How valuable is discipline? Obviously it is important in poker. But how valuable is discipline when it comes to refreshments? Did you ever eat a $600 sandwich? Well, such costly sandwiches are sometimes eaten in John Finn’s game.

Consider Scotty Nichols, who tries hard to play a good game…. Sid deals draw poker. Scotty seems nervous, as if desperate to win a pot. He opens for $25 with a pair of aces. Sid raises to $50. Now Scotty is sucked in and calls. Nervous hunger seizes him. He rushes to the food table and rapidly piles many slabs of ham and cheese into a giant sandwich. In the meantime, Ted Fehr draws a card and carelessly flashes it—the ace of diamonds. Then the dealer, waving the deck around, exposes the bottom card for all to see—except Scotty, who is laying pickles on his sandwich. The bottom card? It is the ace of clubs.

Now it is Scotty’s turn to draw. Hurrying back to the table, he smiles at his sandwich. Then his teeth chomp into the pile of food. Beads of mustard ooze over the crust and drip onto his tight slacks. With mustard- covered fingers, Scotty picks up his cards. John Finn watches him play. Yes, the pair of aces are still there. But wait—he also has four spades. Scotty wonders what to do. Staring at his sandwich, he continues to eat.

“Come on,” Quintin grunts. “Speed up the game.”

“Got to go with my best hand,” Scotty finally blurts. He draws three cards to his pair of aces and then jams the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. The first card off the deck is the king of spades… his flush card. So what—he still catches another king to give him two pair, aces and kings… a pretty good hand.

That pretty good hand is enough to keep him in for a $50 bet plus a $50 raise. Quintin Merck wins with a queen high flush.

“What rotten luck,” Scotty whines as he grabs an overflowing handful of potato chips. His words are followed by a slobbering crunch.

Rotten luck? If Scotty had stayed at the table, he would have seen the two flashed aces and drawn to his four flush to win the $600 pot. Instead he loses $150. That ham and cheese sandwich cost him $600!

Also, John Finn uses the mustard stains on Scotty’s cards to identify them in future hands.