...The Wonderful World of Gambling...

I am a gambler. 

I'd bet on anything that I see worth betting on. I bet for money, dares, or even physical pain (pitikan lang naman, easy. Mas dramatic lang pag ganun pagkakasabi.)  I bet on sports, spoken words, events, anything. I've lost my share of fortune via tong-its, poker, and NBA odds, and have had my ears turn red at every time I lost a bet that something might happen and it didn't. I've won my fair share on those too. 

They say it's bad, but really, I think this crap has actually helped me grow as a person. To explain further, I've broken it down to the types of gambling and how it has helped different aspects of my life.

The following assumes you know the games talked about. If in case you don't know how to play the games, I inserted a crash course at the end of the blog.

(Note: This is not as long as it seems. Mei tutorial lang sa dulo kaya mukhang mahaba.)

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Tong-its and Optimism

At every point in our lives, we reach a certain crossroad. By taking one path over the other, you may never get the chance to know where the other could have led you.

Tong-its probably has that "what if" moment more times in 1 hour than a person has in a week. Do you pick the thrown card? Do you pick a card from the middle? Should you challenge other players?

Every decision is a leap of faith. Every decision affects the next card you pick up, or the next card thrown to you. It's a ripple effect that you wouldn't be able to point out a single decision you could have changed to affect the outcome. And you just have to live with whatever decision you have made.

It has taught me optimism: That no matter how bad my cards look, it will eventually turn out better as the game progresses. For every turn I have, I control my destiny. I choose where to leap. It all may be set and written, but I have the choice to pick which of it is best for me. I could choose to take a chance on keeping the high cards and get burned, but always look at the possibility that it will take me to victory.

I play with the cards I am dealt with.

I apply that to life and become a better, stronger person. I deal with what is dealt to me. I don't dwell on the "what if's" of the past, because when I reached that crossroad of a life-changing experience, I chose what I thought was the best path for me at the time. I chose this path. I can't say for certain that it's right or wrong, but it was the best decision for me at the time I made it. And I just have to live with it. And I know, that no matter how bad it looks, that it's going to get better. That I will have unexpected surprises that will make the hand I have better.

Or there's that chance of not getting those unexpected surprises and lose in the end.

But I'm not thinking about that.

See? Optimism.

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Poker and Empathy

Poker is such an emotionless game. Heck, it puts "emotionless" in the term "poker face". On the poker table, you have to hide the beat of your heart if you could. Every breath that you take, every blink of an eye you make, and every movement of your body could be a "tell" on what kind of card you have. Your betting patterns, how you place the chips in front of you, where you look; these are minor, probably unintentional acts that give away what your hand really is, and the observant poker player can see through your bluffs.

In this time of ever-challenging economy, it's important to know what kind of people you're dealing with; if they're talking to you because of a genuine need of help, or they're just playing you. For the extrovert that I am, I need this to know what topics I can bring up when talking to a random person.

Playing poker has given me that ability to figure people out: how they talk, dress, act, etc., somehow gives me a general idea of how they think, what their likes are, and what kind of person they are. 

But like playing poker, you never really know what cards your opponent is holding. There are times that you'd be right, and chances that you'd be wrong.

And like playing poker, you'd never know which of those chances are unless you place a bet and play your hand 'til the end.

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NBA Odds and Faith

"Faith begins when reason ends" is an immortal quote that holds true for almost everything unexplainable in this world. We all have theories on how the world began, and endless debates come to mind. However, we have the Book of Genesis in the Bible, and though there probably was no one to account for what really happened during creation, we all concede that there is a Higher Being that was the prime mover of everything on this earth.

Faith is such an important aspect of our lives. We all "believe" in something, maybe not religiously, but probably principles(I believe that he can help improve the country), professional ideologies (I believe I can work my way up), habits (I believe that cramming makes me perform better), etc.. 

Enter, NBA odds. It's not that complicated of a game. You just pick a team, and "believe" that they will perform as you picked them to. It makes the game more exciting, and at the same time, it gives you a reason to "believe" in something. 

Sometimes, there are really irrational things that you don't know why you have to do but just have to do it, because you "believe" that it's the best thing for you. You never lose hope, and as the song says, "don't stop believing".

Believing drives you to accomplish something that doesn't seem logically possible. We always have to have faith that anything is possible, not restricting ourselves to rational and thought-of hindrances.

And for a simple game like NBA odds, it practices your gut-feel against your rational mind. It makes you believe in yourself to make decisions on the fly, all things considered.

It's a science, I tell you.

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Random Bets and Life

Life is dull if you go through everything in the same manner every time. Adding a little spice to it makes it even more exciting. 

