Poker: The Perfect Game For The 21st Century Man
He disconnects from his body and Iives in his mind.
He understands, analyzes and conceptualizes it through his mind, and it also obligates and asks him to remain there.
Any emotions or discomforts he feels, he is not to demonstrate to the world, as best he can.
He competes to survive. “I worry about myself”, one says. He speaks for many.
He studies it in practice or through lessons to the degree he feels is necessary to succeed.
His success comes through dominance of others.
He takes at the expense of others.
He chases the high that he perceives, has tasted or has seen in others who he identifies with as the archetype that he too, is here.
He may seek to be perceived as someone to fear.
He is immobile for long periods of time.
Money defines him.
He may seek it for notoriety, or an escape, for pleasure, or as a hobby. He may call it a career, identified as a professional or an amateur.
When he loses chips, loses position, loses a hand, loses a ruling, his ego is hit.
He is driven by the possibility of success.
His sense of worth is intertwined with his achievement.
He is confronted with his story of worth.
When his hands arrive and as they play out, he sees best case scenarios, opportunities through, and when he must concede.
He is unconsciously remembers the times he was hurt before, and he remembers. He suppresses the visceral expressions, navigating discomfort and excitement. Chronically neglecting this further propagates the capacity to differentiate the two.
His gamble at life invites similar risk assessment and investment in life.
He utilizes deceitful or misleading tactics to position himself and conquer, even if he knows he’s at a disadvantage.
He can engage long past all of his signals of fatigue are screaming at him for rest.
He oscillates between being disconnected, staring into nothing while shuffling chips, to looking around to remain stimulated, occasionally chatting, only to be connected to the game, what it means to him, as he engages in the competition, his dominance, but most importantly, his survival.
He finds himself in a community of others who love this game for the life that it takes and the life that it brings.
Women who have a grasp of navigating the mind, choose this game, too. Seeking what is similarly provided for man, she believes it is available for her, too. She may seek to dominate man and subscribes to their games of mind find their way into it.
But off the table, he feels disconnected from many aspects of his life that he yearns to reconnect with. He finds difficulty expressing himself outside the dynamic range that exists on the felt, which is relatively adynamic. He feels the world as probability and odds.
Women bring him back into his body, if temporarily. There, his body encounters release or euphoria, & as his mind is overrided and he returns to his body, unfamiliar feelings of being embodied have him retreat back to the mind. It’s safer there.
His cycle of mind and body are chased & suppressed, especially if reinforcing or satiating the insecurities of his ego.
In engaging, he rejects his depth until he realizes and embraces the deep desire that he has within to build with, not at the expense of, share, be connected to, heal wounds within, be in emotional connection with self, and with community.
What he has available is the opportunity to see here, feel here, become aware of that which he is averting, that which he yearns for returning to.
He arrives when he returns to playing poker, as a game IN his life and not a game OF it.
