Lyrics of 'The Gambler' by Kenny Rodgers

VERSE 1
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,
Till boredom over took
us and he began to speak,
He sais "Son I've made a life
outta reading peoples faces".
Knowing what the cards were by
the way they held their eyes.
So if you don't mind me sayin
I can see your outta aces
For ataste of your whisky I'll give you some advice.
So I handed him my bottle
and he drank down my last swallow,
then he bombed a cigarette and asked me for a light.
And the night got deathly
quiet and his face lost
all expresion said If your gonna
play the game boy you gotta
learn to play it right.

CHORUS:
You gotta know when to hold them,
Know when to fold them,
Know when to walk away, know when to run.
You never count your money when your sitting at the table,
There'll be time enough for counting when the dealings done.

VERSE 2
Every gambler knows that
The secret to survival is knowing
What to throw away
And knowing what to keep.

'Cause every hands
A winner and every hands
A loser and the best that
You can hope for is to die in your sleep.
And when he finished
Speaking 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.
And in his final words
I found an ace that I could keep.

CHORUS