Hold 'em or Fold 'em

Maybe this entry is random, but I just got extremely unlucky in poker, and I have to vent about it. Let's see if i can make a good analogy here.....

I guess I realized that life is a lot like a poker game. Every single choice you make is a bet, and everyone is dealt a certain amount of chips. What you choose to do with those chips that you're dealt is entirely up to you. This analogy applies to to many aspects of the human lifestyle and human emotions.

Let's talk about stocks for example. Buying stock is essentially the foundation of an economic poker game. If the future looks good for a company, maybe you'll want to throw your chips at it. The same goes for business transactions. Maybe your company is going strong and raking in the dough. That company would most likely be more comfortable throwing their chips in to better themselves. A company that is dealt a worse hand, that maybe has not been as successful, might be a little more hesitant to take a risk because luck might not be on their side.

Now let's take this image full circle, and let's wrap it around to love. Young kids like me may have no idea what love really means, but I could imagine that it's also like a poker game. I could imagine that if someone has a crush on somebody, they'd be far more likely to take a risk to be noticed by the person whom they like. Picture this. The person who has the crush gets noticed by the other after they throw some chips into the pot. Eventually, these two people become a couple after the boy (or at least usually the boy) goes all in. Then a new poker game starts, to symbolize the development of a relationship.

Both members of the pair continue to throw chips in, until it's just plain ill-advised to back out of the betting. Eventually, one of them pushes all in when they think that they're in love. However, the risk, just like the imminent risk of going all in in poker, is there, because the person hearing the words "I love you" may be too afraid to respond. Either way, if a relationship results in marriage, the couple shares the pot. Therefore, in a healthy relationship, everyone wins, and nobody goes home beating themselves up about folding that open-ended straight draw, or going all in on that pocket pair. I'm just a high school guy, and I'm not known as any romantic, but I could imagine that real love means both people have pocket rockets. This is the kind of love that a family shares.

Whether you're a stock owner, an aspiring businessman, or a lover, life is just a game of texas hold 'em. We've all been dealt our cards. The only thing left for us to do is to decide when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.