An eternal golden braid

Though I never read Douglas Hofstadter's book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid", I love its title. Most especially I love its subtitle. There's something magical about the concept of three intertwined entities, whose whole is much more than the sum of their individual parts. Let me propose to you another eternal golden braid! This one is composed in equal parts of mathematics, music, and poker.

Many thinkers have made a link between mathematics and music. Ability in one is often a strong indicator of ability in the other. There's a clear and undeniable link between mathematics and poker; without a solid understanding of permutations, combinations, and probability, you can't hope to go very far as a poker player. The third link, between poker and music, is less obvious; however, I think it's every bit as strong.

There's an undeniable beauty in art, thought it eludes easy categorization or definition. My belief is that mathematics, music, and poker are all art forms, and thus share the same basic nature, however different the expression of that nature appears.

To be a great artist, you have to remove yourself as much as possible from the equation. You have to be all eyes and ears, with as little ego as is humanly possible. You must observe, and repeat to the world what you've observed. You shouldn't try to translate anything. Your act of repeating to the world what you've observed will necessarily be a translation, but it shouldn't be a conscious one.

Do I sound like a philosopher? I hope so, for philosophers are artists, too! I know I'm happiest whenever I'm fully engaged in something, to the point where I can actually forget myself for the time being. Stephen King wrote about this type of engagement through the voice of the narrator of his wonderful book "Misery"; this is an author who when in full engagement with writing "falls through the hole in the page". In other words, the world he's living in temporarily falls away, and he's actually living in the world he's writing about. It's abundantly clear to me that King was actually writing about his own experiences as an artist.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 82 hands and saw flop:
- 8 out of 13 times while in big blind (61%)
- 5 out of 11 times while in small blind (45%)
- 41 out of 58 times in other positions (70%)
- a total of 54 out of 82 (65%)
Pots won at showdown - 5 of 17 (29%)
Pots won without showdown - 10

delta: $4,000
balance: $1,822,167