D O J

People needing constant validation of justice should avoid poker. In a way, I wish that someone could have accurately described to me before I started playing just how difficult and random the variance would be. But, having a good idea of the math, I don't think I would have believed how easy it is to begin adopting superstitions based on cycles that cluster up in favor of one random scenario after another. There are players who have been in the game for years - some of the "best" (you've seen them on TV if you've ever watched poker) - who have favorite hands that mathematically have little to no actual value. They're just hands that delivered more than they should in the player's memory and are therefore elevated above reason. For example, the ten-deuce played so well for Doyle Brunson that the two cards are simply known as "the Doyle Brunson". To be fair, he would still say that ace-ace is his favorite hand, but I guarantee his eighty-year old pulse quickens just a bit every time he's dealt his namesake just for the good memories. It is obviously stupid and unprofitable, but I can assure you that our brains more easily accept vivid experience and reward (or punishment) rather than cold, hard reason. Tom and I have just been through a stretch where he received near constant punishment for four straight months. Imagine going to work and finding that you will be required to pay your boss for the privilege of sitting there for your allotted time, and simply because someone (in our case, those referred to as the poker gods) has decided this would be so. Thankfully, the cycle has begun to roll over and we are most certainly stronger players for trudging through the gale... but I still would prefer that things were as predictable as they should be just for the sake of mental health. Well, maybe it would be more accurate to say mental comfort. It is becoming more and more necessary to attend to the solid health of our psyches and so, in a way, we are finding this an opportunity for strength that neither one of us have found before.

All that said, there are still rules in poker and the violation of these rules, though rare, is still responded to with justice:

Last night, I was involved in a hand that I was almost certainly winning, and I was winning big. It was one of those hands that pretty much defines a particular session, depending on which way it falls. In this case, I was looking at a session I was going to leave smiling. As the fourth card came down, I had only one opponent left in the pot as the other (better) player had folded when the first three cards came out. Just as the player remaining hit "call" to my bet on the turn, the player no longer in the pot typed into the chat window the two cards he had folded on the previous street. Man, my blood started boiling again just remembering the moment. Let me explain: the entire game of poker is based on statistics and human behavior and deciphering that behavior to determine what cards your opponents might be holding. This information is required to be gained simply through betting behaviors (or mannerisms if you're lucky enough to be making it as a live player). "Table talk" - basically, anything said by anyone not in the hand or anyone in the hand speaking about anything other than their own behavior or hand - is strictly (STRICTLY) forbidden. In my particular example, the better player detailing in the middle of my domination what he had been so smart to fold let the less competent player know that he would be stupid to call on the last card with anything less. And, by the way, anything less was all he could have. Also by the way, he calls with that something less almost one-hundred percent of the time unless advised otherwise. Well, I watched in dismay as this player, who generally wasn't pausing for thought longer than a couple seconds, began to really think about how the hand had gone down. Finally, he realized what he was not capable of realizing on his own: "I'm beat." And he folded. Well, I don't think I've ever been so angry at the poker table. I immediately began berating the player who had ruined my prospects and was only getting more enraged by his benign rejections of my wrath. Of course, I was at this point so focused on venting my full indignation on this guy that I was ignoring all my other tables. After a few very poorly played hands due to this, I was officially on what I would like to call "murder tilt". Thankfully, Tom was in the room and was able to help me extract myself so that I could take a break and attempt to regain some perspective. When I told him what had happened though, he nearly went on murder tilt just to hear it. It really is that bad of an infraction, let me tell you. So, I finally remembered my recourse and e-mailed the situation to the poker site's moderators. The response I received is still singing in my heart. They congratulated me for being vigilant to the integrity of the game and said that the player in question had been reminded of the rules in case he was not aware of them. Any future violations could result in a site ban. Perhaps it is the rarity of it that makes it so very sweet, but I will still savor the title of "vigilance", seeking justice in the midst of chaos.