Money Saved Equals Money Won
Money saved is money won. When we sit down to play poker, we come out swinging with good hands, so we can stack the chips.
It makes us happy. After all, when we drag a pot and display our primacy at the holy game of poker, it’s visible evidence of skill, knowledge, cunning, and luck. What’s more, our opponents can see it too, and breathes there a poker player alive who is not justifiably proud of a terrific bluff, or an ability to convince an opponent to bet into the stone cold nuts?
Dragging a big pot is a moment every poker player loves. But that’s only half the battle, because money saved by not calling a bet with a weak hand spends just as well as an extra bet garnered through an impressive display of offensive poker skills.
We love offense. Maybe it’s inherent in the American character. Quarterbacks who make the big plays earn a lot more money than the cornerbacks and safeties who prevent big plays. We prefer home-run hitters and big RBI guys who can’t field a lick to gold-glove shortstops with anemic .243 batting averages earned by beating out bunts and punching singles into the opposite field with only a little more regularity than a good-hitting pitcher.
