During the winter months, to pass a little time, I enjoy attending a weekly Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament. Although I do enjoy the social aspect of the weekly gathering, I thoroughly enjoy playing the game. It is a great time to study human behavior and the personalities of those that sit at the table.

I am not a church going man, however, I believe in the God Almighty, as one cannot witness the miracles that we see on a daily basis without giving thanks to the creator. As you read, one would have to speculate what does playing poker have to do with religion and how are the two intertwined? Perhaps, my Wednesday night poker game is the same as worshipping on Sunday in church.

As a youngster, my only entertainment was achieved via the radio or attending a Saturday matinee at the local Fox Theatre in Montrose, Colorado. I was and continue to be a fan of the Western genre, in both classical western music and movies. As a child, we had so many great western movie stars and country western music singers. The western genre is unique to the United States. One of these country western singers who was also a movie icon was a gentleman by the name of Tex Ritter. Except for those in my generation, he has been forgotten. Today, you seldom hear his name unless it is associated with his son, John Ritter who starred in the TV hit series “Three’s Company”. In 1952, he won the Academy Award for “Best Song” which was the theme song to “High Noon” (“do not forsake me my darling …..”) starring Gary Cooper. Having a son that suffered from the conditions, he was one of the founders of the United Cerebral Palsy Association.

He wrote one particular song that was very popular when I was young; it was written and reached the Top Ten Billboards in 1948. After a long search, I have just found the words to that song.

It is a story of a young soldier in World War II that was attending church services. As the others read from their small bibles, this young soldier laid out a deck of cards in front of him. He was told by his Sergeant to “put those cards away”. Following the services, the soldier was taken prisoner and brought before the Provost Marshall who demanded from the soldier as to why he was playing cards during church services. In reply, the young soldier said, “Sir, I’ve been on the march for about six days, I had neither Bible nor prayer book, but I hope to satisfy you, Sir with the purity of my intentions.” With that, the young soldier laid out his deck of cards:

“You see Sir, when I look at the –
“ACE”, it reminds me that there is but one God;

The “DEUCE”, reminds me that the Bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testament;


The “TREY”, I think of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;

The “FOUR”, I think of the four Evangelists who preached the Gospel. There was Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John;

The “FIVE”, reminds me of the five wise virgins who trimmed their lamps. There were ten of them, five were wise and were saved. Five were foolish and were shut out;

The “SIX”, reminds me that in six days, God made this great heaven and earth;

The “SEVEN”, reminds me that on the seventh day, God rested from His great work;

The “EIGHT”, I think of the eight righteous persons God saved when he destroyed this earth, there was Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives;

The “NINE”, I think of the lepers our Savior cleansed. And nine out of the ten didn’t even thank Him;

When I see the “TEN”, I think of the Ten Commandments God handed down to Moses on a table of stone;

The “KING”, reminds me that there is but one King of Heaven, God Almighty;

And the “QUEEN”, I think of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is Queen of Heaven;

But the “JACK” or “KNAVE” tells me of the Devil;

When I count the number of spots on a deck of cards, I find 365, the number of days in a year;

Also, because there is 52 cards in my deck, it reminds me the number of weeks in a year;

There are “FOUR” suits in a deck, the number of weeks in a month;

There is also 13 tricks, the number of weeks in a quarter;

“So you see, Sir, my pack of cards serves me as a Bible, Almanac, and Prayer Book

He concludes the song with these words, “And friends, this is a true story, because I was that soldier”.