Good Laydown

I was walking around the antique show the other day when I overheard a dealer sort of bragging to another dealer. "I paid $1500 for the thing and I just sold it for a thousand. Best move I ever made."

Being in a business where you make a whole lot of moves, I understand completely. Not everything you do is going to pay off and sometimes the smart money is to cut your losses. Of course a steady diet of mistakes will leave you flat busted.

Hopefully we gain wisdom somewhere along the way. Put the mistakes behind you and wait for the bigger kills that amble into our lives every so often if your eyes are open.

I am not a poker player, I am a black jack player, in fact a quite competent black jack player but that is another story for another day. I do understand the rudiments of poker and one of the most interesting facets to me is the concept of a good lay down.

A good lay down is when you fold a very good hand because you get the feeling that the other player has an even better hand. Poker lore is full of stories of people folding pairs of aces and sets, wisely conserving their seed corn when their opponent hits his flush or straight.

My favorite Bowery Boys episode is when Satch and Mugs get caught in a rigged draw poker game against some sharpies and Huntz Hall folds four kings because he knows that somewhere in the deck there lie four aces, which turn out to be the next four cards.

Sometimes in life there is nothing to do but sit back and wait for the wind to change. Can't do much winning in the long run until you run into some good cards. And there's times we just got to lay it down.