Poker, the Progressive Tax, and You
Why risk needs its rewards
Justin Hartfield

It is Wednesday, and it is approaching the midnight hour in picturesque Gardena, CA (sarcasm). I arrive at the Hustler Casino drunk off my own sense of self-confidence. I know I possess the skill necessary to beat the game I am about to play; but more importantly I am feeling Lucky. I put on my prescription mirrored aviator sunglasses and my LA Raiders: Commitment to Excellence cap. I casually walk up to the front entrance, where I’m met by two burly men extracting an exceedingly extravagant gilded-spoked wheelchair from the back of a Bentley Arnage R. Upon closer inspection, I see the man himself climb (for lack of a better term) out of the backseat and get onto the chair. It’s the owner of the whole joint, Larry Flint. A good omen I thought as I opened the doors of the Hustler. No time to hold the door for the enfeebled, I have real work to do.

I am immediately seated at the $100 Buy-In No Limit Texas Hold’em table. “Fourth chair to the left of the dealer”, yelled the floor man as he pointed me in the general direction of Table 15. I’m seated next to a large gentleman I’ve played with previously. Everyone else called him “Scratch”. He nods at me briefly and then looks down at his cards and mucks them in disgust. The other eight members of the table are mostly foreign to me. They look like the typical crowd who would be playing poker early into Thursday morning, instead of spending time with their family and loved ones.

The poker table is no place for love and affection however, and these refugees of the American Dream know that. They are playing a cold game filled with cold people to take their cold hard cash. Some at the table are professionals, sharks, who prey on the timid and untalented. Most, however, have “real” jobs. I’ve played with rabbis, teachers, Hollywood producers, strippers, students, accountants, Kucinich liberals, Buchanan conservatives, and IT professionals. Some were better than others, but the one common thread they shared was the love of winning, and winning big.

Poker is a game of American Capitalism at its purest form. A multitude of races, cultures, creeds, and religions all gather around a felt table in order to viciously take money out of their peers’ pocket. Every single poker player at the table knows that he is better than the guy sitting next to him. They are there for the sole reason of taking that sucker's money. It’s a kind of Poker Darwinism; only the smartest survive with their bankrolls intact. There is no health care for the professional poker player, nor welfare. It is one of the only legal tests of true fortitude and grit left in this world. It is mano y mano combat. No one at the poker table has ever said to the chip leader, “Hey buddy, I don’t think its fair you have most of the chips, even though you did earn it through your adroit and often inspired play. I think we should implement a progressive tax plan in this casino so that the top 20% of the money winners have to give 40% of their earnings back to crappiest players.”

No, I don’t think that would ever happen. Indeed, what would happen to the poker community if something like that were to occur? Let’s make an outrageous assumption and say that people would still actually play in a casino that enforces this rule through whatever means. The incentive of being a winning poker player would almost all be lost. Poker players would each try to earn enough to make a living for themselves, but not make so much as to get themselves into the top 20% of total players. This would indeed be counter-productive. Let us imagine even further that all of the money won or lost at the table would be redistributed to all of the players equally. Well, this would be utterly silly because no one would even bother playing anymore because there would be no real way to keep score.

This is of course, the fundamental flaw in Communism and indeed the fundamental flaw in the progressive tax. There is no coincidence that Ho Chi Minh stated that the foundation to modern Communism is the progressive tax. Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama are a staunch supporters of this progressive tax system. Just something to think about.

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written by SSSteve, August 02, 2008

I see a couple of major problems with the capitalism-like-poker analogy.

At the poker table - all players have relatively the same amount of capital to risk, or they wouldn't be at that table. Also, no player has the advantage of seeing certain cards only players with big-capital get to see.

In the big capitalism game, all players sit at the same table - those with huge capital and those with tiny capital. At some point, certain players in the huge capitalism poker game acquire so much capital that they can effectively run their tables. They see cards less wealthy players aren't allowed to see, and can absorb more risk due to the winnings they've already accumulated.



...so - sorry - I'm afraid poker's generally a bit more fair.

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