The Gambler is an EP by Mike Doughty. It was released in 2005 on ATO Records, exclusively through the iTunes Music Store. The album contains mostly live performances. Several of the tracks are cover songs ("The Gambler" - Kenny Rogers, "Strange Powers" - The Magnetic Fields, and "The King of Carrot Flowers" - Neutral Milk Hotel), and two of the compositions were originally performed with Doughty's previous band Soul Coughing. ("St. Louise Is Listening" and "Janine" can be found on the Soul Coughing albums El Oso and Ruby Vroom, respectively.) The EP also includes a video for the song "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well," a track found on Doughty's previously released album Haughty Melodic.
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 youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.
On a warm summers evenin on a train bound for nowhere,
I met up with the gambler; we were both too tired to sleep.
So we took turns a starin out the window at the darkness
til boredom overcame us, and he began to speak.
He said, son, Ive made a life out of readin peoples faces,
And knowin what their cards were by the way they held their eyes.
So if you dont mind my sayin, I can see youre out of aces.
And if you're gonna play the game, boy, you've got to learn to play it right.
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 youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.
Now evry gambler knows that the secret to survivin
Is knowin what to throw away and knowing what to keep.
cause evry hands a winner and evry hands a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.
So when hed finished speakin, he turned back towards the window,
Crushed out his cigarette and 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.
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 youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.
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 you r money when youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.