Probably a lot of you readers have seen "My Sassy Girl" in American or Korean. Either way, I think they both have that scene of the classic slap-bet for every right foot or left foot that passes by. That was a dull, quiet train ride, until they decided to try something.

Living is not living if you drone-out your everyday life.

These random bets also teach you to take a chance on something (or at times, anything). It may be for small slap bets or something, but at least you let yourself go and actually took a chance that that bird will poop before it takes flight. It's no fun being too uptight. You'll end up living a dull, unexciting life that probably gave you enough support to sustain a living, but never knew what it was to have fun, have friends, and do this or do that.

Taking chances gives an exhilarating feeling every once in a while. And gambling, for all its evils, can give you this exhilarating feeling for taking chances, and living a life.

It's the closest thing I have to sky diving.

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Appendix:

How to Play (These are based on experience, so baka mei mali, but basically, ganun lang un):

1. Tong-its 

Ideally played with 3-4 players, each dealt with 12-13 cards (8-9 if 4 players), with one card more to the one dealing them. The object of the game is to release all cards on your hand, called "tong-its". The dealer is the first to release a card, which is ideally the one with the highest value (10, which is 10 and all the face cards). The player next to the dealer then decides if he needs the thrown card to make a "bahay", and if player doesn't, he/she picks a card from the middle of the table. A player can make a "bahay" by putting together either three consecutive cards of the same suit, or three cards of the same value. In most home games, it is essential to have at least 1 "bahay" shown, but the rest, you could keep in your hand, to make other players think that you still have a lot of cards on your hand. At any point, you could challenge them to a "laban" or "fight", which basically means you have to show each other the cards remaining on your hands, and count who has the lowest sum. Players could choose to accept this challenge or not, and after everyone has agreed, players show their hands, with the lowest sum declared as the winner. The game ends when there are no more cards in the middle to pick. Should the game end with everyone still having a card on their hand, the one with the lowest sum of the cards' values wins. 

2. Texas Holdem' Poker 

Maximum of 8 players on the table, each one is dealt with 2 cards. The object is to win with the best 5 cards, using one or two of your cards, and 3 or 5 of the community cards. The order from lowest to highest is: high card, pair, two pairs, three of a kind, straight(5 cards in sequential order), flush (5 cards of the same suit), full house (a combination of a pair and three of a kind), four of a kind, straight flush (5 cards in sequential order of the same suit), and royal flush (5 top cards of the same suit: 10, J, Q, K, and A). A dealer button is usually in place, with the player to his left being the small blind, the next person on the big blind. Blinds are what you call "forced bets" to have a definite pot to play for. Small blinds are usually half the value of the big blind, while the big blind is the minimum bet allowed for the table. The person to the left of the big blind acts first, where player could choose to call the big blind, bet more money, or fold his cards. If he calls, and no one on the table goes over what the big blind's value is, then the first three community cards are shown, called "the flop". If one of the players bet more money than the value of the big blind, everyone else has to match that value before the flop is shown. Once the flop is shown, another round of betting happens. Players could either check (no bets) or raise. Once the values are all matched up, the fourth community card is shown, called "the turn". Another round of betting happens. After all the values are matched up, the final community card is shown, called "the river". This is where the final round of betting happens. After values are met, players show their cards, and the best 5 cards win. 

3. NBA Odds 

For the small-time player like me, minimum bets are 500, which win 450, as 10% goes to the oddsmakers. Usually, betting time opens from 10PM to 10:30PM of the night before the game airs here. NBA oddsmakers determine the possible +/- of a matchup, with a + given to the inferior team. Players bet on the possibility of whether or not the superior team can "cover" the plus of the inferior team. Example: Superior Team -5.5 vs Inferior Team +5.5. This scenario means that a bet for Superior Team only wins if it beat Inferior Team by 6pts or more. If Superior Team beats Inferior Team by just 5pts or less, bets for the Inferior Team win. 

...On Writing...

I got the chance to read an entertaining blog from a friend yesterday (http://bangsh.multiply.com/journal/item/51/ay_magbo-blog_para_mag-rant.?replies_read=10), about her being single. Then I remembered how it was being able to write that way: entertaining, interesting, fun. If you define a "writer" as one who can write both prose and poetry with ease, then I could say that I never was one. I'm a bad poet, and rarely do I get the true meaning of some poetry. 

But I do want to think of myself as a writer: I write with confidence that I'm using correct grammar, I express my thoughts clearly, and I have fun reading some of the stuff I wrote a long time ago. I write best when I have an opinion on the matter, so I guess I get to write my best when sharing personal experiences. 

I realized yesterday that I haven't been able to write as much as I did before. And Issa was ranting that she couldn't get herself to write as well. Not to say that we're on the same field here, as she is more creative than I was (her poetry could be made into songs, I think), but I'm going on a limb here and try to think of reasons why I couldn't write anymore. 

