I Don't Play golf
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October 26, 2016, I Don't Play Golf
You have no idea how many times I have been asked about my golf game. My answer is relatively easy - I don’t play golf. The explanation takes a little more time. It all started back in my first year in high school. The cool guys all played poker, and I really wanted to be cool, so I decided to learn. This is not learning whether a full house beats a flush (it does). I am talking about learning to read faces, deal like a pro, know the odds, and basically become a teenage card shark. I would sit up at night and deal hand after hand. I learned to cut the cards with one hand and subtle ways to sneak a peek if the other guys were sloppy holding their cards. Cheating could get you in trouble but looking when they held their hand low was fair game. Playing with other high school kids was usually an easy way to make a little spending money. Nobody got rich playing penny ante poker. At times the older guys would let me sit in. These were the guys who had jobs after school so the amount of dollars in a pots could be $50.00 or more. In games like these I became Mr. Conservative poker player, and as a result I generally did okay. Until that fateful day. It was the spring of my junior year. I was playing with the older guys, and on that day I was doing really well (and I mean really well). I would name the game, but unless you were a card player it would just be a name. I saw a chance to score a BIG hit and doubled the pot. Well I lost $800 in that one hand - problem was I only had $400. Mind you these were not the guys that send some guy who's a 7ft tall monster with a low voice to collect. But we all felt honor bound to settle up right then and an agreement was made. I spent that summer carrying golf clubs. Now the guy I caddied for was an okay guy, and even after all these years I remain thankful for his role in my life. Since that time I have never gambled. I have been to the horse races and dutifully lost my $5.00 on a side bet to an 80 year old woman. I have played cards on a few occasions but as I said earlier – nobody gets rich on penny ante poker. I tell people if God wants me to win the lottery, somebody will give me the ticket. I’m sure this life lesson about gambling saved me tons of money over the years. I believe, however, that the dollars I have saved by not gambling are nowhere near the amount I saved by not being a golfer (having lost any desire to golf that summer as well), Moral - Things don’t always turn out the way you might think. |