Colson Whitehead and the World Series of Poker

"I have a good poker face because I am half-dead inside. My particular combo of slack features, negligible affect, and soulless gaze had helped my game ever since I started playing 20 years ago, when I was ignorant of pot odds and M-theory and three-betting, and it gave me a boost as I collected my trove of lore, game by game, hand by hand. It had not helped me human relationships-wise over the years, but surely I am not alone here — anyone whose peculiar mix of genetic material and formative experiences had resulted in a near-expressionless mask could relate. Nature giveth, taketh, etc. You make the best of the hand you're dealt."

As the World Series of Poker comes to a climax tonight on ESPN, it is both amusing and instructive to visit Colson Whitehead's July 2011 article in Grantland about training for the event. Whitehead visited the Writers Institute November 1st.