Find the Gaps

Some cards? What am I missing there?! Has to be that clue though!! Fun one - thanks Alan!

Very fun. Thanks.

Found 4/6 gaps and sussed out the meta.

Fun solve, Alan.

Fun answer. I understood enough to get there. Symmetry helps, but 73A? Thanks, Alan!

Niiiice! Thanks, Alan!

I smiled when I saw what Step Two was going to be. Thanks.

Laughed when I got it! Terrific!

Ha! I assumed that the entire point of the meta was that there were only 4 words and the joke was to figure out what the reference to to missing words could mean.

Knowing that there actually were sit words I can back solve. and figure the missing words are RANGE and TREYS. I did think Golf course feature could be answered with "HOLE" (missed, but get, the cards reference) but I guess I was being too literal in that I was thinking that the word was actually a synonym of the entry and/or clue and not an alternative answer. Don't know why I missed that as it is one of the most common mechanisms.

Good puzzle despite my cheese for brains.

Well, something I'm very familiar with! Very nice Aha moment. Thanks, Alan!

Fun one Alan. Saw BREACH first, and then the rest fell quickly into place. Thanks for the puzzle!

Cute idea.

Got the hole part right away and it took a minute for hole cards. Nice one.

Hmm, I figured I was missing something:

Saw SYNONYMs for GAP as Breach, abyss, burrow, opening, (gap wedge) on the golf range, and treys for symmetry. The gaps spelled RABBIT and the only reasonable second word is HOLE. The intended path makes much more sense!

Holey Moley, nice thought process Alan! Thanksss. And appropriate to solve on Cross Hare.

Great “aha!” moment! Thanks for the puzzle.

Needed those nudges to understand exactly what 41A wanted me to do. Trouble with the pokey little 6th but symmetry and google got me there, and the spelling out proceeded to give me what paired up nicely with the "gap." Loved the answer, naturally! Thanks, Alan!

sooooo cute! I kept getting interrupted today so totally forgot about that 41A clue, so for a while I was baffled. Once I scanned and went OH yeah… that big glaring clue… there it was (almost stepped in it) ha ha

Harder than I thought. I saw the ABYSS, BURROW and BREACH and recognized them AS holes, but I did not think to see the others as HOLES being a possible answer until frustration got the better of me (and after trying BROKEN STRAIGHT, a two word annoyance that has foolishly cost me money in poker). Finally I said, well darn it, I've done 6 word symmetric "alternates" so if ABYSS, BURROW and BREACH are part of it that means RANGE, INTO and TREYS have to be, but they aren't holes...Oh DUH! but they COULD be. Once I had RABBIT the rest was clear>

Now a poker joke: A guy playing poker had an inside straight right up the the end of the hand and never filled it, he lost $30 The next hand he had another broken straight and never filled it, he lost $35 The last big hand of the night he had another broken straight, everyone was betting like crazy and THIS time he filled the straight, he lost $200

The moral of the story is that straights are pretty good in poker but not great. Unless you have it early or have an open-end straight and are betting enough to scare out the other players you may end up losing to a better hand. Even with an open-end straight (where you have twice the chance of making a straight as with a broken straight) if people are betting like crazy it is probably because they have a good hand and there are five hands that will beat your straight.

Every poker player knows this, but it is a lesson many of us learned at a cost.....

Finally stumbled across the answer after days of searching, all of the nudges and asking for more help. I was hopelessly stuck on GREEN as the magic word after seeing GREEN as a golf course feature and some cards are GREEN. Turn on red? Why not GREEN. Draw GREEN in the sand was a stretch. Someone who has RAW talent is sometimes referred to as GREEN. TALK ABOUT A RABBIT HOLE!!!!!!