You’re sitting at a poker table in a cigar-smoke-filled room. Texas Hold ‘Em is the game and, as you slyly look at the two cards dealt before you, you know that an uphill battle lies ahead. They’re not the worst cards in the deck. You don’t have an off-suited seven and two. It is the King of Spades and the Jack of Hearts. The cards carry value — just enough to entice you into playing the hand — but they are certainly a sequence you can bet on and lose.
As the flop hits the felt, followed by the turn, and ultimately the river, you are reading the players around you.