#1: “One Time Baby, One Time!”

The Hellenic Centre is a nice building – not the mammoth sports arena that I was expecting would host ‘The Full Tilt Million Pound Challenge’. I got myself to the front of the queue and like Noah’s Arc, entry was in pairs. I, however, chose to come alone as I thought having anyone here would be distracting. My girlfriend is understandably feeling left out but while I would love her support, I also couldn’t consciously/financially justify her coming from Connecticut for what might be a 5-minute affair.

Not that I’m assuming the worst but it’s unrealistic to have high expectations as a tournament poker player. I think if this could be played 1000 times, my results would be among the best. But it isn’t. So, as Joe Hachem would say – “One time baby, one time!”. Last week on WSOP 2008, Daniel Negreanu was quick to point out that Joe, ‘the lucky SOB’, should be saying “One more time, just one more time!”. While that may be true, I think he missed the point of what is a very existential phrase.

Texas Hold ‘em hand situations are replicated often so in the long-term, you will win about as often as you should. However, you will never be in that same point in time in your life again, with that same opportunity to pick up that pot and progress in that tournament. Your life is gonna change somehow based on the outcome on that turn of a card but crucially (and understandably), in that moment, poker players see it as changing for the better if they win. When people reach pivotal moments in their lives, they make decisions. Usually, they will survive to interpret retrospectively the value of those decisions (usually with the outcome/results of them in mind). However, when there is a chance that they will not survive – ie. ‘life or death’ situations – these moments carry a little more existential weight. Now, if we take the game of tournament poker as a metaphor for life (something which I will be doing a lot), then those times when we need to hit/miss particular cards in order to survive are exactly those moments.

I’m hoping my hands hold up ‘one time’ today as today would certainly be the most important time for them to hold up in my short poker career thus far. If they don’t, then so be it. I’m gonna have plenty of other opportunities, plenty of other one times!