Diary of a poker player: You win some, you lose some

By Scott Kaufman-Ross

There are moments in each day when I realize I play too much poker.

I'm 19, in college, and yet, on an almost daily basis, I'm playing with $1,200 on various tables and hoping to make enough money to pay for whatever might come up in the next 24 hours. There is no more poignant reminder of this fact than when I have a conversation with friends I used to play cards with.

They were sitting across the table from me freshman year in Umrath when I would buy in for $10, and, on a terrible night, rebuy for $10 more, and whine about how I lost to some crackpot move after three hours of playing with them. They were the guys who would play with me until four in the morning and head to bed bleary-eyed, until the next night when we would get a few more hours in. They, along with countless other people I've played with and learned from, fostered my love for the game of poker.

So I see one of these guys as I'm standing outside of Bear's Den, getting ready to leave Wohl for the cozy confines of my suite. We do the normal "Hey, how are you?" type of conversing until he lets it slip that he lost $40 yesterday playing with friends-the same friends I played with all of last year. I realize how annoyed this makes him, and I offer the appropriate condolences.

"Dude, that sucks. Did you get outplayed or what?"

"Bad cards." (As an aside, no one ever admits to getting outplayed. If you lose, the other guy got lucky. If you win, you outplayed your opponent. A fundamental rule of poker is that it is impossible for you to get outplayed.)

"Well, you'll make it back."

I can see that my attempt to console him isn't working. I would have tried harder, but the fact is, you should never be worried about a losing night. If you are confident in your game, and convinced of your status as a winning player, the winning nights will outnumber the losing nights, and you'll end up with more money in your pocket than you started with. One bad night doesn't make a winning player into a losing player. Hell, one bad month doesn't make a winning player into a losing player.

None of this changed the fact that the melancholy expression isn't fading from my friend's face. I panic and resort to Plan B.

Before I can stop it, the thought blurts from my mouth: "Well, I lost $450 yesterday." True words. I swear.

All of a sudden, the grimace fades from his face, he stares into my eyes, and he starts grinning. As long as someone else is losing far more money than he is, the remnants of last night cannot phase him. Walking away from him, I yell goodbye, but I don't think he heard me over the sound of his own laughter.

At least my misfortune could brighten someone's day.