I was having a great year for poker because of Global Poker. Great for me at least. I was playing 50nl and beating it. Not crushing it, but doing ok enough to pick up a couple grand. It felt really cool, playing poker whenever I wanted, and having a nice little stash of cash on PayPal that I used to buy things I didn’t really need on eBay. I probably spent as much time fantasizing about how much money I’d make for the year off of it as I did playing. I was pretty sure I’d make at least six grand. To say I was flying high is putting it mildly.

Then the games started getting a little tougher. I had my first losing month, followed by a month in which I was barely making anything.  Adding to the frustration was the fact that Global ditched PayPal. I pulled all of my remaining money out to see how things would go with the new payment processor. It doesn’t look like things are going to well over there, but after a few drinks the other night I was desperate for some action and attempted to put some money back on the site.

And this caused my bank card to get suspended.

Back to home games, I guess. The problem with that is that unlike Global Poker, or any online game for that matter, is timing. It’s just too hard to get out to poker games regularly. I can do it maybe once a week tops, and even then I am running late, etc.

This is probably why when my buddy Gags suggested we head to Vegas in the fall I jumped on the opportunity. I probably even got a little pushy about it, immediately asking what dates would work. In retrospect I think Gags was just throwing up a wistful “wouldn’t it be nice to go to Vegas” that he phrased as “we should go to Vegas.” People have said things like this for years to me, and I’ve always been a very good bet to be too much of a stick in the mud to go. Not this time. I think it caught Gags off guard. I bought my tickets like a month ago, I still don’t think he’s booked his flight.

Gags is pretty much the reason I picked up poker as a hobby. Back in the early 00s Gags and his wife Jen started playing cards. I even got invited to a poker tournament somebody held for them one time. Gags paid my $25 buy in. I had no clue how to play, and the confusing rules just made me uncomfortable. I remember winning a hand and having somebody try to explain to me why I won. I think I picked up the blinds and a limper’s chips. This game was held right after my son was born, maybe a week or two after. A few hands later I got a call from my wife, The Genome, asking when I’d be home. Gotta go I told the table.

I was home a lot because the kids were so much work when they were little. It put a real dent in my social life, and as a consequence I spent a lot of time online. One day on Facebook Gags posted something about an upcoming trip to Hawaii he and Jen were taking. The end of the post said “Thanks, poker.”

I think this was the first time I ever thought there was anything positive associated with poker. Another friend of mine, Jay, had been an online poker pro as well. I began asking him a little more about how he pulled that off.  We didn’t discuss strategy so much as what it was like to be a great poker player. I remember him telling me about how he’d made $70,000 in less than a year sitting in an internet cafe for 25 hours a week playing a game. I definitely found this intriguing, and contrasted his life to mine, where I spent 40 hours a week helping make knock off women’s shoes. I mean, it wasn’t the most unrewarding job in the world, I did learn what an espadrille was when I was there, but Jay’s life seemed like a fantasy in comparison to mine.

Eventually I got curious enough on one of those bored at home evenings that I clicked on a link to play Zynga Poker. I didn’t expect I’d ever have any success at playing cards. Gags, Jen, and Jay are all a lot smarter than me, but my curiosity was piqued enough that I wanted to learn a little more. Within a week I was playing a lot. Once I ran my Zynga Poker roll up to 1,000,000 chips I called Gags to brag.

It’s a lot different when you play for real money, he told me.

Maybe half a year later I played in my first “real” game. My downstairs neighbor Jason and his buddies got together for a $20 sit-n-go every once in a while. He promised to invite me to the next game. Before I left The Genome asked me how much money I was bringing to the game. Twenty bucks, I said. She didn’t like the idea of my gambling, and told me that it was the last $20 I’d be spending on poker. I think she thought that would be the end of my little addiction, and had I lost that $20, it may have been. At the very least it would have made poker something I’d have to sneak around to do, kind of like having an affair without the sex. I would have probably been better off just having an affair when you come to think about it. Jeez, I guess poker saved my marriage.

I was super nervous when I got to the basement the game was held in. When the chips were being doled out I remember being a mix of terrified and extremely excited. It was a lovely feeling, really. Lord knows how much I’d have to buy into a game with now to get that back.

Midway through the sit-n-go, everybody was roughly even when I flopped trips with QTs. I checked, and then bet the turn. The guy I was heads up with said there was no way I had a queen. All the chips went in, and after that I just kind of cruised to the finish, winning with a hand in which the same guy jammed with top and bottom pair when I’d flopped a set. Luckbox City.

And that’s how I started my little poker roll, which has provided me with hours of fun and a lot of friends, and is sending me to Vegas in December.

Thanks, poker.

…

It looks like I’ll have four and a half days to play cards in Vegas. My goal is to make $300 while I am there. I know there are going to be people who will be like that’s too small, and other people who would point out that it’s silly to set a goal like that with a limited number of hours and variance, that I should just focus on doing well. All of those people can go screw, though. I am a man on a mission. Heading across the continent to make $300.

In the meantime I am heading to my buddy Roger’s tonight. I showed up at his place for a game on Sunday and he had forgotten about the texts he’d sent out earlier “GAME TONIGHT AT MY PLACE.” He told me he’d hook me up with $50 for my troubles. I was supposed to play another game with a $40 (plus $5 to the house) max buy in, but you know, you do the math.