On a warm summer's evening, on a train bound for Norway, I met up with a gambler. We were both too tired to sleep, so we took turns staring out the window at the darkness. The boredom overtook us, and he began to speak. He said, Son, I've made my life out of reading people's faces and knowing what the cards were by the way they held their eyes. So if you don't mind me saying, I can see you're out of aces for a taste of your whiskey, I'll give you some advice. So I handed him my bottle, and he drank down my last swallow. Then he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light, and the night got deathly quiet. And his face lost all expression and said, If you're gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn to play it right. You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money when you're sitting at the table. There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done. Now every gambler knows the secret to surviving is knowing what to throw away, knowing what to keep. Cause every hand's a winner, and every hand's a loser, and the best you can hope for is to die endlessly. So when he finished speaking, he turned back toward the window, crushed out his cigarette, and faded off to sleep. Then somewhere in the darkness, the gambler he broke even, but in his final words I found an ace that I could keep. You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money when you're sitting at the table. There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done. You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money when you're sitting at the table. There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done. You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money when you're sitting at the table. There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done.