Everything in Life is a Gamble

"Without a vision, the people perish" is a paraphrase from the Bible. I say, "Without a gamble, the people perish." From the very beginning of life, everything is a gamble. I can't think of anything that doesn't have some element of risk in it. I have never considered myself to be a "gambleholic," but in my early life, I was. I liked to gamble more than anything you can imagine. I loved it, I enjoyed it. It was meat and potatoes – it was life itself to me.

With the coins I earned from my paper route and any other money I could obtain, I gambled in some manner – matched pennies, played odd man, pitched coins, and played keep 'em in marbles. Keep 'em is what Momma told me I couldn't play, because I wasn't allowed to play for keeps, but I sometimes disobeyed her and played it anyway.

From those childhood games, I moved on to playing cards with kids for pennies and other things we had to gamble. I really loved the challenge, the adrenaline flow, the excitement of the moment, the thrill of the chase, the anticipation, and the teasing of luck. Gambling was a vital and important part of my life. It possessed me to the extent that I didn't give enough attention to other matters. My mother tried to instill in me a great love of God, Christ, and church, and I spent a lot of hours in church learning about what was good and what was bad. And never anywhere in my Bible did I find the words, "Thou shalt not gamble." There is no condemnation of gambling in the Bible, it isn't one of the Ten Commandments, and it is never spoken of as being damning, except for the time at the Cross when it was mentioned that the Romans tossed lots for the garments of Christ. Still, the Bible does not condemn gambling, it simply states that it was done.

Finding nothing that said I shouldn't gamble, I figured that it wouldn't keep me from going to heaven. So, I became a general contractor and gambled on the weather and procurement of men and materials, and bet the owners of future buildings that I could build their buildings for less than I bid. All contractors are gamblers, so I became an oil speculator and gambled that there was oil down there 10,000 feet under the ground, and I won. There was in fact oil down there under the good earth of Oklahoma, so we invented a little game that we used to play: one and two – one and two oil wells, that is. In hold'em or stud poker, you play a little one and two or two and four – we played a little one and two oil wells. Then, I gambled on the trust of men and women, and I won – you can trust people.

I have been a winner all of my life, so I have to recommend this to you: take the gamble – shoot for the stars. If you miss, you will still be far above most of the people who never gamble.

Until next time, stay lucky.

Editor's note: "Oklahoma Johnny" Hale is the author of Gentleman Gambler, available through Card Player, and the creator of the Seniors Charities and the Seniors World Championship of Poker. His E-mail address is [email protected], and you can visit his website at www.seniorpoker.com.