3rd Step

Wilfulness was the name of the game, and I was the dealer. I shuffled the deck, cut the cards, dealt the hand, called for the openers, and played the game by my own rules. As the chips piled up in front of me, the other players pulled out of the game, one by one, and I was left alone, master of a deck of blank cards and banker of a worthless cache of poker chips. I had become an alcoholic, and I couldn't even see what game I was playing.