I am writing in response to an article entitled "Texas Hold 'em" that was published on Mar. 2. This article caught my attention because, like the author, I also participate in a weekly card game, mostly centered around the Texas Hold 'em version of poker.
Whenever I read a Viewpoint article, I am curious how the author is going to make his or her topic relevant to his readers. Usually they succeed in taking an apparently random or ordinary event and highlighting the take-home point that lies just beneath the surface.
In this case, I was looking forward to learning how a discussion about a weekly poker game might be translated into a comment on friendship, bonding, stress relief, luck, risk-taking, etc. In fact, I was even more eager for the punch line after reading through two paragraphs of rather dull play-by-play of poker hands. But instead of any meaningful conclusion, the self-proclaimed moral of the story was "ladies come in pairs, and if you have a six and a nine be agressive, for it is the money hand."
Not only is this message completely pointless, but a more suspicious reader might interpret it as crude.
In the future, I would hope that you are more selective in publishing Viewpoint articles. I think the space occupied by this article would have been better filled by an ad for Friday rib specials.
Jim Kelly alumniClass of 1999Mar. 4
