Between the WSOP in 2008 and 2009, I met my wife. As a single man for the better part of the previous decade, it was certainly an adjustment getting used to sharing my life with someone again. And while the relationship side of me flourished, the poker side of took something of a hit. It made sense. Time, energy, focus, space in my brain... I simply could not consume poker in the same manner as before. Working 8 hours a day and playing 3-4 hours of poker at night was a fairly standard schedule for me prior to March of 2009. I had put in a lot of time and played an uncountable amount of hands to get to where I was. And the reality is that not being in a relationship allowed for the climb. I had the time, I had the drive, I made the decision to spend a large chunk of my "free" time playing this game. And while it was somewhat isolating at times, I wouldn't change the arc of how everything played out. It made into a good poker player. And it led me to Kelly.
When we first started dating, I would try to walk through big hands that I played. I'd get into my thought process, how it shifted throughout the hand and what I was looking to do. Eventually, the story concluded and I'd eagerly await her reaction about how fascinating the whole thing was. But instead:
"Soooooo, you lost?"
"Yeah, but...."
Ugh. Ok fine, so she was a little more results oriented than I'd like. She has always been supportive of this endeavor and knows how fiercely I care about the game. I rode that support to Vegas again in June of 2009 to play one of the preliminary $1k events at the World Series.
And it's in that event that I played the hand that I think about more than any other.. even to this day.
Unfortunately, it's less dream and more nightmare...
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