Jersey Joe and The Snake

The final game of May featured a heads-up match that reminded me of one of Aesop’s Fables, The Farmer and The Snake (~600 BCE). The brief story is as follows:

One winter a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it under his coat. The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. As he drew his last breath, he said to those standing around: “Learn from my fate not to take pity on a scoundrel.”

In this version of the story, The Farmer (played by Jersey Joe Patterson) issued a double knock-out, leading to a heads-up battle against Barry The Snake Gillen. Jersey Joe had a sizable chip lead on The Snake, ~4-to-1, at the start of play. But like The Farmer, Jersey Joe took pity on The Snake, allowing him to heat up and return the kindness with a near-fatal strike (a double up, cutting Jersey Joe’s chip lead dangerously close to even). Unlike the fable above, Jersey Joe learned from this disastrous lesson quickly and commenced to pound The Snake. If The Snake called, Jersey Joe bet 4x. If The Snake bet, Jersey Joe raised 3x. The onslaught was relentless. Jersey Joe quickly found himself the overwhelming chip leader again and poised to decapitate The Snake. With this victory, Jersey Joe took down his second win of the week: this one in DE and one on Monday in NJ. Well played, Joe. Congrats!!!