A few of us old hands
A few of us old hands are putting together a new regular game and, in the course of ironing out all the details, we've been spending a lot of time at sites like www.pokerchips.com and trying to decide which chip sets would be most fun and convenient to play with. In the course of doing that, however, I started to think about how the often illogical, sometimes downright dumb, behavior of poker players might look to a simple poker chip -- the ultimate pawn and unbiased observer of the game of poker.First of all, we wonder what our simple little poker chip would make of the ridiculous arguments which can break out during a poker game. Of course, there are some players who have more than a bit of panache when it comes to trash-talking, an art form best known among street basketball players but also a common enough practice when poker chips are at stake. We think our animate chip would enjoy the trash talk as long as it was not too mean spirited. Then, though, there are the stupid arguments you see when losing players turn defensive, blaming their looses on the dealer, other players annoying them, anything and anyone but themselves.
We also think our sentient little poker chip might shed a tear for the troubled or downright irresponsible players who send themselves, and sometimes their families, into serious debt. He would understand that gambling on poker can be a fun pastime for many of us, a profitable career for a highly talented and even more highly disciplined few, but a gigantic mistake for others who, for one reason or another, are not able to say when enough is enough.
On the other hand, our friend the chip would definitely get a kick out of the camaraderie, laughs, and fun that might be a bit more common in a friendly home game than in a club, but which can be seen whenever and wherever true gentlemen ladies practice the art and craft of poker. He would also see the genuine skill and intelligence of the world's best players. These are the folks who can track the odds, gauge the reactions of their opponents, undercut another player's strategy, and weather the bad beats long enough to become true champions of the game of poker. Our imaginary living poker chip might get tired at times, we imagine, but we doubt he'd often be bored.