On a warm summers evening,
on a train bound for nowhere
I met up with a gambler,
we were both too tired to sleep
So we took turns at staring
out the window at the darkness
The 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 sayin',
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 bummed 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
Chorus:
You got to know when to hold 'em,
know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away and know when to run
You never count your money,
when you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin',
when the dealin's done
Every gambler knows that the secret to survive is
Knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep
'Cos every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser
And the best that you can hope for is that I end asleep
And when he finished speakin',
he turned back for the window
Crushed out the 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
chorus repeats 3x