Poker Night Ending Explained
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When you are in the casino at the beginning of a poker game, and you have lots of chips, the blinds are something you hardly notice. Towards the end of a poker night, especially if things aren’t going so well and your chip pile is lower than you’d like it to be, or the blind bets are increasing in size, then the blind can really eat into your stack.
Some poker games have antes – forced bets. But Texas Holdem doesn’t, meaning you can fold your cards without betting. Texas Holdem poker does have something called blinds though. They are another type of forced bet, but this time before you have been dealt your cards. Like antes, they exist so that there is a cost to playing, so the poker games don’t go on and on with players just waiting to be dealt a great hand. Paul Phua thinks that the blind keeps the momentum up, and ensures the game of poker finishes within a reasonable time frame – especially since the blinds often increase in value during a game of Texas Holdem to speed things up even further.
There are mainly two blinds in Texas Holdem – the big and small blind, but there can sometimes be three players who have to make them.
The name comes from the fact that players are being asked to bet without seeing their hands. They are betting blind, with no knowledge of the hand’s worth. So in the casino, whether you hold a 2 and a 3 unsuited, or a pair of aces – before you see your hand it’s all the same.
Paul Phua says the blind also marks potential poker strategy. Depending on your position around the poker table in a casino, or a social poker night where the dealer changes as the “button” moves from player to player, you will have to give certain blinds. Being in the small blind spot on a poker table is a disadvantage because you will be the first to act in every round after the flop. But Paul Phua’s poker tip is to remember never feel committed to a pot simply because you have paid your blind, especially in Texas Holdem, and not be afraid to enter a pot if you have a strong enough hand.
Scene 4
The morning after, Blanche fearfully returns to the apartment to find her sister luxuriating in bed. Blanche had spent the night worried sick about Stella, but the conflict of the previous night was forgotten by its participants as soon as they were back in each other's arms. Stella admits that she is rather thrilled by Stanley's violent streak, and Blanche is horrified.
Blanche attempts to convince Stella that she can get out of her situation, but Stella insists that she is not in anything she wished to get out of. Blanche doesn't really hear her, though, and brainstorms an escape plan involving wiring an old beau for money. She calls Western Union, but can't think of what to say. The focus shifts, and it becomes clear that Blanche's concern for finances is just as much for herself as for Stella – she is completely broke.
Blanche continues to try to convince Stella to leave, but Stella is firm – she is happy. It doesn't matter whether or not Blanche understands, because all that matters to Stella is her relationship with Stanley. Blanche puts a name to it – desire – and compares it to the street-car of the same name. Stella asks whether Blanche had ever ridden on that street-car, and Blanche admits that she has, that it's what brought her here. Stella tells her to stop being so superior in that case, but Blanche still thinks such emotions are the stuff of brief affairs, not a marriage and a life.
Blanche gives a speech telling her opinion of Stanley as common and animalistic, while Stella listens wearily. Stanley arrives home, unnoticed by the women, and listens in on this speech. Blanche compares Stanley to a caveman, his poker night to a party of apes, and exhorts Stella not to regress to Stanley's primitive level but to evolve into a higher level of human.
After listening to Blanche's speech, Stanley steps out and steps back in, this time making his presence known and pretending he had just arrived. In response to Blanche, Stella embraces her husband plainly. Stanley grins at Blanche as she watches.
Analysis
Scene 4 gives us the logical extension of the end of Scene 3 – the morning after, Stella is floating on a cloud of post-coital bliss, while Blanche continues with the same bluster of contradictory emotions she felt the night before. Blanche looks at Stella's situation and sees a damsel in distress, in need of rescuing, but Stella has long forgiven Stanley for his behavior. In fact, she admits that she likes his violence – when he smashed the lights with the heel of her slipper on their wedding night, it gave her a thrill.
The sisters' conversation goes round and round as Stella keeps insisting that she is happy and Blanche remains convinced that Stella is deluded. It is a troubling scene that can be played several ways – who is right? Is this domestic violence, and only Blanche is able to see that Stella is in a dangerous situation where she cannot make decisions for herself? Or is this really just the nature of the Kowalskis' relationship, and Blanche is too frigid to comprehend the couple's chemistry? The play as a whole seems to side with Stella, up until the moment Stanley crosses the line in Scene 10. For now, however, Blanche appears to be seeing what she wants to see – her baby sister mesmerized by the brutish Pollack – despite Stella's protestations.
The hypocrisy of Blanche's position is made very clear in the important dialog exchange about desire, both the concept and the street-car:
Blanche: What you are talking about is brutal desire – just – Desire! – the name of that rattle-trap street-car[…]
Stella: Haven't you ever ridden on that street-car?
Blanche: It brought me here – where I'm not wanted and where I'm ashamed to be.
Stella: Then don't you think your superior attitude is a bit out of place?
It is clear to both the audience and the characters themselves that they are discussing the streetcar Desire as a metaphor for the kind of desire that brings two people together. Each line of this exchange can be read in two ways – is Stella saying Blanche should drop her attitude as she knows she's not wanted at the Kowalskis' flat? Or that she should understand Stella's position because she too has felt crippling, damaging desire?
Poker Night Ending Explained
Blanche presents herself as a romantic throughout the play, clutching to notions of star-crossed lovers and gentlemen sweeping ladies off their feet. But when faced with a true love story, she balks. Blanche's kind of romance can't happen in the gutter. In theory, Blanche should see her sister's marriage as an epic love story between the princess and the commoner. But the truth is that Blanche's romanticism is a cover for the true cynicism of one who loves only calculatingly, for money and power and security. Of the DuBois sisters, Stella is the romantic.