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Submitted by Xan on Saturday, October 22, 2005 at 8:12 PM EST
 "Shuffle up and deal!"--Many, many poker emcees I've been playing this game for a helluva long time. Ironically, it's a game I would have bet against ever getting into. At the knowledgeable age of 12, I knew that there was nothing I would get out of it, that nothing's real, that I'd just be throwing away my time. But then, I took a chance. I took a few moments to let this thing into my life, to allow this game to work its magic on me if it could. I opened my mind to the possibility of giving a chance to something that I thought it was foolish to waste even a second on. Here I am, 18 years later, and that little grasp I thought I was acquiesing to has had a grip with the strength of a lion on me through-out the rest of my life. People speak of addictions as if they were the devil's own device, and maybe they are. I watch people around me smoke and I laugh as they tell me they can't stop, that they're [i]addicted[/i] to the nicotine. I argue vehemently with them that it has nothing to do with the nicotine, it's all in their head. And though one is my wife and another my brother, I disbelieve them. I have grounds. After all, am I not like my father who can start smoking due to stress and then just drop it the day he says he's going to? Yes, I am. A couple of years ago, I started smoking due to stress and stopped simply because I wasn't going to stand out in the cold and smoke a cigarrette. Have you heard the latest medical theory about alcoholism? It's a disease. Yes, a disease. People pick up a bottle and pour poison into their system on a constant basis. No one forces them to. They just do it. Yet, it's a disease. The same with eating disorders, obesity, etc. Now, I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure that the clinical definition of a disease would have to be changed in order for this theory to fit. How can something we're doing to ourselves be a disease? A disease is defined as "a particular destructive process in an organism; specifically an illness." While I think we can all agree that refusing to eat, gorging yourself, vomiting out the food you do eat, and drowning your brain in the poison known as alcohol are all "destructive processes", I can't see that the continual choice to do such a thing could be called a disease. I guess I'm not wired to that sort of liberal thinking. My wife is a big fan of the A & E television show "Intervention," and while I find it hard to watch these people waste away their lives on destructive habits, I am mesmerized by their struggles, as well, yet find it even harder to classify what they're doing as suffering from a disease. If they are, so am I. Not the same one, but a related one. I don't do drugs, I don't drink often or to excess, I rarely smoke, and while I'm overweight, I've never had an eating disorder. Yet, I do believe I have an addiction. A compulsion, if you will. I constantly place my happiness in the hands of others and lay my cards out on the table hoping that this is the day that when the final card is played, I will have received the incredible thrill that I've been looking for from this game all my life. The big pot that will allow me to retire, walk away, and find some other way to spend my life and my time. That day never comes. Addiction is a powerful thing, and while I realize that there are physical symptoms people go through as a part of withdrawing from these activities, I believe that in large part addictions are of the mind, ladies and gentlemen. We don't want to give up doing something. Many of us fear change, and even if it's something that is harming us, we'll continue to do it because it's comforting. Even if that one thing has given you the best thing that it possibly can, we just can't let it go. It's something we've taken part in for a long time, something we don't want to let go because we find it a comfort. At times it may be a cold comfort, but it's a comfort nonetheless. "Every gambler knows the secret to surviving is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep. Cuz every hands a winner and every hands a loser, and the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep."