Hey, Roberkâtough question, excellent question. I answer it personally by knowing that the people Iâve met, the times Iâve had, etc, vastly outweigh the bad stuff.
There are bad aspects, but you have to remember, youâre still consciously in charge of your life. You can resolve to keep it on a level where it is sane, cheerful, and normal. You can play with your friends, play with those who can afford to lose and laugh about it, keep it on a level where it doesnât stray into the bad areas of the game (trying to beat somebody out of their welfare check at 3 a.m., or rent money, and etc). But yes, you are right, it brings out the predatory self. However, this is probably a good self to know about and learn about.
Right now in high schools across the land the next generation is playing a LOT of poker, based on all the accounts Iâve been hearing. And you know who is playing the most of it? The geeks. Itâs turning into sort of the Geekâs Revenge. For 200 years theyâve been the âput uponâ group walking the high school corridors and now theyâve finally found a doorway into coolness. And part of this is finding the predatory aspect of themselves and integrating it.
But as you allude to, the game itself is tough. The markers in the game are the playerâs money. This is the first tough thing. The âgame chipsâ weâre using to play this game are YOUR MONEY and I win when I take them away. The second tough thing is that it is a Zero Sum game. You know what that means, of courseâthat for one player to win, another has to loseâbut letâs look at it deeper. It means that for you to protect yourself and KEEP FROM LOSING you have to take my money. You have to do this simply out of self preservation, self-defense, strictly. Tough game.
But as an ad in a recent Cardplayer magazine said it: âAt the table itâs every man for himselfâuntil you leave the table.â You CAN confine these feelings to the game, and stay within the game. I once wrote about a friend of mine who won a guitar in a poker game. In the game it was his job to win it, and take it away. After the game he simply handed it back. Moral: you can retain your regular self. (Just keep an eye on it so it doesnât stray into weird areas.) You are still (and always) consciously in charge of what you do and become.
But it is predatory.
I find there are certain similarities to capitalism. Almost every aspect of capitalism has some of this. For instance, if Iâm Mr. Furniture Store Iâm taking in sofas from a semi-truck out back on the loading dock for $289 and putting a tag on them that says âSale--$899â for the sales floor. This is true in all areas and aspects of capitalism, as various individuals across the land attempt to find a niche into that concept known as Making A Living. Now, a lot of our friends around the world donât like capitalism because it has certain predatory aspects. A much, much better plan would be just to divide up all of societyâs money and pass it out to everybody, equally and fairly. Only one problem: this was tried and it didnât work. Funnily enough, everybody sat on the curb with a bottle of vodka, nobody did any work and the whole society tanked. Meanwhile, capitalism, with itâs shades of natural self-aggression and self-predatory created a large and dazzling machinery of society. Still, some of our friends criticize capitalism. When something bad happensâsay, a Tsunamiâand money is desperately needed, then they look the other way of course and their memory is selectively dulled and fuzzy. Then the phone rings, guess where?.
Well, Iâve kind of rambled off the subject here. But to answer your question, Iâd say, like anything else in life, if it stops being fun, starts being tawdry, you have to adjust or move away from it. Specific instances such as âsandbaggingâ, or 'check-raising', though, as you move up in limits in poker these become just part of the gameâlike âcastlingâ in chessâand nobody gives them any other emotional weight than this.
Sorry for the disjointed reply.
Best,
Larry Phillips