Texas Hold 'Em And The Youth Of Today

Spent Saturday evening out in Burlington playing poker with some old friends from work, so today I'm a bit on the run-down side and not feeling particularly ambitious. We were with some younger players, however, and that has inspired me to raise a complaint against the under 30 crowd in general and their credulous embrace of Texas Hold 'Em poker.

Kids, Texas Hold 'Em is nothing more than five card poker with a couple of betting opportunities and an elaborate pseudo-technical jargon ("the flop", "the river") designed to hide its underlying simplicity. It is NOT rocket science, it doesn't repay endless analysis, and when you play it you're not engaged in any sort of athletics, despite the fact they show it endlessly on the Sport's Network.

In fact the game is a crashing bore. Played properly, you'd spend a night swapping chips and maybe, maybe winning or losing $20. But what happens is that, as the long hours creep past, the participants start betting crazy so they can drive the game to a conclusion.

Stupid young people.


(And, if you wondering, no I did not lose big. By the end of the night I was up about $5, although it was mostly won in side games like Russian Poker and Straight Sevens and so on. Men's poker, in other words).