The Fiosachd
Yesterday was a surprisingly good day. I was able to avoid, for the most part, the flowery cliches of Valentine’s Day. (They are only fun if you’re taking part in them.) I went to Schlotzsky’s for dinner, and there were a few quiet, pensive couples there, but I was able to bypass thoughts about what brought me there because I was there with my friend Jeff, and we were about to go and play poker, which of course, isn’t a bad thing, and always gets my mind working, in efforts to put my poker face on. But playing poker, which I love doing, always gets my mind thinking about something else. Let me explain.
About 45 minutes into the game last night, I get dealt a suited 5,6 of clubs. I’m playing with seven people, and everyone is betting (We play Texas Hold’em). I stay in. The flop comes down, and it’s a 7, a King, and a Queen. Normally, after that flop, with my cards, you fold. The flush is gone now, a low pair isn’t going to take someone who matched a king or a queen, and the best you can hope for is two cards in a row coming off for your straight. But I got this tingle, and I just knew it was going to come off, somehow. I stay in, and I raise the pot. The next card comes in, and it’s a 4. Everyone is betting off their gourds for the pairs of kings and queens, but I stay in. I figure someone has two pair, and the other person still betting has 3 of a kind. The last card hits, and it’s a 3. I’m made. Everyone is still betting, but now I’m raising–no one thinks I have the straight, it’s not even in their minds. Holding the two inside cards on a straight isn’t scaring anyone…they don’t think I have it–they think I’m trying to buy the pot. Finally, we call. I show my straight. I beat two pair and a three of a kind. I take in a big pot. It happened all night. The tingle hits, and you act accordingly. After we finished with the limit game we always play, we played no-limit for a while, with less of a stake. There were four of us playing. The other two guys go all-in and lose, and then it’s just me and another guy. We circle around each other for a while, and then a hand hits and we both start playing. I’ve got an unsuited Queen, 7. The pair of sevens comes up in the flop. I bet, not real big, but I bet. He raises me. I stay in. Next card off is a king. And the tingle hits. I check. He bets a good amount. I fold. He gets all frustrated. He had two kings in his hand, and with the third one, he’s made. To add insult on top of that, the river card was another king. He’d have had four of a kind. And I cut my losses. I did this to him three times. He’d have me. I have cards that are good, he has cards that are great, and I lay them down. He starts asking if his tells are that obvious. In truth, I haven’t even been watching his tells. I didn’t win, but the tingle kept me in the game. And it made me money all night.
When I was 21, I was driving alone in heavy traffic on I-80 to Des Moines, Iowa for a wedding. It’s nine o’clock, and there is heavy traffic. I’m in the left lane, with a group of cars around me all going the same speed, about 80. The tingle hits, and it weirds me out, so I get into the right lane and get off the freeway, for no apparent reason. Ten minutes later, I get back on the interstate. Two miles up the road, the five cars that were around me on the interstate when I got off are piled in the median. Nasty accident. And I would have been right in the middle of it, had I been there.
This stuff has been happening to me for years. It happens far too frequently for it to be a fluke. Trust me on this, I’d be the first to want to explain it away. But it happens too frequently. In Gaelic, there is a word for this, fiosachd. It means, “the knowing.” And I’ve learned to trust it. You can call it what you want, instinct, subconscious signals my brain picks up, the Holy Spirit. But I can tell you it’s real. I really believe that life is like walking around a dark room. You can’t see, so you walk slowly, feeling around, to make sure you’re not falling around a cliff. Sometimes, you don’t feel anything, but you know you shouldn’t take another step, so you don’t. Someone else walks that same spot, and falls off a cliff. But when it’s dark, you learn to distrust your eyes…the darkness plays tricks. Anyways, just kind of needed to get this down on paper. Questions, comments, you know what to do. Time to go finish my Schlatzsky’s.