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The Morality of Poker

December 31 2012 ,
by Matthew J-B

The Morality of Poker

Ok, this is going to seem pretty deep, but this is the way I think of things, so here goes…

The first thing I’m going to do is clarify key points with regard to something being morally right or wrong. It’s merely just my way of thinking and is really just ever so simplistically associating words, but this will explain itself later:

  • Team ‘Morally Right’ = Good
    Good = God
    God’s greatest gift = Human Life
  • Team ‘Morally Wrong’ = Evil
    Evil = The Devil
    The greatest trick the devil ever pulled = convincing the world he didn’t exist… hold on, I’m getting side-tracked here…
    The root of all evil = Money

So what I’m getting at here is that ‘Good’s’ flagship representative (whatever you call it) is ‘Human Life’ and ‘Evil’s’ is ‘Money’.

So… disregarding or abandoning ‘Human Life’ is a one-up for ‘Evil’ and is spitting in the face of God so-to-speak. And disregarding or abandoning ‘Money’ is a one-up for ‘Good’ and is spitting in the face of The Devil (so-to-speak).

Ok, so this was kinda the thing I wanted to clarify moving forward…

The next thing is to (ignorantly) compare a Poker Player to a General in the military. Now what we are going to say here is that they are both Poker Players and playing ‘The Game’. What is important at this stage is to realise I’m not referring to a degen gambler (lust for money, well, in fact, lust for losing but that’s another topic) and a man passionately serving his country. We’re talking about elite decision making, based on the information we have, for the purpose of the end (it never ends) purpose. Get it?

Two General’s competing against each other in war could well be described as one of the purest Heads-Up confrontations.

A Poker Player’s weapons are his chips, the means to take an aggressive action and put pressure on an opponent, the means for his weapons to grow, the means to make his opponents’ weapons vulnerable etc. A military General’s chips are his army, in, for the purpose of this exercise, identical fashion. Can we see where this is going yet?

A Poker Player, I mean a true Poker Player, plays with a TOTAL DISREGARD for his chips, his money, and so spits in the face of The Devil and sides with ‘Good’. **

[** If we up-the-ante here and include ’freewill’ into the argument, along the same lines of when (for example) someone knows a crime is being committed and choses to do nothing it is often said they are ‘just as bad as the criminals’ (not sure I’m with them here but still), we could say that a Poker Player sides with ‘Good’ MORE SO than someone who chooses not to play (The Game, in this ‘Morally Right’ spot-thing).]

A military General, again I mean a true Poker Player (this is the important bit), plays with a TOTAL DISREGARD for his chips, his army, human life, and so spits in the face of God and sides with ‘Evil’.

Here’s the thing… I’m suggesting the General is ‘Morally Wrong’ and the Poker Player is ‘Morally Right’. Society would rank them worlds apart in the opposite direction, the General would clearly have a noble profession and the Poker Player is an outcast. And I know no-one else shares my view, and I’m not saying it is my view, it’s just a good question raised for anyone who understands The Game.

2 Responses leave one
  1. 1debo1 permalink
    January 1, 2013

    Thought provoking! Good read mate. It’s a funny works we live in sometimes ay? It’s a good lesson to learn to form your own opinions and not always take as gospel what everyone else thinks. Getting deep!

    • Air Marshal permalink*
      January 2, 2013

      Thanks mate! It has been pointed out to me that I share the same birthday as Adolf Hitler, and he thought what he was doing was right, so perhaps I should think again!!! Ha! However for me it’s just bored-mind-wandering-stuff but it’s fun thinking about things like this in a different way and trying to justify a career choice born in the whispering shadows of normal life!

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