Two Decks, Ten Dollars

For the last three years my roommate and I have sat down every week to a game of poker. Texas hold ‘em, two decks, ten dollars and a lot a trash talk. For hours every week we are locked in the only kind of competition that matters. The money doesn’t matter. We have each won and lost enough that we always knew it would come out even in the next few weeks. With the intensity of a hated rival we would sit and attempt to break the other down with our talk and our play. We are constantly learning, trying our hands at different styles of play but always at the table to win.

We learned about each other through those games and about ourselves. People would come and go but nobody every stayed for many games. They could see that it was personal. What fascinates us both with the weekly event is the true competition. If he lost he knew why and knew which hand he miss played and I was the same.

Like the Red Sox and Yankees we continued to battle it out week after week and the games seemed to blend into one. Recently, we took out the book and added up nearly three years of buy-ins to determine who had actually come out on top. The numbers didn’t lie and showed that my roommate was up a stunning $20.00. After over $1000.00 of buy-ins and hours of time he was $20.00 ahead. We agreed that we would hold a final game. The buy-in will be the $20.00 difference and will be held on New Years Day. We will retire our regular Sunday night game after the game and a final tip of the hat to the victor. Then, we will play on Mondays.