Birth of a River Rat
As a child, if you played any sports, then your dream was to play in a championship game at the end of the season. If you were competitive, then you wanted to be the best.
Now let's fast forward to present day, and the dreams of playing in the pros are way behind you. Now that you’re a little older, what satisfies your competive edge. Anything?
One day I was scanning through the tv at night and came across poker. It was strange and foreign to me. It peaked my interest. I was watching these guys sitting around a table and they had sun glasses on inside a building, and iPods in their ears, and they were waging what at first I thought was thousands of dollars like it was pennies. There is just something about hearing " I raise to 1 million". As I sat there, I was tring to figure out what these guys were doing, and how they could throw that much money out with out even caring. So I kept watching, and then I figured out that the money I thought they were shoving in the middle was actually chips and the values were all denominations. However the fact still remains that they were indeed playing for 100's of thousands of dollars. Now that is what really spiked my interest.
So the next day I called my friend, Jeff, and asked him to show me a little bit about this game.
The fire to play began. I started out playing for free online at pokerstars.com to get used to the way things worked. After few months I decided to go to our local casino. At the time it was called Caesars, but has since changed names to Horseshoe Casino. On the first floor of the casino is the poker room. So I strayed downstairs to see what Texas Holdem was all about in person. I walked up to the desk and asked the lady what the deal was to play in a game. At the time, I didn't know if you could buy in for $20, or if there was a difference in limit or no limit. She explained the buy-ins and the variations in games, and I chose to sit at the table that was no limit... something I was sort of use to playing online. She informed me that the minimum I could take to the table was $100. So I bought my chips and told my wife and best friend to come back in about an hour and we will see how I am doing. I sat down at the table, and for the first time in years I had the "butterfly feeling" in my stomach. I had a wide range of emotion going through my body. I felt my heart racing time and time again.
After about an hour they came down to check on me. I was sitting there with around $400. Call it beginner's luck, because I had now clue how I did it.
They were shocked to see the increase in my money, as well and, like every true friend, he took credit for teaching me the game. I ended up leaving up about $300 shortly after that. There was a song that played in the back of my mind after I had given about $100 back to the table. I knew the song well, as I listened to Kenny Rogers growing up. "You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run." I decided to run.
But it was too late, because the "poker bug" had taken its hold.
After time, I started to realize that the feeling was just like any other sport, minus the running, the sweating, the blood, and the soreness the next day. It was a sport of the mind, and the coolest thing about this sport is that you could be 18 to whatever age to play. It is a game of will and chance, and a game of ups and downs.
And bottom line, it is a game that is nearly impossible to quit!