--Kenny Rogers I've never played this game alone. How can you? You've got to have some opponents, and there has to be some chance at a real take, otherwise there's no point. There's no thrill. I don't sit at the table for hours a week, and years out of my life to nickel and dime it. I'm always looking for the big score. I know what you're thinking. "Why? Aren't you supposed to be having fun?" Well, yes, of course I am, but in this game there isn't supposed to be any fun. I'm only supposed to appreciate the skill displayed by others that participate. A guy that's all flash and sizzle is the kind of guy to ignore. Nearly everyone's told me that, except the one guy that's been at the table with me the entire time I've been captivated by this obsession; Mac. You see, Mac realizes like I do that there's more entertainment value sometimes in guys that don't hold all the cards. It's dozens of times more interesting to see a man bluff his way to a sizeable pot than to hold Big Slick and flop A-A-K. Like this one guy I know named Dwayne. When he got big cards, he always did a great job of making sure he played them right and got his biggest value out of them. Hell, he took a ton off of Mick and Steve when he had those two as his big hole cards, but he was also able to get good value when he was against Bill and Chris, by betting with nothing but grit and spit. See, the prevailing opinion is wrong. It takes a lot more than skill and being able to work your opponent. It doesn't matter who really holds the cards when the flop comes down. It's all about the front. Sure, substance helps, but you've got to know how to play what you've got. It doesn't matter if you have the Hilton Sisters or a deuce-seven off-suit, you can still win just about any hand by betting like you've roped the moon. If you bet only when you think you actually have the best cards, you may just find yourself getting burned. I once saw a guy start with pocket kings, and catch Aces full of Kings on the River. Given the community cards, there was only one possible hand that could beat him, so he went all in. Unfortunately for this man, his opponent was Chris Ferguson, otherwise known as Jesus, and that man had been dealt the one card that could have won him the hand, the Ace of Spades. Nothing in this game is a sure thing. Just ask Mac. He knows because about 14 years back he started with a pair of aces and it seemed like nothing was going to stop him from dominating the table with his Weapons of Mass Destruction, but the flop didn't go his way, the turn didn't help, and he got pushed out of the hand before he wanted to. His constant opposition up until a few years ago, Ted, had the same exact cards about 3 1/2 years later, and ended up with about the same result. The lesson is simple. Big cards aren't enough. You've got to know how to play 'em and when to lay 'em down, because if you can play little cards with all the gusto you can muster you can move worlds. It's been proven you can do so with a little show and go and the stars don't even have to align. You just have to fool most of the people a lot of the time; it's called bluffing and people have been doing it since the beginning of time. People don't like the way Mac plays. They think he's just a showman who doesn't know a good card from a piece of shit, and I say, "A duh". Of course he knows what a good card is, but that doesn't mean that he can't differentiate a winning hand from a dog. Of all those that have played this game, only one man has ever had the kind of lasting success Mac has enjoyed, and Verne saw his luck run out far before he was ready for it to. I've been pissed at Mac in the past, as there's been times he's done things that I've flat-out despised, but I've got to respect his guts and finding ways to win that nobody else has really had the moxie or chips to try. Life's all about gambling, but this guy has put more chips than he can afford on the table before and walked away a bigger winner than even he could have planned. His pile may be shrinking right now, and of the players left, it'll be hardest for him to get a significant increase, but it's probably even money that he'll still find a way to double up. See, Mac and I have seen a lot of people come to the table full of swagger, thinking they've got what it takes to knock this king off his mountain. When all is said and done, though, it's always just the two of us left. He's never managed to bankrupt me, and I've never tried to do the same to him. We need each other, even if he doesn't know it. I need him because he's the bank that other people come in to play against, and I get my earnings off of those opponents. Mac's given me back some, too, make no mistake, and I'd like to think I've got a little influence over him, but I really don't have more than anyone else does, and I think he'd believe there isn't anyone out there that does. Mac was the only giant for a long time, and when he was first challenged he came out biting and scratching, and survived. Then he nearly got completely bankrupted, and still came out fighting and scratching to get the victory over a seemingly unbeatable hand. His opponent had a flush, too, but Mac had the nuts(in more ways than one) and that was that. Now, though, things are changing, and not to his liking. The game's as great as it's ever been in some ways, maybe even better. Sometimes it almost seems like the cards take on a life of their own, but the thing is that the wind isn't just blowing a different way now, it's in danger of ceasing to blow. "Til it's time for a windfall and not a single minute too soon. I been too long overdue, now I'm gonna shoot the moon."