The Poker Gods

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010

Some of you may believe in it and some of you may not. The majority of poker players know that poker is a game of skill, not luck. Luck is what keeps the bad players coming back to the table. Then there are the even smaller amounts of us that believe in the poker Gods. I am one of them and if you play your cards right, no pun intended, they will smile down on you.

As many of my friends know, my on-again off-again girlfriend has driven me to all new levels of insanity. My addiction to poker was one of the reasons for the many ultimatums she handed down to me. It was not so much that she disliked my gambling; it was more so that she disliked my losing. She was always there for me to spend my extra winnings.

I had just gotten paid and found that we were short $300. As the end of the month inched ever so near and the prospect of being evicted loomed, I felt there was something I needed to do. I was too proud to call my parents for cash, so I thought I could parlay my poker skill into some much needed cash.

I decided to buy in to a no-limit $100 buy-in tournament structure game. I am normally a cool and collected person, but you know the saying ? desperate times call for desperate measures. When you are first out of college and the best job you can get pays $10 per hour, you need to do some hustling to make the rent and pay the bills.

The last thing she said as I walked out the door was if I was stupid enough to gamble what we had, then she did not want to be with a moron like me. She also let me know that she would be packed and gone by the time I came back. Trying to explain that I was doing all of this for the both of us was useless and headed out.

The kinds of players in the game were mostly people with money to burn, and lacking in poker skill. I had played my best game and managed to make it to the final table. The pay out was for the top 5 players. Having an average chip stack I decided to ride it out and let the short stacks battle it out and hopefully push me into the money. The Poker Gods smiled and it worked. I had been knocked out in 5th place when my pair of tens got beat by a set of 8?s on the river. I did not complain though, as I walked away with $800, more than enough to cover the rent and other bills.

When I walked into the front door, there she was with her bags packed. ?So?? she asked. Obviously her leaving depended on how well or badly I did. ?$800,? I said with a smile. Running up to me to hug me, she told me about the vacation we could go on with the money, that she needed to get her nails done and needed some new clothes.

I slowly counted out enough money for the rent and bills and left it on the table. Walking out the door I said to her ?This moron is going to buy some new tires for his truck with the extra money. I could care less if you are still here when I get back,? and walked out the door with a smirk on my face.