The Most Important Poker On Film Blog Post Ever

Dale Putley: Jack, look at this.
Jack Lawrence: It's money. I remember it from when I was single.

"Father's Day"

Last week was the single worst week of my poker playing career, and then some. I never looked like winning a pot, I played well and lost every time and felt like there was nothing I could do about it and went into tilt. I increased the limits, increased the tables, and lost still. I lost 25% of my bankroll. At the same time, at least it was only 25% and it could have been worse. It would have been worse, had I really cared about it.

After my 5th buy in went south at the home game, I had reached my stop-loss limit for the second week in a row. I was leaving an hour earlier than the last time, and to be honest I was lucky it lasted that long. I knew I would go home and go straight online just like I did last time, and I hoped the fortunes I had last time would also be reflected.

Usually when I come home, the Distraction wakes long enough to mutter some sentence like "How did you go?" and then falls asleep before I have even answered. I was ready for it and eyed the computer to get fired up and start winning some money back.

"Turn on the light" she said.

At 4am? Instantly, I knew what would be coming next. She handed me a little plastic rod and a piece of paper. The plastic rod was a pregnancy test, and the paper was the instructions for it. Right before me, parallel blue lines indicated what we hoped they would.

Ever since a drive to a poker room in January where I had a bit of a chat with a good friend about life and everything else. He is a bit older than me with three kids, but just as big a poker tragic as myself. He asked if the Distraction and I wanted kids, and I said of course we do, but we are really far in debt and can't afford it right now. And he said some words that I will never forget for as long as I live.

"You can wait and get your finances sorted out and that's great and all, but at the end of the day you can not give those 10 years back to your kids".

He is a big believer in Karma, and that everything will work itself out. It might be struggle street for a while, but things will work out in the end. That seems to work for me 99% of the time, things work out and you go with the flow. It all made sense to me.

That night I had a really good night, my best this year so far results wise and we called it quits early. I got home, woke up the wife and told her that even though we planned to start trying after we had a few more debts paid off, I don't want to wait.

After a few weeks, the Distraction had a doctors appointment and found out some of her immunisations were not up to date, and falling pregnant now while not really risky was not preferred. So she had a few needles and we were forced to wait. Once the recommended time was up, we became a slave to her body's natural cycle.

You know how in highschool you spent 99% of your time chasing tail? Well, this was like the exact opposite of that. It's a tough job, but some ones got to do it and it's probably for the best that it's me.

After our first month of properly trying, ovulation kits and all, we have "Little Ed" on the way, due April 2nd. We've already decided not to know the sex before birth and then we will name it when the two of us get a moment alone with "Little Ed".

My buddy from the drive in January is over the moon, and I've printed out all the emails we have been trading since I told him for The Distraction and to keep for prosperity.

It is just a tragedy that we have to wait so long, but both of us are over the moon and can't wait for "Little Ed" to join us, even though we are very very early on in the pregnancy.

Since then I have made a big withdrawal from the poker bankroll, and with the rest of it have started making some better plays and better results. All the poker losses just don't seem that important now, and the single worst poker night in my life was also the greatest so far. I'm sure it will be trumped come the new year.