In the beginning, there was video poker. North Star in Bowler, St. Croix in Turtle Lake, Ho Chunk in Nekoosa and Mystic Lake in Prior Lake. Those were the four venues. Johnson was with me a lot. We'd sit at side by side machines and press the buttons that would ultimately lead to our riches. We had little sayings too depending on what card we needed. My favorite was probably, "Where's Pete at?" whenever we kept 66 and needed a third 6. Our friend Pete, a beastly man, didn't help us out very often.
As you might imagine, there were more losses than wins on the video poker circuit but we collected some memories nonetheless. And I managed to hit royal flushes on back to back Friday nights for around $2200 total at North Star and Mystic Lake. That was pretty fun. The inevitable, "Maybe I'm GOOD at video poker" started to seep in, no matter how ridiculous I knew it was. We were playing against machines. This is not something that can be won. It's all set up for you to lose. And ultimately, that's what we did. Game over.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie Blow is when George Jung is lying in his prison cell and has his life altering conversation with Diego. Diego asks George about his dream after he got busted selling weed. George mentions that his dream failed because he got caught. Diego disagrees.
"No. You failed because you had the wrong dream."
George Jung's eye opening realization and his ultimate transition from selling marijuana to cocaine was similar to the one I experienced in moving from video poker to poker. This makes so much more sense. This is far more profitable and lucrative. This is way more fun and challenging. I should have been doing this all along.
I'll admit that initially the intimidation factor was real. My only real experience with watching poker was the grainy ESPN footage of old dudes who looked they'd smoked a million cigs and been in a thousand fist fights. Sometimes the cards were face down, sometimes the cards were face up, how much do you bet, how do you act, it all seemed so foreign. I think I like that but I have no idea what that is.
Video poker allowed me the thrill of making big hands without the tension of all the other decisions that seemed to be in play during an actual game. How do I act? How much do I bet? When should I fold? Does someone else have me beat? I didn't have to worry about any of that stuff. All I had to do was push the button and hope that my third 6 showed up when the next three cards were dealt. That other stuff seemed way too complex, far too complicated and appeared to required a whole new dimension of intelligence and understanding.
Fortunately, 2003 arrived just in time. An unknown accountant from Tennessee won the World Series of Poker in Vegas and $2.5 million. His name was Chris Moneymaker.
His legacy was the poker boom.
No comments:
Post a Comment