--Clint Black Mac and I, we've seen them come and we've seen them go. Hell, at the beginning Mac was so ruthless that he would have even bullied his own parents around the table, and though he's grown a little more lenient with age, he's still not going to let himself be knocked out of his game. That's right, his game. It isn't the same anymore as when he started. He changed the rules, he lined up dominoes and made them fall the way he wanted to. He made people play by his rules. Verne, Jim, the two Memphis Jerry's, Racket Jim, The Cowboy, Paul, Ted, Jimmy; some of these guys got forced out because they couldn't play Mac's game as well as he could. The rest, well let's just say that sometimes being willing to part with some green under the table has helped him more than the cards [i]on[/i] the table. But, times have changed. He's seeing his popularity fade. Those that used to fund his buy-ins are getting fewer and far between, the crowds that are feverish to see what he can do are dwindling, the cards that used to once seem so magical in his hands don't want to dance for him the way they once did, and we all know that nobody's luck can hold out forever. Neither can their grip. His game is getting changed on him, and you know what's worse? There are two young upstarts with no intention of playing by Mac's rules. Each has their own system, the way Paul did. The people that are making his rules obsolete can't be bullied and they can't be bribed. These folks are believers. From what I've seen, Gabe plays everything straight up and assumes that others do, as well. While this means that you can pretty much count on what he does being straightforward, it also means that there's no real way to gauge the strength of his hand once the flop comes. When you don't bluff, you've got to keep playing as if you believe you've got the nuts. The guy's got skillz, but he's also got holes in his game. Too shallow pockets and too many tells. Mac may fall, but it won't be to him. He won't fall to Dixie, either, but at least she's got his number. She's strong where he's weak, she calls his bluffs, when she's got a real hand she won't back down, and when she's bluffing it's nearly impossible to call her on it. What if a couple hands down the road he thinks she's bluffing and she really did manage to get the card that's eluded him for so long? I've seen Vince flop 3 aces a few times, but I've never seen him hit that 4th. What if she does it before him? She doubles up a few times, we've got a game. Mac's not out yet. Hell, he's not even down, but he's staggered. He's staggered because he's getting hit on all sides. There are fans that no longer believe in him and the way he plays his hands. There are those that believe that whatever magic used to be in the cards for him has gone, and a good number of those that don't believe that just believe the game has passed the man by. Hell, he's going on sixty, and you can't be on top forever. What's more, some of those most loyal to him are finding that he's no longer their True North. I'm one of them. I flat-out don't believe I'd have ever stayed around this game as long as I have without what Mac had to show me, and the style he was offering. He had my backing, heart and soul. No matter how good Ted or Paul got, it was still Mac that I looked to as...well...as home. But, I'm not sure that's the case anymore. I'm not convinced Mac's going to be around as long as I once thought, due to a variety of reasons that perhaps I'll discuss at another time, but I'll tell you one thing straight out. Dixie has done much in the last three weeks to make me believe she has what it takes, while I've seen Mac fall more and more over the last year, just when I thought he'd righted his ship. Maybe he is too old and she and Gabe are the wave of the future. I guess we'll know by 10 o'clock tomorrow night, or at least have a strong inkling. I've been raving to everyone over the last few weeks how strong Dixie's game plan for tomorrow's show looks. It's almost like she already has the cards locked up and ready to fall the way she needs them to. It looks that promising for her this particular Sunday, and I've thrown in my lot with her. I don't consider myself a Judas, and it's not 30 pieces of silver I'm being given, but $29.99+fess/taxes that I'm dishing out to see how right I am. I believe that in less than 24 hours I'm finally going to see that watershed event. I believe that it's just possible this will be the big pot that will allow me to walk away from the game knowing I've seen all there is to see, but it's even more likely that this will be the one round to make [i]me[/i] a believer, to pull me entirely back. To place me all in. That will conclude today's voyage on The Northern Star. Please e-mail any feedback to XanManX@hotmail.com, with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line. The Northern Star will rise again in 8 days, back on schedule. Until then, Long days, pleasant nights.
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