It's Only a Game?

"Who got shot @ the poker game???"

When a Facebook post has those words, the news clearly isn't good.  Yet it happened in our city this past weekend -- a shooting not on the organized poker circuit, but in a home game at the east edge of town.

Police say two soldiers got into an argument about a poker game at a party.  It led to fisticuffs and weapons -- and before it was over, one person was shot and a couple of homes had damage from bullets.

We admittedly don't have all the facts about what happened.  But we're led to guess the soldiers were playing a cash game -- and alcohol may have fueled this incident, as much as the playing cards and firearms.  The Bible warns too much alcohol can lead to all sorts of problems....

Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise. - Proverbs 20:1

Yet let's face it: arguments can develop over poker games -- everything from whose turn it is to how many chips a sidepot should have.  We've heard them many times.  But they never reach the point of a fistfight, much less weapons.

The games we play thankfully have a Tournament Director to settle disputes.  And some players actually apply some advice the apostle Paul had to give feuding Christians....

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already.  Why not rather be wronged?  Why not rather be cheated?  Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. - I Corinthians 6:7-8

In other words, take a loss -- and try to get it back the right way, by winning a future hand.  We think that's what Jesus would do.

But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person.  If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. - Matthew 5:39

A veteran of the U.S. civil rights movement spoke in our city the other day, and put it very well: If you are in a fight and lose your temper, you have lost the fight.  However the fight at the poker game started, it ended with one person shot, another person arrested and plenty of collateral damage.

If you stay under control -- in what you drink, what you say and how you act -- fighting and arguing at poker games probably will happen a lot less often.  You might not win and go home completely happy, but at least you'll go home in one piece.