The Rabbi Speaks
Mark Green’s Poker Lessons
(as told to Ashley Adams): Miracles

BY: Mark Green

BY: Ashley Adams Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com) Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

Poker consists of many miracles. Let me define my terms. A miracle is an unexpected event - but not an impossible one for those of us with faith. Miracles are not always positive for you - but they're positive for someone. They happen in poker from time to time. I'll get to that in a second.

Consider the most famous miracle - the parting of the Red Sea. You know the story. Pharaoh lets the Jews go, but then chases them to the Red Sea. The Jews are trapped. There are mountains in one direction, Pharaoh and his army chasing them from the side and a mighty sea in front of them. What happens? The sea opens up and the Jews get to escape. When Pharaoh's army follows the Jews into the sea it collapses upon them, drowning them all.

What happened was a miracle. It was a wonderful event for the Jews. It is the ultimate triumph of faith over fear, of freedom over slavery. But, in fairness, it surely wasn't wonderful for Pharaoh and his army. They all died. Must have been a bitter pill. Like the plagues. Talk about your bad beats.

So that's a miracle. But back to poker. Here's a poker miracle.

I was playing in a $20/40 game in Foxwoods. I started out with split Aces. I raised the bring-in. No mystery. Most of the guys at the table, they know me well. They know I'm a pretty straightforward player. When I raise with an Ace, 90% of the time I have the Aces. The other ten percent maybe I'm in late position and trying a rare ante steal. Or maybe I have a wired pair and I'm getting frisky. But they know me well enough to know what to do. They fold.

But there's this new player - never seen him before. He doesn't know me from Adam. I reconstructed his hand after the play was over. Here's what he had and what I had. When I'm done, you tell me if you believe in miracles.

I had (4-A)A. He had (2-3)5. I raised. He called! He called my raise to $20 with a 5 high gapped three straight - heads up.

Anyway, I'm getting excited again just thinking about it. Here's how the hand progressed. I bet and he called every round.

Think about it. I started with Aces. He started with less than nothing and he hit a double gut shot straight to win. It was a miracle! He went from being a 4:1 dog to a 5:1 dog to a 45:1 underdog. In fact, a new term should be used to identify an underdog like that. How about an underrat! He was a 45:1 underrat. Even so, he pulled it out and he won. And I got swept away by the sea. You got to love it.

You have to deal with miracles at the poker table. That's why you don't want a whole bunch of idiots playing against you - at least not at $20/40. I don't know about you, but I can't take the swings that happen with all of those suck outs. Sure, I can take one or two. But my wallet gets bruised when I bet all the way to the River three or four or five times in a row and get drawn out on each time. It's about $160 to $200 a pop. Hey, even a good poker player doesn't like to drop $1,000 in five bad beats in a row - even though we know, intellectually that over the long run we'll get it back plus some. Sure, that works in theory. But for my money, give me the positive value every couple of hands or so. Don't save it up.

What do I do about it? Well, as you know, I'm a religious man. I have faith in the immutable power of the odds (among other things). Sooner or later if I play with the odds on my side I'm going to come out on top. Not every time of course. Some time the Red Sea opens up and swallows a whole army. But over time, the bigger army defeats the smaller army.

It's important for me to continue to have faith in the face of miracle hands like the one I described above (and believe me - there are many more I could tell you about). Sometimes it helps to think of Job and his faith in the face of much tougher obstacles.

This brings to mind one last thought on this subject. Miracles that help you can happen too. You can pull that wonderful Flush card on the River to beat your opponent's unimproved trips. So I pray at the poker table from time to time. Sure, it may not help. But, in the words of a great rabbi I once knew, "It can't hurt!"

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