The Rabbi Speaks
Mark Green’s Poker Lessons
(as told to Ashley Adams):
Yom Ha-Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

BY: Mark Green

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

Yom Ha-Shoah is Holocaust Remembrance Day on the Jewish calendar-the 27th of the Jewish month of Nissan. It is the day, usually in April, when we are to remember the Holocaust (known as the "Shoah" in Hebrew). In that sense it is a modern version of Tisha B'av - the day when Jews are commanded to sit in mourning for the destruction of the Temple in ancient times. But Yom Ha-Shoah does not commemorate any ancient day. It is of a much more recent vintage. It commemorates the death and destruction of six million Jewish lives and countless millions of others - Gypsies, Catholics, political opponents, homosexuals, and the disabled -- at the hand of the Nazis.

Significantly, this holiday does not just dwell on the death of communities throughout Europe. We are also commanded to remember righteous Gentiles - non-Jews who saved the lives of Jews - often putting themselves and their families in peril. He who saves one life saves the whole world we are taught. We must remember the Good with the Bad.

It is commanded that we do this not so we can suffer anew - though there is surely much of that each year at this time as we remember the generation lost to this senseless genocide. But we must remember so we do not repeat this tragedy - so that our world will not again be brought to this awful place. And in so doing we are not allowed to avert our eyes from the destruction that goes on now - from the horrible genocide in the Sudan to the suffering of millions throughout the world who die and are plagued with sickness, hunger and poverty.

We must remember so we will learn and act. We believe in our own perfectibility as human beings and as a civilization. Our stories, our history, our tragedies like the Holocaust must be instructive if they are to have meaning. And they must have meaning. As we remember and as we see the horrors that still exist we must commit ourselves to Tikkun Olam - to healing this world. It is what gives our lives purpose, meaning, and value.

My hobby, poker, cannot escape from this conditioning that I have received as a Jew - nor should it. I am built in this special reflective and reactive way. As I remember the Holocaust so I will act to make the world better - so am I given to remember other things so I may improve. As I live my life consciously so I may work on the major aspects of my existence - so must my small and otherwise trivial activities be done consciously and with an eye toward self improvement as well.

All of our activities - from the most significant acts to those that are seemingly trivial - help shape whom we are in the world - and whom we are in the world helps shape every activity. It is not enough, in other words, to just act properly on matters of great purposes. Acting properly, carefully and thoughtfully must become part of whom we are - and so enter everything we do. In that way, all of our activities are godly and holy - even our hobbies like poker.

As a poker player, I play with this backdrop. It is not to say that I elevate poker to the same level of significance as the Holocaust of course. But even my poker play is infused with this life lesson. Done properly, poker too is meaningful to me.

Not to be too superficial with a matter so relatively significant, but my orientation as a Jew is to remember - to remember the good with the bad so that I will improve from those experiences. To properly remember is to be prepared for the future - to be armed with the power of experience and, at times, wisdom. So armed I take on new experiences, ideally, with an eye to doing better.

This helps me enormously with my play at the poker table. Think about this. We can go from hand to hand, playing habitually and thoughtlessly. That is one way. It is a common way. Many players, it seems to me, learn little or nothing from their experiences. They have an "ain't it awful" or "ain't it great" attitude about the game. They have a bad losing session and it becomes no more than a story of "ain't it awful how I got beat". They learn nothing. They don't get better. They don't recognize mistakes in their own play. And in so doing they lose an opportunity for self improvement. Similarly, if they have a great winning session it becomes no more than a story of "ain't it great how I won". They learn nothing; they capture no lesson from their victory. And so whatever positive lessons they might have learned die without being invested in their play. Their future is no brighter than their past.

For the thoughtful player however, bad beats, great victories, terrific coups, and tough decisions - all have their place - but as instructive lessons learned more than as isolated stories to be told and retold for their own purpose.

Consider this one story as illustration. I was playing at Foxwoods at the $20/40 Stud table. I was playing my typical tight and aggressive game. But as the night and eventually the morning wore on I noticed that my stack was significantly depleted. At first, I just attributed it to a string of bad hands. But as I thought about it and reviewed the action of the evening I realized that this wasn't the case at all. In fact, I had been winning hands at about the same frequency as I usually did - less than most of the other players but still about the same as I, a typically conservative player, had won in the past.

As I pondered what was going on more deeply I realized that when I won I was winning much, much less than I usually won. It wasn't that I was playing more hands or that I was staying in longer with borderline hands. It was that my wins were definitely smaller than usual.

This observation caused me to pause - made slightly easier because I was tired and needed to take a break. As I was sipping my coffee and thinking about the game I realized that the lineup of players was familiar. In fact, every single person at the table was familiar to me. I had played with each of them at least a few times in the past - recently in the past. That observation lit a light bulb over my head so to speak. I had what might be called an epiphany (were I a church and not a synagogue going person that is). Here's what I recognized.

My tight play had finally caught up with me. My opponents - significantly all of my opponents had finally and completely figured out my style. They just never failed to believe that my raises meant what they seemed to mean. They decided, each of them, that they were going to always give me credit for having the hand I was representing - and they would always fold if they couldn't at least beat that hand. There were no loose callers who didn't know me at the table. So I was left in the difficult posture of playing as if my hand was completely exposed. Hence, the tiny pots when I won.

I thought about leaving right then. Maybe I should have. You, Ashley, would have advised me to. But I'm not good at that. Even though I knew that there would always be another game, I wanted to play more this session and try out what I had just discovered.

So I stayed. But I altered my play. I started to bluff more on Third Street and throughout the hand. I raised as if I had a Premium Pair every single time I had a high exposed card on Third Street. Sure enough, everyone believed me. I stole quite a few antes. And then I got really lucky. Someone played a hand to the River with me. They had a higher pocket pair than the hand I was representing. I made my first pair on Fifth Street and Two Pair on Sixth Street. And so did they. But I hit a miracle River card and made my Full House. They didn't. I bet - as I had the whole way - and they just called. I exposed my hand and won. But because of the hole cards I had it was obvious that I started with nothing. Being observant and good players, everyone realized that I started with junk and was bluffing but had just stumbled luckily into a very powerful hand. My cover as a super tight player, who always had what he was representing, was blown - which for me was a very, very good thing. Because thereafter they had doubt. They really weren't sure that hands were really what they seemed to be by my betting. And so at least one player thereafter called me down the next three times I bet my Premium Pairs. And I won some large pots before retiring and going home at about 8:00 AM. I finished a winner for the night.

The point is that I started to win not because my luck turned around but because I had noticed something was wrong and then went about correcting it - healing my poker world so to speak. Sure, you can attribute this to being a good poker player. But I see it as something much more basic in my nature. I attribute it to being a good Jew!

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