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

BY: Mark Green

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

Who among us and even among the goyim hasn't heard of Rosh Hashanah? For some it is the Jewish New Year. For others it is the first of the High Holy Days. For still others it is a free pass out of school or work. However you think about it, those who know of it recognize it as among the holiest days for Jews - a time of great solemnity, reverence, introspection, prayer and religiosity.

But these are all superficial understandings of this day, literally "The Head of the Year". In truth, these simple definitions of the day are misleading. .

Significantly, Rosh Hashanah is misunderstood by most people - most Jews especially - much as poker is misunderstood by most people. Allow me to explain. In the explanation is, I think, a valuable lesson about how to approach this great game - and perhaps how to approach living our lives.

Before I began to study Judaism seriously - I thought of Rosh Hashanah much as the layman does today. It was this special day when the book of life was open - when my life was an open book to be studied by me in front of God. I was to pray for forgiveness for my sins of the past year - making amends and making things right for the coming year. I had between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to make those amends and to ask forgiveness.

There was nothing wrong, specifically wrong, with that understanding. I understood these holy days much as the layman understands poker. For most people, poker is a game of bluffing and big hands. The good poker player makes his money with very strong hands like Royal Flushes and Full Houses and Four of a Kind or by making great bluffs that represent these powerhouse hands even if he has absolutely nothing. Watch movies that include poker scenes and that's what you'll see. No wonder that this is the image that most people have of our game. Straight Flushes beating Full Houses or Four Kings beating Four Jacks or a player convincingly pulling off a great bluff only to win a hand with absolute bupkes. Ah, the movies!.

But winning poker is not really about hands like that - at least it's not MOSTLY about them. While it's true that sometimes players win when their super big hand beats another almost as super big hand - and while it's true that sometimes a player wins himself a might pot with a mighty bluff - these moments, dramatic though they are -- are rare. Winning poker is chiefly about playing all of the other hands well - playing correctly the hands you receive the other 99.9% of the time. Winning poker, at its core, is about correctly making decisions - especially making tough decisions. Winning with a Straight Flush doesn't really involve any tough decisions. And it happens so seldom, if at all, that it contributes next to nothing to your bottom line - no matter how expertly you may play it. But playing a low pair on Third Street - that's a tough decision and it happens all the time. Similarly, playing a Premium Pair on Fifth Street when you haven't improved - that's tough too - and happens thousands of times more than having Quads.

Back to Rosh Hashanah. What the layman often doesn't understand is that Rosh Hashanah is significant not so much for what the Jew does or does not do on that day in specific but for how it affects his behavior for the remainder of the year. An observant Jew can arrive at 8:30 AM on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and stay for all the services, not leaving until the last line of the Aleinu after sundown on the second day - but he will not have fulfilled his commandment to observe and fulfill the holiday unless he carries with him for the remainder of the entire year and puts into practice the precepts of his faith that he recited and vowed on those days.

In other words, it's not just what he does on those two big holidays that is important. It's what he does on the regular days, on the common days, on the non-holidays that really matters - because that defines how he really lives his life.

So too with poker. It's not how you play the really big hands that you're dealt that matters - it's what you do on all of the hands in between. Can you fold all of the lousy hands - even the ones that you're dealt after folding bad hands for an hour? Can you tell continue to show self control in the face of a bad beat? How well do you play the pedestrian hands like 3-Flushes, pairs, and Two Pair. That's the way to really measure the power of your play - not whether you can win with Quads or a Straight Flush.

© The Poker Forum.com, all rights reserved