Poker Poem

If you can keep your chips, when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust the odds when all men doubt you;
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,
Or, being drawn out on, don't go on tilt,
Or, running dry, don't start over-creating,
And keep on winning money without guilt.

If you can bluff and not make bluffs your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters the same;
If you can bear the insults that are spoken
And avoid springing the knaves traps for fools,
Or watch the Aces you've been dealt get broken,
And shrug and just remind yourself of the long-run
rules;

If you can grasp the chip stack that you're winning,
And push it in the pot "I go all-in",
And lose, and buy in again, a new beginning
And not whine that you were six to four to win;
If you can force your nerve and sinew
To risk a bet when you are running cold,
When your draw just bust and there is nothing in you
Except the tell which says to you "He'll fold";

If you can play with fools and keep your patience,
Or joust with kings and not be a soft touch;
If neither folds nor one card outdraws hurt you;
If all pots count with you but none to much;
If you can play your "A" game every hand
With lots of patience, card sense, nerve and flair
You can beat opponents throughout the land,
And which is more, you'll be a Poker Player!

Keith Wilkinson