I’m a pretty crappy poker player but a decent poet. So I’ve started to write some poker poems and I figure it’s unlikely that many people would appreciate them other than poker players (if you don’t play cricket, try reading poems about cricket). Of course, a lot of poker players - maybe most, maybe nearly all - hate poetry, so writing poker poetry may be a bad play.
This one tries to get at one of the basic dilemmas of the game, at least for me; to win you’ve got to beat people you might be fond of, even if you’ve only known them for a few hours.

Open Ended

The usual old guy at the table
who reminds you of William Burroughs
is loose with his short stack
and funny and somehow
knows all about Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart
so you bump his min raise 5x
because you hold pocket Ks
and don’t want to bust him
or double him up
(he’s got pocket 8s or 9s you figure)
but he calls and says
“I gotta get something to eat.”
The flop is an aceless rainbow
and no 8 or 9 (2, 7, 10)
so you snap shove to get the message across
but he’s not playing the same game...
his wife is dead
his only kid OD’d in college
and if he’s lucky
he’s got 6 months to a year...
so he calls open ended
(7, 8, 9, 10)
and the turn misses him.
“Hey” he says standing up smiling
“This has been great”
and he means it.
What do you want to see on the river?

Old man at table
Hey this has been great he says
Take him at his word

3 of spades

Its not like he can take it with him when hes gone. Throw up a brick.

And it's not like he has a wife or kid to leave it to

I'd like to see him hit and jump onto the table and dance the Macarena!