On a warm summer's evening, on a train bound for nowhere, I met up with a gambler. We were both too tired to sleep, so we took turns of staring out the window at the darkness till boredom overtook us and he began to speak. He said, son, I've made a 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 my 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 bombed a cigarette and asked me for a light, and the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression, said if you're gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn to play it right. You've got to know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, and 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. Every gambler knows that 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 that you can hope for is to die in your sleep, and when he'd finished speaking, he turned back toward the window, crushed out his cigarette, faded off to sleep, and somewhere in the darkness, the gambler, he broke even, but in his final words, I found an ace that I could keep. You've got to know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, and 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've got to know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, and 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've got to know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, and 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.