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How I Lost $70

An old friend of mine decided to have a poker night recently, and yours truly was invited. Now I'm not a great poker player, but that sounded like a very laid back way to have a good time on a Friday night, so I readily accepted.

I showed up a few minutes late, so there were already a few other people there when I walked in. Even better, when I went to take off my shoes, I accidentally yanked on the wrong side of the shoelace. So I basically just knotted it tighter, and since it had been raining a little bit, my wet hands took a little longer than usual to fix this problem. There's no way for me to confirm this, but I do suspect that this dashed any psychological edge I may have potentially had for the rest of the night.

After I dealt with my shoelace mishap, I took a place at the table. It was a $10 buy-in, and there were 5 people at the table. There were going to be 2 more coming a little later, though, so the total payout was $70. That's right, they were playing winner take all.

We settled down into a game, and it was a good time. As I was playing, I remembered advice I had once heard from a friend of a friend: play tight. I don't know if that's generally considered good or bad advice, but on this night, it served me well. Maybe it was luck or maybe it was actually skill, but I slowly increased my chip count throughout the night. In fact, I lasted into the last couple of people with the chip lead. It wasn't a huge lead, but I liked my chances, and $70 bucks isn't exactly chump change in my book (if it is chump change to you, how would you like to buy me a meal?).

However, when everyone else is out, they get bored. The other guy & I played a few hands (I upped my chip count again), but we realized it wasn't going to be a very quick game. So, we did the only rational thing we could think of: we agreed to play rock-paper-scissors to determine the outcome of the game. Whoever won three of five would take the pot.

Sadly, my rock-paper-scissors skills weren't as good as my poker skills, so I lost, 3-1. Just like that, the money slipped through my hands (side note: if you suddenly find that I want to play rock-paper-scissors more often, I'm just practicing, don't mind me).

Still, I'd had more than my share of fun for the night, so I wasn't about to complain. Also, we had decided that we'd donate the money to Haiti. So, regardless of whether I won or lost, we did good. Also, with everyone else re-engaged in the evening's activities, we ended up playing an amusing couple of games of Apples to Apples. All in all, I'd call it a success.

As good a night as it was, though, I think a victory would've made it that much sweeter. So, should it be useful to you in the future, I present to you my keys to success for a poker night:
1. Don't underestimate the difficulty of untying your shoes, lest you pay for your hubris
2. When in doubt, throw rock

Comments

  1. So, I think you really only lost $60. Since you had already pitched in $10 in the cumulative ante of $70, doesn't that make it an economic sunk cost? (just being snarky)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Technically, I think it's still a 70 dollar loss because I could have won the original 10 dollars back. Though they say you should never chase your money, meaning you should always treat money you put in like a sunk cost.

    ReplyDelete

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