“Therefore be advis’d.”
Merchant of Venice. Act II., Scene 1st.
There are no rules for playing poker so as to win. Advice may be given so as to limit losses. All absolute laws as to how you must play end in disaster. A good player varies his game. He may play a poor game for a while on purpose. To deceive is the acme of poker playing. The strong point in poker is never to lose your temper, either with those you are playing with or, more particularly, with the cards. There is no sympathy at poker. Always keep cool. If you lose your head you will lose all your chips. Poker being as much a criterion of character as anything else, keep in the shade your personalities. As Mr. Cable has it, “a man who can play delightfully on a guitar and keep a knife in his boot” (see p. 12) would be a perfect poker player. Always believe in the equalization of chances. If your king flush is beaten twice hand running by an ace flush today, tomorrow you will hold the ace flushes and your adversaries the king flushes. If you begin to draw for flushes and straights and cannot fill them, you must continue trying to fill them, otherwise you throw away your chance of equalizing your draw. Patience is one of the strong points of poker, just as much as cheek. He who waits longest finds his opportunity. A player who never bluffs at poker is not in sympathy with the game. His battery is never masked. The enemy gives him a wide berth; when his guns are shotted no foes ever approach. He fires a volley and kills a lame duck. Too much curiosity is ruinous. All the money saved at poker comes from not seeing. To be over-timid is an equal fault. It is perfectly legitimate to tell stories at poker. All is fair in love, war, and poker.
To adhere to anything but the strictly truthful brings, with poker no moral obliquity. As it is impossible for some players not to lie when they play, this want of veracity brings its own cure. It is not, however, a good rule to tell stories about your hand. You may, if you have the talent for such things, assume an innocent guise with your face alone. This is the most effective of lures. It is best never to show your hand at all, if not called, and to remain silent in regard to its merits. A solemn mystery in regard to your cards is the most effective. Though a hand which is miscalled when shown rests solely on its face value, avoid doing this. It should, in fact, never be permitted. It induces fraud. An adversary might throw down his cards, the winning ones, when another player announced something which he did not have. As the holder of the best cards has thrown them away, they cannot be found again, and he loses, whereas he should have won. It is, at the least, an ungentlemanly trick. It irritates the best tempered players. When a player leaves the room no hand should be dealt him. No two persons ever ought to have an interest in the same hand. The reasons for this are legion. The strongest is, that it prevents rascality. Then, again, when another player takes the hand of a person who is not present, and enters or makes a bet, it gives an additional strength to the hand, which is unfair. Never play poker without a limit. It is then the most dangerous of all games.
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