Poker and Other Gambling

I’ve sat next to the ship’s commanding officer at a black-jack table while at 400 feet below the surface of the ocean — and, yes, we were gambling for money.

The original version of this post – Poker – was written at the end of 2005, in the middle of the poker boom.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played poker — and several of its variations. I’m just not attracted to like many others are.

Poker remains popular for many, though far less so than than it was during the poker boom¹ from 2003 through 2006. It’s not like it’s something new.

I was playing poker over four decades ago — and quit when it put my young family in financial difficulty.

It was in the 1970s — cold war period — and I was on a missile submarine in the North Atlantic. It was a three month patrol, 90 days without any way for the individual sailor to communicate with anyone not on the ship. We could receive five family grams during the patrol — 20 word limit each and censored to ensure there was nothing upsetting.

There wasn’t a lot of entertainment available to us for distraction. Video games, DVDs and VCRs weren’t around then. We had movies after the evening meal, but if you were on watch or asleep you didn’t get that. Most guys brought some books and there was a tiny library with a few more.

A lot of the time, for many, was filled with games, mostly card games like pinochle, spades, hearts, and cribbage. Some guys played backgammon.  Then, too, there was the weekly poker game and — in the middle of patrol — casino night. I’m not sure what the legality of it was, but as an enlisted man, I’ve sat next to the ship’s commanding officer at a black-jack table while at 400 feet below the surface of the ocean — and, yes, we were gambling for money. A percentage went to the “welfare and rec. committee.” Funds from it, I suppose, were available to help guys and their families who might, at times, be struggling to make ends meet. The only benefit I saw personally from it was the ship’s party held each year one of the times when we were the crew off of the ship. (The missile subs had two crews — the blue crew and the gold crew. I was on the blue crew.) As I recall it, there was only one casino night each patrol, and I always came out ahead from it.

The weekly poker night, though, is what brought me down. It wasn’t high stakes, but over a period of several weeks, one could lose quite a bit of money. A percentage of the proceeds from it also went to the “welfare and rec.” fund. Since most of the guys didn’t have much money with them, the winnings and the losses were kept track of in a notebook. I never really did terribly bad, but I seldom came out a winner — and, for a time, I couldn’t stay away from the game. When what I owed got to somewhere over $200, I stopped. It wasn’t more than we would be able to handle. However, I still had to tell my wife that we were going to have to get by with less money for a while and that I had lost it by playing poker.

I never played poker, other than for fun, not cash, after that. I really enjoyed playing the game, by I also recognized in myself that it was something that I could enjoy too much, that I could easily get very engaged in it and lose a lot more than I lost on that submarine when there wasn’t a drop of alcohol to be had anywhere. I hate to think how much I would have lost if American ships allowed liquor on board.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against gambling. I’ve gambled on occasion, never cards, just slot machines and the lottery,² but I don’t let my enjoyment of it overwhelm me, like I know it could. I keep in mind that I’m not going to win big and that I will likely take home less money than I came with, but I won’t lose more money than I planned.

1. The poker boom was a period between 2003 and 2006, during which poker, primarily no limit Texas hold ’em, but also other variations, became considerably more popular around the world. During the boom years the online poker player pool at least doubled in size every year. Wikipedia.
2. In 2008, Arkansas voters approved lottery ticket sales, with the first tickets sold in 2009. The closest store selling tickets is now just 3 miles down the road.

Image information: Cassius Marcellus Coolidge – Poker Game (1894) (accessed June 22, 2019)