New places, new games… I used to play truco, now I’m trying poker. It has being a little challenging. My problem seems to be memory. I can’t really remember the possible hands, so I take a little more time to learn the moves… still. The key word here is still, I’ll get there. But what I’m really into is work on my bluff.
What is bluff, anyway? Our always helpful Wikipedia says that is a bet or raise with an inferior hand that has little or no chance of improving. Dictionary.com says is self-confidence. Trying to play with words, thinking about my challenges, and still learning how to play poker, I couldn’t help at wonder: How does one’s bluff improve?
Nasim is a great girl I met in the city. She is from “the controversy Iran”, as she says. To me, she has no controversy. On the opposite, her strong values are a great lesson. As many others, Nasim came to this country pursuing a better education. Now, she is applying for her PhD. For great students, the States have great schools and opportunities, and that is Nasim’s case. She applied to two of the top schools in the Music field, and got accepted by both. The thing is that one school offered her a full scholarship for five years, and lots of benefits coming along. The other school, lots of benefits; still, she would have to pay for the program. As a smart person, she waited, and bluffed.
You could tell Nasim was more passionate for the school that wasn’t giving too many options. But her bluff was based on silence, observation. She knew how far she could go and how much she was worth, but she waited to see how far they think she would go. Every time she was updating me the news, I could only think about my last games.
Maybe because I can’t still, for some reason, visualize the hands, my moves have been not really careful – and still, no bluff. Maybe I let good hands pass and keep only the cards that will take me nowhere. Although sometimes, I feel that I just don’t know how to combine good cards and make a good move.
Maybe I’m doing it because I’m afraid to lose that one or two good cards or maybe, I just base my skills by those one or two good moves from an old game. It doesn’t mean much in poker. This game demands, actually, math skills, patience and seduction. Seduction is based on wait and silence.
It’s funny… when telling a small big girl I know about my last very messy affair, she told me (with the deep experience only a 19 year-old girl can have) “Never regret your silence. If you talk much, you gonna have to do much. And you… you don’t wanna do that much…”
Ye, Bia. Maybe be I’ve been doing too much… Playing too hard…. Thinking too hard… Maybe I’ve based my moves on what I guess my partners have in their hands…. That’s not how the game goes. Maybe I should be a bit surer about my hand, and on my bluff, before even getting into the table. And, definitely, I have to learn the right time to fold. Sometimes, it is just not worth all the effort, although you think you can win.
But how about Nasim’s game? Oh, she bluffed, she observed, she certainly seduced… but she realized that it was time to fold and go to the next table. Because in the end, it seems that let yourself free to try different tables is how you can really have fun.
Good luck Nasim! Have fun on your next table!
