This might come as a surprise but I love to play poker.

Strategy, bluffing, betting, holding and sheer luck - it has all the hallmarks excitement.

Poker is full of analogies.

“Know when to hold them”

“Going all in”

“Calling their bluff”

These are analogies that people understand.

So, when the GameStop story broke, I went right to my favorite game of Texas Hold Em to see if I could break it down. After all, the stock market is just legalized gambling.

At first I couldn’t understand the outrage from the hedge fund managers. Its the nature of the market, it goes up and down, deal with it.

But then I remembered sitting at a locals table in Vegas. These are people who play poker for a living, strange, I know.

They discourage rookies from joining just based on their demeanor, but every once in awhile an unknowing tourist with deep pockets will join their game.

On this one particular day, an older man had kept betting all the way to the river with a seasoned pro.

The older man had some so-so hand, a pair of threes if I remember and the pro had King and Ace.

Well what should show on the board but a King, an Ace, one three and two sevens.

The rookie ends up with a full house and the pro has two pair.

Well the pro was all bent out of shape, yelling at the guy, telling him he should have folded at the turn. But rules is rules and the rookie raked in a VERY big pot.

Moral of the story

The pros don’t want you in their game.

They have their little fiefdom to protect and they don’t want you messing it up. And that’s exactly what happened with GameStop. The little guys messed it up for the big boys.

You should also understand that there are two sets of rules in this world, the ones you have to play by and the ones the establishment elites play by.

And truth be told, they laugh in the face of rules and do want they want. If anything, GameStop made that glaringly obvious.

But we all know the stories of the great underdogs in history. Don’t count the little guys out - feels like the tide might be turning in our favor.