Don't be results oriented, another poker-life metaphor.

In poker, especially when it comes to bad beats it's very easy to be results-oriented. You move all in the with the best hand and in a great spot only to get sucked out on. It's easy to say I shouldn't have done that because I lost, when really you should happy be that you did all you could do and after that it was out of your hands. That's the voice of wisdom and common sense speaking.

My head's been swirling with the election results and my crave for bipartisanship among other things today. I was thinking it would be easy to be results oriented voting Democrat in a historically red state (or vice versa). I can understand when people say there's no point in voting [whatever minority party] in this state because it's probably never going to swing that direction anyway. To me that's the same thing as being results oriented.

Just because your man doesn't win doesn't mean you shouldn't do the right thing and exercise your right as an American to vote. If you view the value of your voice by whether or not your vote led to victory, you're missing the f-ing point. You still need to do what you can and accept that it's out of your hands after that. Just because you didn't get what you wanted one time doesn't mean you have to stop playing the game or leave the country.

On the other side of that argument, just because someone wins an election doesn't mean it was the correct decision. Just like idiots who don't really know what they're doing can get lucky and win a poker tournament, so can unqualified politicians win offices. That comes in handy when party leaders start talking about voter "mandates". Maybe it wasn't necessarily your own merit that got you to the top. Maybe you got lucky, maybe the stars aligned and whatever the climate of the country was helped you get there. That doesn't necessarily mean you know what the hell you're doing.

My wife rolls her eyes everytime I try to make these poker to life metaphors but I'm continually amazed at how true they can be. Part of the reason I love the game so much is that while I grow and learn important lessons over the years playing poker, I feel they've helped illuminate and solidify real-life values that I hold. It's a great game and we live in a great country. God Bless America!

Now legalize and regulate online poker already dammit!