Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
Cards are war, in disguise of a sport.
I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates society.
The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.
The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent.