A Soldier's Words

Here is an e-mail I received from a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq. It has been abbreviated due to space constraints.

I play quite a bit of poker, and as it stands, I have done very well in the games that I have played; but for the most part, I don't even worry about that. I am a historian of the game, and while I know that I have an intangible fearlessness gained by many sleepless nights of mortars and gunfire, I can also appreciate the complexity of the mental and physical strain endured by the very best of the game's top players. I started playing hold'em while we were stationed in Baghdad, and while I wasn't very good at first, there were a few very good players who took the time to teach me. A few of the best players were lost later in the year, but while I could learn from them, I did.

We had a very expensive game going in Baghdad, and the same faces usually showed up to play. We had our brains, our brawn, and our beauty, and even the ugly made a few appearances, as well. Somewhere amongst the many months of off-time, and the hundreds of missions, we formed a bond of brotherhood and respect that would not have existed otherwise. Although we would love to say that all of us made it back in one piece and with our poker faces intact, sadly, that is not the case. We were deployed in Iraq for nearly 16 months, and as would seem natural once you have seen the brutality of war, a few did not draw such a lucky run of cards. However, with the help of our friendship and having the cards and a cheap set of plastic poker chips, we would leave a seat empty, and regain our position at the table. I would give all of the many monstrous pots that I took down to have even one of them back, but in life, as in poker, once a hand is dealt, it is all up to the cards. We have remained close with each other, although sometimes the mood grows somber as we look at the three empty seats while we play, and a tearful moment passes as we recall a great hand that one of the fallen had once suckered us into, or a bad beat we put on one of them, and our memories run cold. It is not always bad to lose. – Michael Asher

Don't forget that poker is a game, and things could be much worse. More than 250,000 people have died or are missing as a result of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. This is a time for poker players to help out by volunteering or giving money to those in need.