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I used to play poker quite a bit. Not the high-stakes stuff that's popular now (and not strip, either!), but sit-around-the-table, playing-for-quarters dealer’s choice type poker. I've never been good at counting cards, but I'm aware of the odds and I know the basic mechanics of all the games. I've never won big, but I've never lost big, either. If I'm at a casino I play blackjack. With blackjack, if you play the odds and have a good feel for how the deck is turning, you can come out ahead. Blackjack luck tends to run in streaks -- the deck is hot or cold and if you can tailor your bets, you can make it work in your favor.
Texas Hold 'em is very popular right now, and part of the reason it's popular is because it doesn't work that way. Texas Hold 'em turns on luck more than any other game and because the last card (the river) can make a winning hand out of a complete mess. It's a game where playing foolishly is rewarded more often than other games. Because of that it also encourages people to play more foolishly than they normally would.
When you are playing for fun or for low stakes this can make the game irritating and hard to predict. When you are playing for high stakes against professionals, it can make the game all about how well you can read or manipulate the other players.
Patrick is very, very good at reading and manipulating people. He’s been around for 500 years making his living as a witch, conman and poker player. That’s no small feat. He’s so good at it that he can play the game honestly. He’s good enough that he beat both Dean and Bobby. But yet he completely underestimates Sam.
Now it’s a staple of the show to have people underestimate Dean – the kid with only a GED and more of a memory for School House Rock than actual school work. Doubting Dean’s intelligence is so accepted in the show that it’s almost odd when people don’t do it.
But people underestimate Sam, too. Not his intelligence, but his “street smarts” – his ability to fight or think on his feet or be ruthless. Sam wears his heart on his sleeve, so it’s easy for people to think that he’s not really in control of his emotions. Sam’s a big guy, but people underestimate his fighting ability and his speed.
Maybe it’s the boyishness of the two, the brotherly interplay that never seems to go beyond teenagers or the fact they are both so damn cute, but it’s rare to meet someone who doesn’t underestimate one or both of the Winchesters. Now it’s handy to be underestimated in some cases, but it’s got to be getting old.
Just a short thought before the soon to be awesomeness of tonight’s episode.
Texas Hold 'em is very popular right now, and part of the reason it's popular is because it doesn't work that way. Texas Hold 'em turns on luck more than any other game and because the last card (the river) can make a winning hand out of a complete mess. It's a game where playing foolishly is rewarded more often than other games. Because of that it also encourages people to play more foolishly than they normally would.
When you are playing for fun or for low stakes this can make the game irritating and hard to predict. When you are playing for high stakes against professionals, it can make the game all about how well you can read or manipulate the other players.
Patrick is very, very good at reading and manipulating people. He’s been around for 500 years making his living as a witch, conman and poker player. That’s no small feat. He’s so good at it that he can play the game honestly. He’s good enough that he beat both Dean and Bobby. But yet he completely underestimates Sam.
Now it’s a staple of the show to have people underestimate Dean – the kid with only a GED and more of a memory for School House Rock than actual school work. Doubting Dean’s intelligence is so accepted in the show that it’s almost odd when people don’t do it.
But people underestimate Sam, too. Not his intelligence, but his “street smarts” – his ability to fight or think on his feet or be ruthless. Sam wears his heart on his sleeve, so it’s easy for people to think that he’s not really in control of his emotions. Sam’s a big guy, but people underestimate his fighting ability and his speed.
Maybe it’s the boyishness of the two, the brotherly interplay that never seems to go beyond teenagers or the fact they are both so damn cute, but it’s rare to meet someone who doesn’t underestimate one or both of the Winchesters. Now it’s handy to be underestimated in some cases, but it’s got to be getting old.
Just a short thought before the soon to be awesomeness of tonight’s episode.
