{"id":243,"date":"2019-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gbc.ng\/citizenship-in-a-poker-republic-a-salute-to-the-men-women-in-the-arena\/"},"modified":"2019-07-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T00:00:00","slug":"citizenship-in-a-poker-republic-a-salute-to-the-men-women-in-the-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gbc.ng\/index.php\/citizenship-in-a-poker-republic-a-salute-to-the-men-women-in-the-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"CITIZENSHIP IN A POKER REPUBLIC, A SALUTE TO THE MEN & WOMEN IN THE ARENA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired by Chapter 1 of Bren\u00e9 Brown\u2019s \u2018Daring Greatly\u2019, Lee Davy shares his personal experience of interviewing poker players and offers a salute to the people willing to climb into the arena.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1910, the former president of the United States of America, Theodore Roosevelt, gave a rousing speech at the Sorbonne, Paris known as \u2018Citizenship in a Republic\u2019 or \u2018Man in the Arena,\u2019 and earlier today, it jumped into my mind from Page 1 of Bren\u00e9 Brown\u2019s \u2018Daring Greatly\u2019.<\/p>\n

Here it is:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I peer out of my hotel window, eyes clamped on the giraffe-like cranes tickling the skeletal stadium next to Mandalay Bay, a migration of butterflies creates a thunderstorm in my gut.<\/p>\n

They search my innards for some Zen-koan-like answer to problems, fluttering precariously above the magma of my stomach gut hoping not to burn and die.<\/p>\n

The vibrations force me back to bed. I want to watch two seasons of \u2018American Gods,\u2019 escaping from the barking madness of my inner world. I don\u2019t want anyone to see me. I feel so small, and when I\u2019m in Vegas, everyone else seems so magnificent.<\/p>\n

In an hour, an Uber will take me to the Rio to interview some of the most successful poker players, and poker playing business people the world has ever seen, and I would rather be in some Siberian cellblock.<\/p>\n

The ruler-straight certainty of my world has vanished. In its place sits a sickness. My job is to ask questions hoping to elicit answers that people can feel a kinship with, and today, it feels so awkward.<\/p>\n

As Bren\u00e9 Brown states in \u2018Daring Greatly\u2019 \u2013 \u201cthe uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. The only choice is a question of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to engage.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to step into the arena.<\/p>\n

I am afraid of the dust, sweat and blood.<\/p>\n

A vulnerability stew<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Joe Beevers was a Hendon Mobster, he told me the tale of the birth of Channel 4\u2019s Late Night Poker. Contrary to American opinion, the first TV show to use hole-cam technology wasn\u2019t the\u00a0WSOP<\/strong>\u00a0or WPT, but Presentable\u2019s baby and they had a problem \u2013 nobody wanted to play (Beevers explained that the players thought they would be giving too much information away if people could see their hole-cards).<\/p>\n

Today, hole-cam technology is standard, and having your technical game picked apart by your peers is unavoidable, but one area where the fear of giving away too much information still exists is in an interview.<\/p>\n

An interview is the ultimate vulnerability stew. Fiction is easy. Pick up a pen and make it up. Copying Joseph Campbell\u2019s hero\u2019s journey blueprint is easy, peasy lemon squeezy.<\/p>\n

Mining for the gold that lies within the memory banks of another human being is the mightiest of challenges because you both have to engage with vulnerability and find the courage and the sense of purpose needed to fulfil the audience\u2019s satisfaction.<\/p>\n

What makes this so challenging is the belief that vulnerability is a weakness. It\u2019s why so many poker interviews are vanilla. If you ask a question that goes down like a rhino in the face of a poacher\u2019s rifle, then the response can leave you feeling ashamed, guilty and inept.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we are totally exposed when we are vulnerable. Yes, we are in the torture chamber that we call uncertainty. And, yes, we\u2019re taking huge emotional risk when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. But there\u2019s no equation where taking risks, braving uncertainty, and opening ourselves up to emotional exposure equals weakness.\u201d Bren\u00e9 Brown.<\/p>\n

The interviewer, afraid of being seen, asks questions they know the poker player will answer easily, and the poker player soaks them up, gratefully, because no courage is needed. It\u2019s a win-win except for the crushing disappointment of the person who\u2019s entertainment value hinges on the delivery of the hero\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n

The hero\u2019s journey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sitting down to conduct an interview, I feel raw and uncertain. I am terrified of asking the wrong question, upsetting the player, and wasting their time.<\/p>\n

I want to create an environment where the poker player feels safe. I don\u2019t want to pressure them into answering questions they aren\u2019t comfortable with, and I don\u2019t want to trick them into answering questions for pure sensationalism.<\/p>\n

These desires exist because I\u2019m aware of how terrifying it can be for a poker player to experience an interview. Formalise the setting, add a few lights, a camera operator, and a sound guy, and the stakes increase exponentially.<\/p>\n

Every story follows this Jungian archetype:<\/p>\n

An interview is a story, and if all of these pieces of the archetype don\u2019t fall into place, the audience is left feeling empty. The most challenging aspect of the hero\u2019s journey is the \u201cAll-Is Lost Moment\u201d \u2013 the time when our hero hits rock bottom.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all experienced one of these moments, but our mind\u2019s protection mechanism may create a false belief that we\u2019ve never experienced one. Often an \u2018All Is Lost\u2019 moment is a \u2018feeling\u2019, and a large contingent of people are programmed to hide their feelings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only the 1970s working-class that have passed this stereotype through their genes. The modern era of perfectionism (Instagram, Pinterest, MTV soft porn videos) exacerbates it. We wear masks to fit with the pretext of perfectionism and don\u2019t react well when someone comes along and tries to peel it off, but when people find the courage to let vulnerability melt the mask, the results can be beautiful.<\/p>\n

After writing the first draft of this piece, I went to the Rio, and interviewed\u00a0Daniel \u2018Jungleman\u2019 Cates<\/strong>, and watched in awe as his eyes filled to the brim with tears during a memory of the lowest point of his life. At that moment, the unemotional velociraptor of poker revealed beautiful humanness, and suddenly, the interview sparked into life.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, the producer turned to me and said, \u201cWhy does he do interviews? What\u2019s in it for him?\u201d<\/p>\n

I told him that some people couldn\u2019t refuse the call to climb into the arena. The Jungleman is never 100% comfortable during an interview, but he loves the dust, sweat and blood. Like all of us, Cates fears the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure that an interview creates, but chooses to engage from a place of worthiness, owning his vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Every time we produce a piece of art, write something, play a poker hand in a televised game with hole cards revealed or sit down for an interview with someone you barely know, and is wanting your innermost secrets \u2013 do you have the courage to go all-in?<\/p>\n

For those players that do.<\/p>\n

For those interviewers that do.<\/p>\n

For those commentators that do.<\/p>\n

For those live streamers that do.<\/p>\n

For those podcasters that do.<\/p>\n

For those VLOGGERS that do.<\/p>\n

For those writers that do.<\/p>\n

Thanks for getting out of bed, when it was easier to stay under the covers. I salute you for climbing into the arena today.<\/p>\n

\n