Consider the following and please don’t ever tell anyone that these stories might be true – even though they probably are.
One night Sam Sham gets off work at Caesar’s Palace and decides to go to the Horseshoe with a couple of his buddies. They are planning on cashing their checks and gambling, having a few drinks, maybe some food and then heading for home.
Sam starts playing craps. He’s cashed a payroll check for a little over $200 and he feels lucky. He wins. We aren’t talking a few dollars here . . . we are talking WIN! He runs that $200 into over $200,000 . . . standing at the table, rolling the dice and having the time of his life. Now he goes off the rush and starts to lose some of it back. His friends are trying to drag him away from the table. He won’t leave. His friends keep trying to talk him into going so Sam calls for security and has his friends removed. What the hell are friends for if you can’t have them thrown out when they are trying to save you money.
Consequently, Sam loses everything he made and when asked about it later – Sam states, “Well, at least I had the chance to make some real money!” He’s still dealing, only in a different place.
What about Paula Prince. She plays poker and is separated/divorced, has several children and won a little bit playing tournaments but nothing big so she becomes a poker dealer. One night she gets off work and takes her tokes for the day to the black jack table. Paula manages to beat the dealer enough times to run that investment into somewhere around $23,000.00. Does she leave? No! She sits and dwindles it all back to the house. She still struggles to make ends meet.
The most phenomenal case of all is Eternal Enigma. A man with wonderful, dark eyes that appears almost shy when you pass him and say, “Hello.” Eternal borrowed $1,000.00 to get into a pool playing gig with a group of ‘high rollers’. Eternal ran that $l,000 into $10,000 and then started playing poker and craps. Guess what . . . he never lost steam or momentum . . . turning that $10,000 into over $30,000,000. Um-hunh! Eternal had all of the $5,000 chips of one casino locked up in his lock box at one time. He wouldn’t even consider releasing any of them because he felt that it would bring him bad luck. The owner of that casino had to have more of those chips made to have them available on the casino floor.
Eternal started playing poker with a select few and still played craps. He was touted as the world’s greatest gambler and seemed almost paranoid when he played poker. He wanted the pot in a certain place on the table, he didn’t want the dealers to look anywhere near him, he didn’t want anyone on the rail within 10 feet of his position. It was very stressful for a lot of people involved, perhaps even more stressful for Eternal as he lost it all. Rumor has it that the only thing Eternal purchased out of all of that money was a new car.
Is it ever enough? What compels a person to win that much and then give it all back? A lot of us can never win big because when we reach a certain level, we consider ourselves well off and cash out. We never suffer those tremendous highs and lows because we also cannot lose big. But do these people ever even feel the high and low of the situation? Perhaps they feel that they will win everything – maybe even own the world before they’re finished – or only the rush of the win is what’s important.
There are people who have managed huge wins in a short period of time and some them will tell you that they cannot sleep until they give it all away. As soon as they go broke, they relax.
Most of us think, “Wow! If I could put my hands on that much money, I would buy a new house/car, etc.” That’s not necessarily true. Our thoughts and where we place our value is not the same as the persons described above.
It’s hard to say what’s normal anymore. Back in the early 1900’s there were rounders and vagabonds but the family unit was the backbone of our society. Now individuals in our society are always looking for an excuse to explain what they are and what they’re all about. Makes for good poker table discussion and definitely makes the games better even though it doesn’t make good sense in a society where money definitely talks.
So how much really is enough? Who the hell knows? Who the hell cares! If it weren’t for all of those crazy emotions and strange drives, how would we ever win anything when we play poker. See you there!