Is Stealing from the Thieves guild Okay?

        
        ..then the highest card wins
              
Sailors, oilers and firemen
                   [were gambling until dawn
on the Liberian-flag tanker "Sea Swan".

As soon as darkness was falling,
like ghosts, like shadows
                    [and without calling,
they were sneaking to the
             [Boatswain's warehouse at the bow,
during our very long trip to China, to Macao.

Tom the decoy,
             [tried to lure me into the fixed game 
ignoring the fact that he took the wrong aim...

In my neighborhood from the age of ten
we learned to steal in poker,

                                   [and I did it again.

I pretended that I did not know

             [how to play cards, especially poker ...

He answered, ''I will teach you right away,

                                       [my nickname is Joker.

no need to be
            [an experienced bettor,
if nobody has a pair or better,
then the highest card wins''. 

This was the beginning
    [of my documented sins !! 

I got all their money
                      [until the ship reached China
and I signed off at the next port, 

  [somewhere near Chapin, South Carolina.

                                                __________________________________________________

*Extract from "The Broken Mooring Line", an experiential
poetic work // page c53// e-mail: pmataragas@yahoo.com //
Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS//
______________________________________________________________

* About title:  Is Stealing from the Thieves guild Okay?   Yeah, it's perfectly fine, and you don't need to be the guild master either.

Notes:   

* When playing poker, one of the tricks that most people pick up on early on is stealing the blinds, also known as stealing the pot, stealing the button position advantage, or a blind steal. 
Many new players figure out pretty early on that if they're the last player to bid, they have a chance to bluff when other players have folded or called, thereby scaring off the remaining players and being able to claim the blinds for themselves, since players in early position are less likely to bid large amounts on weak hands, but few rookies understand that there is actually a lot of skill involved in stealing. 
Professional players know whether or not a steal is worth the effort (whether or not it's likely to succeed), how to work position to their advantage, how this works in heads-up play. For serious poker players, stealing isn't something that you just happen into-- it's something that you plan.

* A Decoy, lures customers into a gambling establishment (especially one with a fixed game)

* Macao, is one of the two provincial-level special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong.



* Macao is a 1952 black-and-white film noir adventure film directed by Josef von Sternberg and Nicholas Ray. Producer Howard Hughes fired director von Sternberg during filming and hired Nicholas Ray to finish it. The drama features Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix, and Gloria Grahame.

                                                                                    

* The Port of Charleston, is a seaport located in South Carolina in the Southeastern United States. 
The port's facilities span three municipalities — Charleston, North Charleston, and Mount Pleasant — with five public terminals owned and operated by the South Carolina Ports Authority. 
These facilities handle containers; motor vehicles; and other rolling stock, non-containerized goods and project cargo, as well as Charleston's cruise ship operation. Additional facilities in the port are privately owned and operated, handling bulk commodities like petroleum, coal and steel.

  the tales of a greek sailor