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poker short story |
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just wrote this for my creative writing class. kinda funny and probably not too far off for some people
Cameron Duncan
English 161 short story #1
During the first years of college Darnell began playing poker in the dorms. Five and ten dollar games in the evenings between buddies. Tending to win he soon realized there was potential for more than just recreation with this game. On weekends Darnell and his best friend Maxwell would make the two hour drive from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara to play Sunday tournaments at the Chumash Indian Casino. Success continued and the boys began to forgo partying in favor of card games; eventually forgoing classes as well once introduced to online poker.
Unlike at the live tables on the online felt Darnell was free to play at any time on as many tables as possible. He built his skills studying the game, playing almost a thousand hands per hour, and discussing poker hands with other adept players. Prompted by success stories of eighteen year old kids making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year playing online poker and personal success with the game for over two years he decided to put school on hold and pursue cards full time.
Darnell grew up in an LA ghetto and never had much materially but was bright, and made good choices. A strong sense of logic propelled him past many of his peers. With poker it was no different. Within two months of going pro he shipped his first big win in a large field multi-table tournament on PokerStars. He beat out sixteen hundred players for a first place prize of eighty thousand dollars; life changing money. Darnell knew that while luck is a huge factor in the short term results of a poker player, in the long term the man who makes the best decisions overall will win out. Down the road skill will overcome variance.
So our new pro gambler decided to move down to the coast of San Diego and rent out a nice place with some fellow players on the beach. Life was good and the success continued as Darnell improved his game further. He bought a nice new Mercedes Benz, expensive clothes, and spent lavishly at the bars on Garnett street in Pacific Beach having a grand time doing big things both day and night.
Drunk one night celebrating a win in the one hundred dollar rebuy tournament on Full Tilt Poker for thirty four grand with an open bar at the Typhoon, Darnell met a beautiful girl named Marissa. Things moved quickly but with the freedom offered by online poker and the unlimited ceiling for success Darnell was ready to make some bold decisions. He withdrew a large portion of his online bankroll to put a hefty down payment on a waterfront two bedroom condo for him and his new girl. He never worried too much about making payments or the amount he was spending on bars and Gucci purses. Then it hit.
On April 15 2011 The US Department of Justice unexpectedly and inexplicably shut down all of the major online poker sites operating in the states. A hundred thousand American poker players instantly lost their online bankrolls. Like a puff of smoke it was all gone; the money and the opportunity. Cash was seized by the government or sites ran off with it overseas. Unfortunately for Darnell he never saw a dime of the near two hundred racks he had online. His was a true riches to rags story.
Darnell had drive and tried to turn things around but his hole was deeper than he realized. He tried playing live poker in the San Diego cardrooms with what cash he had remaining in bank accounts but he couldn’t handle the smell of despair, desperation and cigarettes that permeated the places. Playing one table at a time it was just impossible to have the same winrate as before and large worldwide tournaments with the chance for huge scores were gone. Marissa was hot and the sex was good but she couldn’t carry her weight any further than around a pole. It didn’t take long for her to split when the handbags and the allowance was gone. Darnell couldn’t pay off the home loan and ultimately lost that too.
Darnell found a sick irony in that it was only in the land of the free that online poker was effectively banned. He could go play online in Iraq if he wanted. With a years long resume gap and no way back into college Darnell sold the Benz and moved up to Vancouver Canada to try to get his online grind back on as a last resort. It was never really the same for him though. Unfamiliar European poker sites with much harder games without the recreational US players. Depression over a girl and family and a lost lifestyle; it all seemed an insurmountable mountain to climb. Without any friends in the area Darnell began abusing prescription pain killers which didn’t help his poker game any. Not lucid and perhaps a turn of bad luck led to him becoming a losing player. Within months Darnell was blowing the last of his savings going into east Vancouver ghettos daily to score heroin after succumbing to an IV addiction. Before long he shot a hot dose of fentanyl cut dope and was dead. Darnell took a proverbial “bad beat” in the game of life and subsequently tilted the rest away as, sadly, many are prone to do.
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Arirang Canada. Jun 27 2011 17:12. Posts 1673 | | |
Cool read.
It's hard to like Darnell for all his shallowness though. I think you should've allowed Marissa to play a bigger role, perhaps she could change his nature from a stereotypical gambling ballah into a family man who starts to appreciate family values and shit. From LA ghetto to marrying a beautiful girl with a nice condo, a true American dream of its own made true, only to be shattered by the land that provided such opportunity. Because without it, he's just so easy to dislike.
Btw, you can play on FTP and Stars just fine in Canada as well as other Euro sites which is generally believed to be a lot softer from what I understand. So that's kind of misleading. |
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Stroggoz New Zealand. Jun 27 2011 20:58. Posts 5328 | | |
darnell shoulda moved to australia, dont have to pay taxes on poker winnings there. And he would've made big $$$ cause pokerstars games got slightly easier after americans left the site. |
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