Lyric

The table’s scarred with years and rings of doubt

A dealer who never learned my name

I count the chips I never asked about

Still breathing through the weight of blame

The lights hum low like borrowed faith

Every smile costs a fee

I read the room, I read my pulse

The deck keeps reading me

I wanted kings in tailored suits

I got the quiet truth instead

A hand that shakes but doesn’t fold

A heart that learns to bet with thread

I don’t choose the cards, I choose the play

Face value lies, but hands don’t pray

No reshuffle coming to save my skin

I win my way with the cards I’m in

Luck can talk, but skill replies

I raise my doubt, I cut my ties

I don’t choose the cards, I choose the play

Face value fades—still, I stay

There’s ink on fingers from counting nights

And coffee burns like honest pain

I watched them bluff with borrowed lights

I learned the math of when to gain

The mirror deals me older eyes

A tell I try to hide

But truth’s a river under felt

It moves no matter the tide

I wanted aces dressed in gold

I got the grit beneath my nails

A lesson written in the loss

A map that starts where hope fails

I don’t choose the cards, I choose the play

Face value lies, but hands don’t pray

No reshuffle coming to save my skin

I win my way with the cards I’m in

Luck can talk, but skill replies

I raise my doubt, I cut my ties

I don’t choose the cards, I choose the play

Face value fades—still, I stay

Call it fate, call it noise

I call it a choice with a quieter voice

Every fold is a future denied

Every raise is a fear multiplied

Read the pause, not the crown

Hear the room when the room goes down

I don’t need a miracle win—

Just a steady hand, and the will to begin

Shuffle the silence, deal the breath

Count the cost, not just the depth

If the river breaks my run

I’ll swim the truth till the turn is done

I don’t choose the cards, I choose the play

Face value lies, but hands don’t pray

No reshuffle coming to save my skin

I win my way with the cards I’m in

Luck can talk, but skill replies

I raise my doubt, I cut my ties

I don’t choose the cards, I choose the play

Face value fades—still, I stay

When the lights go out and debts are tallied

I’ll sign my name on what I made

Not what I wished, not what they promised—

Just the hand I played