pundit"

This isn't going to be a conventional Andy Glazer Poker Digest column, but these are not normal times. There's actually some useful poker content in here, but it's just a frame for more important issues.

Right now I'm very angry. Usually I don't play poker when I'm angry, because I know that I play very poorly when I feel that way. I make bad decisions "in the moment" that do not serve me well in the long run. I'm not alone in this characteristic. Many people get into trouble in poker sessions because they start losing and then feel they must do something, anything, to "get their money back right away."

Lately, I have been hearing a great many Americans clamoring for broad and sweeping revenge against the perpetrators of the unspeakable September 11 acts. Most advanced players, when not in the midst of emotional "tilt," can see why the desperate poker strategy of trying to get it all back right away is self-defeating. From what I'm hearing on the news and seeing in my email, most Americans don't seem to be able to see the parallel in the right approach to our national crisis.

A NATION ON TILT

We are a nation "on tilt," and while we have far better cause to be on tilt than any poker player ever did or ever will, that still doesn't mean we are likely to be thinking clearly while we are on tilt. We are caught up in "An eye for an eye" fever.

The "ethnic cleansing" that cost so many lives in the Balkan regions and the Israeli vs. Palestinian clashes that also lead to so many deaths have one thing in common: a cycle of hatred passed along from generation to generation. "You killed my brother, I will kill your whole family!" "They killed X's whole family, we must kill an entire village..." and so on, and so on.

The cycle of ethnic hatred must stop. Using our military muscle to prove that we are not merely capable of turning Afghanistan into a smoking cinder (guilty, innocent, and all), but willing to do so, will give temporary solace to those who feel that revenge is the only solution. In the long run, it would cost millions more lives, including perhaps loved ones who survived the murderous Tuesday. Should we then ignore these cowardly and evil acts and turn the other cheek? Of course not. No reaction would be almost as bad as an overreaction.

UNCONVENTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES CALL FOR DIFFERENT MEASURES

Were we the victims of an act of conventional war, such as Japan used on December 7, 1941, the people clamoring for swift and overwhelming reaction in force would be right on the money. We would know our enemy, and we would know what needed to be done.

Here, the reaction must be surgical and precise, not sweeping. If America gets caught up in "revenge fever," and kills hundreds of thousands of innocent people, what makes us so much more noble then the madmen who committed this horrific act? That we can say, "You started it?" Somehow I doubt that will offer much solace to the innocent victims. I also think the fanatic madmen who struck this blow believe that "we" started it.

The best chance for world peace lies in a rather fantastic and unlikely scenario: Bin Laden's own people bringing him to justice. When I watched Arafat's first speech, I thought I saw something in his eyes that gave me hope this could happen. A trial by an Islamic Court is another unlikely scenario but would also accomplish much towards ending the cycle of hate and allowing humans to live together in peace.

If it turns out that a foreign government is indeed directly behind what happened -- supporting Bin Laden and using him to do its intended dirty work, for example -- then we can use a more conventional military reaction, although that too must be carefully measured.

DON'T TAR ALL WITH SAME BRUSH

There are about a billion Islamic people in the world. The tenets of Islam do not involve murder. The murderers are the extremists. You shouldn't hate everyone who believes in Allah any more than a Venezuelan who happened to have a relative working in Oklahoma City should hate all Americans because an American extremist killed all those children. I'm a Jew, albeit not much of one when it comes to going to Synagogue. I don't want everyone to hate me because of some of the unspeakable acts that the Jewish Defense League (JDL) committed, and I certainly don't want someone to kill me because of JDL acts that I opposed vehemently.

I hear more innocent versions of the same "tar them all with the same brush" in poker all the time. "The Vietnamese all play the same way," I've heard more than one player say. What nonsense! They don't all play the same way, think the same way, or act the same way. Some Vietnamese players tend to play in similar fashions, because they learned their teacher's style, but that's only a starting point, and they no more all play alike than they all look alike.

If you think all Vietnamese (or members of any other ethnic group) players look alike, you and I probably don't have a lot in common, and you're probably one of the people who saw the videos of a few moronic Palestinians jumping up and down in the streets, waving flags for the TV cameras, and who then decided that "all" Palestinians must be reacting that way. You're probably glad we have a president who isn't likely to show much restraint (never, by the way, have I ever hoped I was so wrong in the way I "read" someone). I, on the other hand, am probably glad I've never met you.

I'm not so high and mighty and evolved. I don't like whomsoever perpetrated this unspeakable sneak attack on America (I've been saying "Bin Laden" and of course that's not been proved yet). I hate this person, and I hate anyone who actively helped him. That I hate him doesn't change what I believe must happen to make things right, any more than "hating" an opponent at the poker table makes it easier to beat him. In poker, true hatred probably puts you off your best game. I think it is putting many Americans off their best game when it comes to thinking clearly about what needs to happen.

CYCLE OF HATRED MUST END

The cycle of hatred must end. If the people of Islam are unable or unwilling to halt Bin Laden, our own return strike must target only the guilty. A reaction of "Us Hatfields are gonna get them McCoys" will lead only to more bloodshed. More bloodshed would be acceptable were it just, and if that bloodshed closed a horrible chapter in history. An overreaction will not be just, and instead of closing a chapter, it would preface an even more horrific book.

We must react strongly, but thoughtfully, and do so after we have had time to think, rather than acting while angry. How many times have you said or done something when you are angry that you regretted later? Certainly we will have to take strong measures at home, too, some of which will involve more than mere inconvenience. In war, sometimes civil liberties need to be restricted, another very scary aspect of this whole situation, because I'm not anxious for our own police to turn into the Gestapo just to "protect" us.

I'm sure our police and governmental agencies will find a reasonable medium between the glorious freedoms we have enjoyed and Gestapo tactics, but this necessary loss of some civil liberty will not be necessary, eventually, if the cycle of hatred ends.

When you try to "get it all back" at the poker tables, you know what usually happens: You lose a lot more. The analogy holds here, but the stakes are immeasurably higher. If you like the idea of gambling on World War III, you probably shouldn't be visiting cardrooms, at least not with money you can't afford to lose, and I hope you're not a presidential advisor, either.