1. The Evil that is Facebook

Before Facebook, you'd see lengthy blogs from me even every week. I frequent Multiply because I get to read lengthy blogs from my friends as well. Then came Facebook, with it's 420-character statuses. Then Twitter, with 160 characters. People became so engrossed with expressing themselves in limited characters, that there's nothing much to write about if you decide to make a blog. In probably a single sentence, you have shared everything that you felt for the whole day, that if you made a blog about it, people won't read it knowing the gist of what happened to your day.

Eventually, I got lazy. I wrote my lengthy thoughts on the comments section of people's statuses. I replied to every comment on my status updates. I read people's one-liners to be updated about their lives. No more reading about details, no more sharing of mine. Just straight to the point thoughts. 

Thinking about it, if you're reading this and you see that you're not even at the half of the blog, don't get frustrated. I'm giving you a favor. I'm trying to make you enjoy reading details again. Think about this blog as being a whole movie, as opposed to a Facebook or Twitter post which are trailers. Isn't it a bit more exciting watching a whole movie and understanding the whole story than just skipping to the good parts?

2. Creativity in Depression

You, dear reader, are probably of my age or near that. Well then, chances are, you've been a fan of Wave 89.1's Quiet Storm at one point in your life or even to this day. It's nice to listen to those nice songs, really. But aren't they all sad? "Separated" by Usher, "Gone" by N'Sync, or even the contemporary "Di Lang Ikaw" by Juris (that song from "Ruby") are all about loneliness.

As I mentioned in Shally's blog, I think I wrote my best pieces when I was single. Not that I was wishing I were single, but the thing is, people related to me more, I turned depression into inspiration by ranting about my feelings, and ended up with pretty good pieces. Well, to me they were. They're like those Quiet Storm songs: you've heard them countless times, but when when you hear them again, it's like a new song that you just have to listen to til it ends. 

Right now, I'm in a contented state in life. I'm happy, true, probably not all the time, but it's just how life is. But I know whatever happens, that there's a better half of me that I can always count on. I need not escape through writing to escape my depression like before. I had someone who'd listen to me. It's not like she's sucking out my creativity, it's just that, I don't feel the urge to rant because I haven't been keeping much to myself. 

Theorizing, I think people's inclination towards reading sad, depressing quotes or blogs is because of our natural concern towards others. I mean, if someone wrote a blog about how wonderful his/her day was, what would you tell that person? "Congrats!"? But if someone wrote something about what's eating him/her out, you try to reach out and encourage that person to go on and keep on living.

We have a natural tendency to "help" others. We want to do something when we can. We'd rather try to give attention to people who need help than be happy with people who are happy with their lives. 

Ironic, isn't it? We're that kind of people, but we have this kind of government. But then, don't make me go there.

Point is, depression = creativity, happiness = contentment. 

3. The Reward of Readership

When I write blogs, I try to reply to everyone who leaves a comment. I also make it a habit to check how many people actually read the stuff I write. 

I enjoy seeing people actually reading my stuff. No matter how much I say that I write because I want to express myself, my best reward is always when someone actually relates to my post, someone reads it, or someone has an opinion about it. That's why I don't keep a journal or a diary. It's like being a secret agent: it's so cool but you can't tell anyone that you are. I mean, why write something if you know nobody's going to get to read it anyway? 

Sadly, Multiply readership has declined. Probably because of too many online marketers, but I think I'd go back and blame Facebook all over again. It turned us all into lazy readers, wanting to read about so many people in so little time, but not able to know the whole story behind those status updates. When we see at least 3 paragraphs of text, we instantly think it's a waste of time. 

I think my man  Angel Velasco writes about good basketball stuff in his site (http://offthebench.multiply.com/), but it's not like before when we got to trade opinions with other basketball fans. Heck, the most talked-about free agency wasn't even discussed in his site. If I were the one keeping the site up, I'd fold ship. Good thing I'm not. I still get to read good stuff from him every once in a while. 

I don't really know how people or real writers write. I mean, do they write for the sake of writing? Do they get affected by their readers with positive or negative feedbacks? 

Me, I write to express. But to be criticized or praised or be noticed; those are the stuff that inspire me to write. I like to write, but I love to be read. It makes me believe that I CAN write.

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Why serve meat to vegetarians? Would you even try to run out to the street in the middle of a thunderstorm when you don't want to be wet? Then why write if you know no one's going to read it? 

I don't consider myself as a loss to the "writing" world. But if any of you readers are actually writers and you think you have the same reasons as mine, YOU probably would be a loss to that world. Find inspiration. If you need to be depressed, go emo. If you need readers, post something, I promise to read and comment on it. 

Just don't be lazy.