Wanna Make a Bet?

I have never thought myself one to gamble but after reading Lena Matthews Joker's Wild trilogy, I hear myself saying things like "I bet..." and "I would take that bet..." No one seems surprised by this addition to my vernacular so it must have been there before to some extent which makes me think, I must be bit of a gambler. This surprised me a bit because my day job is in risk & compliance so I would have thought I was a bit risk adverse.

Upon mentioning this to those closest to me, there was long moments of silence and then dams of laughter broke forth. Several people told me not to say things like that while they were trying to take a drink. Others wiped tears from their eyes. So I told them I got the point and asked them to explain how they noticed this apparent penchant I had for risk that I apparently missed in myself.

The general consensus is that I plan my risk. How is that you say? I am a planner. I have a plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D and so on and so on but then am flexible enough to through all the plans out and go with what happens but because of all my planning, I have prepared myself to be safe within the risk taken.

The one example that stood out was kayaking. I want to kayak a lot. So I research the one’s I want to buy for several months, tested out several models of life vests, take the course on kayak safety, and now we are ready to go throw ourselves into the water of the river on the kayak. Who knows what will happen then. But because I planned my risk and prepared, I am okay with all of that.

So I am a bit of a gambler but in these books the game was poker and I don’t think that game is for me. Too much relies on chance and not enough on planning. I might play a few hands to see if I can use some of my “assets” to distract the other players. Or with the right players and the right kind of poker, I might be game to see the strip. Heeheehee.