POCKET ACES

Oct. 19, 2001

Cheating at Poker -- An Allegory

One day, an art dealer saw one of van Meegeren's personal paintings and commented on its likeness to the work of Jan Vermeer, the artist whose limited works had become national treasures in Holland.

Sometime later, after moving to France, van Meegeren decided to abandon his attempts to produce contemporary paintings and work, instead, in the style of Vermeer. He was still unable to support himself, but he experimented with methods for aging his paintings, surely with the explicit purpose of pretending his paintings were done hundreds of years in the past. Shortly after he discovered how to make his canvas look and feel as old as a Vermeer, he took his masterpiece back to Holland, concocted a story, and had no trouble convincing the art world that he had in his possession an original Vermeer. After being made available for exhibition, the painting sold for $250,000!

Given a choice, as an artist, if you could make $200 from a painting bearing your signature or $200,000 from the same painting bearing the signature of a known artist, which would you select?

Van Meegeren produced more fakes, all original themes in the Vermeer style, and sold them as Vermeer's, reaping hundreds of thousands of dollars for each one. Eventually, he became a millionaire.

We might never have known that this obscure little man was in fact the true creator of these works had he not sold many of them to Herman Goering, the Nazi general who was building his own net worth by accumulating works of art.

After World War II, the Dutch government tracked down van Meegeren to punish him for selling national treasures to Goering. To save himself from a long jail term, the artist confessed that he, not Vemeer, had done the paintings.

Incredibly, no one believed him. Those who once criticized him for lacking talent still refused to believe that he was capable of painting such exceptional masterpieces. He had to prove himself by creating a totally new picture under the watchful eye of experts who remained incredulous during and after the process! However, they eventually authenticated the fakes.

Now let's rewrite the above words with a few changes.

We have in our midst, a talented poker player who wants nothing more than to make a living on the poker circuit. Even though he is an expert, he can barely make a living with his talent. There are just too many variables to ensure consistent income.

One day, he discovers how to cheat. How he does it isn't important. Maybe it's with a partner, maybe with a hold-out device, maybe with marked cards. What's important is that by cheating, instead of eking out a meager few hundred dollars a week, he can now make a score week in and week out, thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So, he abandons his ethics or morals (if he had any to start with) and begins to take advantage of his newly discovered talents. Eventually, he sees his name in the headlines, his picture in magazines. He wins several major tournaments and is touted as one of the stars of the poker world. Fame is his new friend, fortune his permanent roommate. He junks the 87 Chevy and now drives an expensive car (and parks valet instead of using the self-parking lot); gives notice at his apartment complex behind the Maxim and buys a house in an upscale gated neighborhood.

It's not necessary to finish the scenario. After all, the first part of this tale is true; the poker player segment is just a piece of fiction.

But, if someone asks you why, just for argument sake, a great poker player would cheat, just tell him the tale of Han van Meegeren and let him judge for himself.