In poker, a person needs to know how to bluff. Keeping a straight face is important, or as in the classic Kenny Rogers tune, The Gambler, your face needs “to lose all expression,” making it impossible for an opponent to know when you are bluffing. Then again, the cool, expressionless face might telegraph to the others … if it is done only occasionally. It is best to always keep the same demeanor throughout the game, and “know when to hold ‘em, and when to fold ‘em.”
If you are raising the stakes because you have four-of-a-kind, and you know the others at the table are betting on a flush, a straight or a full house, your enthusiasm can give you away, causing them to fold and not sweeten the pot.
Then again, your hand might be total garbage, but if you play as if you have a dynamite hand, that can also be a useful ploy. But you must keep them guessing. If they call your bluff, and it blows up in your face, it is certain that they will come to understand your style.
Donald Trump is an accomplished gambler, and his first moves after the election were positively brilliant.
Indeed, poker is a far more profound game than just knowing the odds of drawing on an inside straight, a four-card flush or keeping an “Ace kicker” with a pair. One must also read the faces of opponents, and their personalities. As a normally emotional Italian, I had to learn to control my outward expressions when playing poker. I was also delighted when I came to understand the friendly regulars at the table whose personalities were easy to read. They were the cautious ones who only became aggressive when they had a good hand. They telegraphed to me what cards they were holding.
Donald Trump is an accomplished gambler, and his first moves after the election were positively brilliant. Not understanding his bluffs, I wrote a column – which I did not send in for publication – criticizing his call for tariffs. It soon became obvious that it was a bluff, and it garnered the response he was looking for. It has worked more than once with foreign and domestic opponents.
But his style is going to be read more readily, especially if he becomes reckless. The call for purchasing Greenland made the Danes quickly decide to increase defense spending in the arctic, but his idea of annexing Canada is nothing short of overplaying his hand. It is a bluff, an absurd one, and will enable his opponents to learn how to read him in other – unrelated – issues. The Russians are patient chess players, and the Chinese astute observers of their opponents’ character and habits.
Canada is more than the petty tyrant Justin Trudeau, and Trump needs to respect a country whose citizens have been paralyzed by socialism far longer and far worse than we have. The heroic Truck Convoy showed the world the true mettle of Canadians, and it was no mistake that it came out of the Canadian west, where they have a scornful attitude towards their own federal government in Ottawa.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
In college hockey I had many teammates who were Canadians and, as a history teacher, came to know and respect Canada’s history better than most Americans. They have not forgotten their own early history, which saw us make two inept invasions. In 1775-76 it was probably justified as a defensive move that bought us the time that brought a vitally important victory at Saratoga in 1777.
But in the stupid War of 1812, we shamelessly intended to completely annex Canada due to arrogance, geographic ignorance and opportunism as the Napoleonic Wars distracted the British. The Battle of Lundy’s Lane is a source of pride that Canadians have for their own home-guard militia.
This talk of annexation has never completely disappeared. It occurred in 1995 during the most recent, and quite serious, effort by French-speaking Quebec to separate from Canada – which is aptly named not a “union” but characterized as a “dominion.” And, unlike our own sordid war made by Lincoln, Canada indeed has a mechanism for peaceful separation.
In 1995 it took quite a twist: the referendum for Quebec to separate was defeated by one slender percentage point. And it was in western Canada where, at least some, Canadians expressed sentiments about joining with the U.S. And this also occurred in their Atlantic Provinces, which would have been cut off by Quebec.
Just how many Canadians thought this way, and how serious they were, is perhaps unknown, but I personally did not like it at all. Canada has its own political and cultural traditions that rightfully belong to them, and an affection for the British royalty. Annexation, even if it passed, would have certainly created a disgruntled and restless group of minority patriots that would never accept it.
Trump was very clever in using the threat of tariffs. Annexing Canada is absurd, and telegraphs his own personality weaknesses to the world.
You can only bluff so often in poker.
The views expressd here are those of the author.
17 Comments
nobody on this planet thinks that he really means to annex fn Canada. Your preposterous premise is better served on the likes of CNN, not here. Embarrassing fake news. just plain sad excuse for journalism.
Wow, do ya THINK?? All this bluster about Canada and Greenland and the Panama Canal, I know it makes the MAGA cult scream and pump their fists in the air, but it’s just pathetic.
You may have forgotten Bob, pay no attention when he says stuff like this. Pay heed to what he does.
I agree. That is just Trump and as much as I wish he would be more careful with his words, it’s all for shock value. Sometimes it works.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump reshared a screenshot of a report that Shark Tank co-host and Canadian Kevin O’Leary — not Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or any other Canadian leaders — would discuss the merger of the two countries.
Trump shared the report after O’Leary told Fox News that he was headed to Mar-a-Lago to “start the narrative” about merging the two countries because “We don’t want Trudeau negotiating this deal.”
But it’s all just talk, right?
I suspect over the next four years Donald Trump will say a LOT more than he’s capable of doing.
Trump endorsing H-2B and Speaker Johnson portends a less optimistic future…..
What are your concerns about Johnson?
Bob, read the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene then tell us, with your extensive depth of understanding and penchant for opining, what is Trump actually doing when he makes moves such as the move you are judging him on here. You may be enlightened.
Are you not missing the point? It is OBVIOUSLY a bluff. I don’t for a second believe that he wants to do it. When bluffing becomes obvious, it loses its effectiveness. It will only encourage other players to call him out on his bluffs — or they will yawn and ignore them, ones that are more effective and worthy. It is overplaying his hand. We Alaskans have an important stake in a friendly Canada, which has been lost, even before Trudeau.
Bird. You call Trump’s tariff promise a bluff and a threat. I call it a lie. Yet he was elected. Again.
As for Canadian socialism, a recent poll found that “ 58 per cent of Canadians feel their country is the best place to live in the world, compared to just 30 per cent of Americans.”
and Hong Kong was rated among the freest places on the planet, ahead of us even… and we see how much that mattered.
I believe Mr. Trump was just putting Mr. Trudeau on notice, with a touch of humor but not being all that kind about it. That’s rather what one does to set up a “deal,” but YMMV. The tariffs are going to happen, which is what Trump can do, and will improve our overall economic health. The bluster is just for show, but it does tend to put those who have no sense of humor on their heels. And he knows that.
Tamra. Ya never know with Trump. He will lie when the truth would serve him better. You have to pick and choose what you want to believe as you did with the felon-elect’s claim that tariffs “will improve our overall economic health.” You’ve been fooled. You want to be fooled.
“Canadians have for their own home-guard militia”
okay boomer
“Canada has its own political and cultural traditions that rightfully belong to them”
They lost that claim to sovereignty when Soros took ’em over with mass illegal immigration, sorta like how your generation failed America, Bob.
I do kinda wonder if Trump’s bluff had any influence here:
https://mustreadalaska.com/trudeau-faces-revolt-from-his-caucus-demanding-resignation-as-prime-minister-of-canada/#respond
He does have a way of instigating action from more than one quarter.
Bob is usually right, but what I see Trump doing here is beyond naïveté. Tariffs are a strategy and tactic for achieving fair trade and putting American workers first which includes a bluff element, but if not effective as a bluff will indeed happen, so that’s no bluff. As to the Panama Canal, we’re taking control of that because of what China is doing, that’s no bluff. Greenland and Canada comments have an element of satire but neither is off the table in order to fight CCP imperialism. I want to know two things from Bob, did you support Trump, and do you support Steve Bannon?