Yes, I know that I’m over two months behind on my Poker Blog. I apologize. I’m going to try to post to my Poker Blog every other day until I’m caught up because I know that you're dying to know. And, no, I’m not writing from memory; I've got eight pages of single-spaced rough drafts that I usually type up the day after we play.

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2 December 2005

I’m running out of time to get to a grand in winnings. Two weeks ago, I was on the verge; I was at $992.25, $7.75 away and I had six more games in which to make it. Then, on 23 November 2005, an unscheduled poker game, I had my second-worst night of the year, dropping $113.50, then I lost another $31.50 at the regular game two days later, and, just like that, I was down to $847.25, over $150 away from a grand with five games to go. That meant that I’d have to earn about $31 a game for the rest of the year, but that seemed less and less likely with how things have been going for me lately. Since October, I’ve lost a lot more than I’ve won, and I haven't been able to turn it around.

Even before the game began, it started to come apart. I could only buy in for ninety because that was all that I had in my man bag. An explanation: When I took off to Las Vegas in June, I took about $1,200 with me, fully expecting to have to get more from ATMs as the need arose. I had gone to work on my game, so I figured that I would be paying out for all five days of my trip, but it didn’t go down that way. I actually came home with more money than when I started. Same thing for when I went in July. I even got through my little museum-geek trip without having to go to a bank. Then, since mid-June, I’d won almost $500 in our game. I was loaded.

But you know how it is: you buy something here, something there, something here again, and you find yourself running low. Still, I had managed to not go near an ATM since the first week of June. Then I started pouring green at our game. Finally, about three weeks ago, I had to reload at the bank. Unfortunately I pulled the $300 right at the start of my losing streak.

 

I’m at the checkout counter in the local market on the night of the game, buying poker-appropriate snacks (full of sugar and salt and cholesterol and every other unhealthy and delicious thing), when I go to get some money from my man bag and see that, oh, damn, I’m really low on cash. I’m okay to pay for the snacks, but not to rebuy at the poker game if I have to. Now, my big bro’s crib is nowhere near an ATM, and the nearest one is twenty minutes away. Basically, I’m screwed. I get to my big bro’s house and count my cash; I’ve got about $83, which isn’t even enough for my usual $100 buy-in. I scrounge my change jar for quarters, and I manage to put together $90.

When my big bro finally arrives, I ask him if he has a lot of cash on him because I may have to borrow money for a potential rebuy.

It’s just like when we were kids. When my big bro was in sixth grade and I was in fifth, our mother took us to the local S & L to set up our first savings accounts. She put in $20 for each of us and told us that it was up to us from then on. (I just used “us” three times in a sentence; that MFA was really helpful.) Flash forward to when I’m a junior. Thanks to the magical power of compound interest, I’m up to about $24. My big bro had close to $500.

Theologically Speaking:
I’m much closer to believing in a deity now than I’ve ever been because only a rejected god would let me get so close to entering paradise and making a grand and then give me the finger and shut the gates and send me spiraling down.

I did win $22.75, bringing my YTD total to $870.00, but I needed to do much better than that to get back within striking distance. My small total means that I’ll have to average winning $35 per game for the rest of the year. It’s probably not going to happen.