Booking the Win

Recently I was visited by one of my earliest partners. Denny is a retired mid stakes college football handicapper turned window salesman.

Denny and I rarely talk any longer but he's always a ray of sunshine. Happily married, cool hobbies and keeps up with sports but not in a serious way. Ive not seen him in a bad mood in over a decade on our twice a year lunches.

I met him when I was hosting a poker game on Colfax and while he was a skilled player he didn't have the gamble to make a serious run in the mid stakes club scene.

He did have a knack for research and finding injuries back when it wasn't easy as today where a notification goes off and you have 15 seconds.

It's humourous as I get older as I don't see myself in a older version of myself. I forget running games for 40 hours and napping in between hands to keep the (rake) game going in the mornings.

I often forget the truly one of a kind of characters you meet when running in that world. They all become blurred images and names run together. Denny asks whatever happened to Aaron. Skinny Aaron, Asian Aaron or the girl Dealer Erin? I don't know man... It's been 20 years!

He reminisces over a game he played in a dozen times and recalls most everything and I sat in those 3 rooms for 5 years and don't remember all that much. Lots of money was made, very little of it was mine.

He brings up Tickets Dave. Dave was the largest ticket broker in the state and at the time I thought he had a gambling problem that I'd put in top 5 category of witnessing in my lifetime.

If Dave brought 5-10k he was leaving once he hit zero. Many people will never believe this but as much as I desire to win, there are a select few who prefer the opposite. They think they want to win but embrace the loss all the same over and over in my experience. They simply never consider winning, it's unimportant in the hours of action.

While I'm working 8-12 hours a day on college football currently there is a man or woman somewhere right now with a deep desire to be in a vacuum of mindless action. They might win tonight but they'll likely drive home with empty pockets in the morning.

As Denny likes to joke around about he's never seen anyone like Tickets. How he couldn't believe he would leave at 9 pm Tuesday and find out Dave was still there at 9 pm Wednesday.

It dawned on me this past week why Denny is so fond of these memories.

See one man got close. He took half a season of real risk and got up a good amount and called it. He saw something in this life or in his own that he didn't like, he couldn't continue on. He booked the win. The safe route.

He saw a real bad weekend and became a tourist. He just drives slow, takes a peak, stops for lunch and knows deep down he didn't have that type of fortitude. Good on Denny! I didn't resent it at the time and admire it more now.

He lives through these characters of 20 years ago, wants to hear updates on them. Wants to know what I'm up to when it comes to discovery.

How is AI affecting the way you work? Is being married going to change how much you watch games? Are the swings brutal in MLB? You think they'll expand the playoff and is that going to make things easier or harder for you.

He wants to dance around subjects with genuine curiosity and who doesn't. War is awesome when your watching it on TV and reading about it in a cozy recliner.

I didn't want to tell Denny but Tickets cashed out about 9 years ago. He sold his company to a major ticket brokerage firm and a heavy smoker gave all his fortune to his sister and niece's. Headed off to pasture I guess. Unsure if alive or dead.

Why ruin the legend of degeneracy in the mind of 50 year old man who's putting kids through school while he envisions a guy playing cards for 40 hours at a time?

Dave was never risking anything that mattered. He would put it in the middle with nothing and comeback the next night to do it all over again. He lived on his own terms and without fear. Played cards that way as well.

People constantly talk in terms of +EV without knowing that if you don't click that cash out button, cash the ticket, accept transfer, hit the withdrawal option your assets aren't yours at all yet.

Both men booked the win just in massively different ways. Keep stacking wins of any kind, big and small in this life.

Until next time. Thank you for the space, Eddie