Chicken Dinner

So... I almost got into a fight on Friday night, or really early Saturday morning, depending on how you look at it.  Just so you know, this was my first attempt at gambling.  I played blackjack with my brother and his girlfriend.  Armed with $20 in $1 chips, we sat down at a $3 table.  After watching for a bit, I started gambling.  The table was mostly full, and everyone was roughly my age or my brother's age.  We were all enjoying ourselves, laughing and joking.  Even our dealer, Toon, was great.

One of the players won on a $3 bet and said, "Winner winner, chicken dinner."  Toon replied, "You can't buy a chicken dinner with $3, maybe a chicken sandwich."  And that's how most of the night went.  Normally I'm not interested in gambling, but my brother enjoys it and I wanted to see what it was like.  It's not something I'd do often, but it can be enjoyable, if you're smart about it.  But this isn't a gambling blog, this is a political blog.

Near the end of the night, alright, around 4am, a guy came and sat down at the table.  He was drunk, a little older than me, and apparently full of bad luck that night.  He sat right next to me, on my right.  We were going along fine when he started saying, "What are you guys doing?! You stay on 12!  2 is the best card!"  He repeated this several times, much to the table's annoyance.  The next hand, I had 12 and the dealer had a 4 showing, which means odds are he has 14.  I hit.  This drove the guy nuts.  He was practically yelling, "You STAY on 12. If you stay on 12, everyone wins."

Unfortunately for him, I don't care if everybody wins.  I only care if I win.  The other players are not my opponents, at least not directly, but I receive no benefit from them winning if I lose.  My playing strategy for the night, and incedently for my life, was to play to win.  That strategy has no room for the consideration of other players.  With that said, I am not going to try and cheat them, or try to be mean to them, but I certainly will not play with the objective of them winning at my expense.  Would I like to see everybody win?  I don't measure myself by other people's wins and losses, so I don't really care.  We all sat down at that table knowing some might win and some might lose.

This guy just wasn't getting it, so I said, "You play how you want and we'll play how we want."

"Just listen to what I'm telling you..."

"I don't care," I said, cutting him off.

"No, just listen."

"I don't care," I repeated.

"Do you have an issue with me? Are we going to have a problem?" he asked angrily.

"No, it's $3 blackjack, I'm just here to have fun," I said firmly.

I thought he was going to ask me to step outside, but instead he shut up.  I later found out that at least two of the other people sitting at the table would have had my back, if things did end up out in the parking lot.  The guy kept mumbling, "Every fucking table," so apparently his 'tips' didn't go over so well at other tables either.

If I'm playing, I'm in it to win.  I am a good sport, but a fierce competitor.  Winning is my objective.  Winning is the objective of life.  How you measure that could by money, a family, friends, your job, or several other factors.  You cannot win at blackjack or life by putting other people first.  If I cared about the outcome of the other players, I would not have been able to take my $20 and turn it into $50, but I did.  I did it by hitting on 12, and now I can enjoy two chicken dinners, or ten chicken sandwiches.

© 2010 Nate Phillipps