Firearms and Poker
April 11, 2008
If you are hosting a poker tournament at home then you should certainly be very strict about the use of firearms in your household. In fact, you should have a no firearms policy in your poker tournaments at all times. Why is this so? I think that the reasons are pretty obvious. For one, poker is a very sensitive game. If someone losses a lot of money and this person has a gun, he or she can easily rip it out and get all the pot money in front of him or her and take it away even if he or she lost. Yes, it is possible. Yes, it has happened.
Are you familiar with the dead man’s hand? The Ace and the eight is the dead man’s hand. Wild Bill Hickok was shot when he was holding these cards in a Texas Hold’em game. Do you want this to happen to you? Do you want the definition of dead man’s hand be referenced to you? If you are holding a king and a ten and then you get shot because your opponent thought that you were cheating, can you take it if dead man’s hand is replaced to a king and a ten and the victim is you? Fine, you will be popular but at the end of the day, you are still dead and you will not be able to enjoy this fame anyway.
The best rule in any poker tournament is to keep all firearms out of the way. You do not want any firearms being out when poker matches happen. You do not want someone putting a gun in someone else’s face in the middle of a poker tournament because he or she was knocked out. At all costs, you want to avoid incidents like this. You do not want things like this to happen. You do not want to be in the middle of some gun shots.
Gambling and firearms do not mix. It is like mixing the Autobots and the Decepticons in Transformers. If you think that you will be able to allow people to bring guns into your poker invitational then it is up to you. I am sure that in the casinos, the bringing of firearms is strictly prohibited. I think that you should follow suit and follow their example because it is in your own best interest to do so. If you have guests that are cops then make sure that they are reasonable cops and not the dirty cops. The dirty cop is capable of bringing out a gun and getting the pot if he or she wants to do it. The person with the gun is the one that can intimidate and you do not want this happening in your poker matches, right? The rule of thumb at the end of the day is never to allow people to bring firearms in any poker or any gambling event. If you want to be safe, make sure that those with the guns aren’t gambling and those with the guns are rational and respectable people.