Last week I slipped into the Dealer’s Box on Table 28. Great little game, lots of action, nice people that didn’t have any problem playing ATC (any two cards)…my kind of game. The 3s was a nice looking youngster that had a lot of chips and played most of the hands, although he didn’t play like an ‘idjit’, he seemed to tango every chance he got. When he won a pot, he sent me $1…appreciated.

Somehow the conversation went to high limit. The 3s stated that a few years ago in Atlantic City, he was playing $1,000-$2,000 Blind…stop…stutter…stare…everyone wanted to know if he was playing in a Tournament…”No!” It then went to, “Not a cash game?”

He replied, “Yes. A game just like this only with $1,000-$2,000 blinds.”

They all went ga-ga…”how/what?”

He said he won a lottery. They queried him, “How much?”

His reply, “A lot…I was the only winner.”

While the others asked if they could ‘be his mother, would he adopt them, did he need a brother’, I couldn’t help but express my genuine happiness for him. I said, “Good for you. That’s wonderful.”

While they were all gabbing and chortling, I caught his eye and mouthed, “How much?”

He mouthed back, “After taxes…______!”

Several people asked me, “He told you how much…what was it?”

I said, “A lot.”

He went on to explain that when he realized he’d won, that he had the ONLY ticket, he was frightened. He thought something bad was going to happen. While most of you might find that hard to believe, I can associate with that. So many of us are taught that you can’t have your cake and eat it too…the Twilight Zone Theory takes over.

He also explained that he was told to sign the ticket when he bought it, he did, and that was one of the best things he could have done…no argument or accusations from anyone. He met with the IRS, the Lottery Officials, etc., etc., etc.

He gave some of it away to Charities, family and friends, and got a zillion phone calls from people he’d never heard of. He said he has a representative from Merrill Lynch that handles everything for him, takes care of advising him on investments and he finally forwarded all of his phone calls to the representative.

I got pushed. I stopped and asked him if he was excited or filled with disbelief at first…as in ‘did it register?’ He said he was very frightened. He thought something really bad was going to happen. I asked his name…he told me…I gave him a card to this site and asked if he minded that I write this here, he said “No, go ahead.”

I finished by telling him that I felt he was handling it well and how happy I was for him. He’s 27, how wonderful that he appears to be in a state of mind with it that it’s a means to live his life with relative ease instead of feeling that he has to punish everyone with it or be a big shot and shove people around. I respect him even more for tipping me a $1 when he won a pot…it would be gauche if he threw his weight around in any limit…and I liked the fact that he played $4-$8 rather than trying to slam it out in high limit.

Real people are the core of poker.

*****
I was part of this project. Sweet!
Howard Lederer’s ‘Secrets of No Limit Holdem’