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

BY: Mark Green

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

So, Ashley, today our poker conversation turns to the tzit-tzit - those long fringes that we Jews wear at the end of our prayer shawls. What can these highly ritualistic Jewish objects have to do with poker you may wonder? Ah, therein lies a good story.

First let me tell you a little about the tzit-tzit - and then I'll connect it to the game we all love to play.

The tzit-tzit are a wonderful memory device as it turns out. We Jews have been required to adorn ourselves with them since ancient times - as a way of remembering our many commandments. As it is written in the Numbers section of the Torah, our law, and recited in our twice-daily prayer the Shema:

Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them that they shall make themselves tzitzit on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations and they shall place upon the tzitzit of each corner a thread of blue wool. These shall be your tzitzit, and when you see them, you shall remember all of God's commandments so as to keep them. You will then not stray after your heart and eyes after which have lead you to immorality. You will thus remember and keep all My commandments, and be holy to your God.

Similarly, it is also commanded in the book of Deuteronomy,

You shall make for yourselves twisted threads on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Today, very observant Jewish men wear the tzit-tzit all day long, attaching them to a garment called a Tallit Katan that they wear under their shirts. In my days in the rabbinical school I did the same.

But most Jews don't do this anymore. Most Jews only wear tzit-tzit as part of a prayer shawl that they wear over their clothes when they go into the synagogue to pray. This is called a tallit gadol. And when you enter a synagogue on a Saturday morning, this is what you see the men and some of the women wearing around their shoulders. It too has four fringes that hang down - one from each corner of the tallit.

The idea was that by having these fringes in view and at hand that we would be forced to think about our duties - our requirements to live a proper, obedient, and dutiful life. It's a Jewish version of tying a string around your finger or carrying rosary beads.

How does this relate to poker you may ask? Simple. If the Jews needed to have their reminders literally sewn into the fabric of their lives, so too do we, as poker players need to have reminders of the need to play our best game at all time.

Not to be too facile about this, but playing poker well involves a great amount of emotional balance and mental clarity. Though we don't have a book of laws to follow at the poker table, the successful poker player does require of himself a certain discipline to keep from getting out of line. Lose focus or lose emotional balance even briefly and it could cost you not just a pot but your whole bankroll.

Consider a typical session. Within it there are sure to be some bad beats and some long runs of bad cards. It's inevitable. Similarly, it is tempting to stay too long and get distracted, sliding away as might, and losing the focus and concentration we need to play our best game. It's easy to let these vagaries of chance get to you - pushing you into tiltland.

We need constant reminders while we are playing of our need to play well, of our decision not to go on tilt, of our resolve to be disciplined and to be aggressive - lest we fall victim to our frailties as human beings. It is so easy to get distracted from the task at hand - so easy to lose our focus and our way.

I'll tell you a secret, Ashley. I stopped wearing the Tallit Katan when I left rabbinical school in the 1960s. It was wool; it was hot; and I lacked the religious conviction of the Orthodox - no longer feeling compelled to adopt all of the trappings of the traditional Jew. I had a conversion you might say to the Reformed and Reconstuctionist approach to my faith.

But I continue to maintain one aspect of that traditional practice. I wear the tallit gadol in synagogue when I pray. During the shema, I wrap the tzit-tzit around my fingers. And I am reminded of my obligations as a Jew.

I also apply this same approach to my poker game. I don't wear tzit-tzit but I do bring a large silver dollar to the table, placing it in front of me and on my down cards. The silver dollar, given to me when I was a boy, reminds me to stay focused on the task at hand - to be disciplined and to play my best game at all times. Other may view it as a talisman or good luck charm. It isn't. It's just my reminder - my poker tzit-tzit as it were. When I look at it I think of my obligations to myself and to my game.

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