Gambling Gambler

The universe works in weird ways. 

Friday 8 p.m. I walk into my apartment after a 12 hour day in the office. As I set my keys down on the counter I receive a text message. Its Ralph. A freshly divorced man in his early thirties. He’s awonderfully nice person whom met at the pool table in my apartment complex. 

“Do you want to play some pool?” He says. 

“No.” Is what I wanted to say. 

exhausted from my work week and filled with the usual amount of social anxiety I experience when someone asks me to dedicate any amount of time to them. That was the instinctual answer. No. However that wasn't the answer I gave. Unable to turn down a game of pool, I responded enthusiastically, and agreed to play with him. I walk to the tables and wait for his arrival. 

I shoot while I wait. 

Naturally. 

Ralph walks up the stair with a big smile on his face. 

“Jason! How’s it going?” he asks. 

We shake hands and I answer.

“good! How are you?” 

He’s doing 'good' as well. I notice a silver brief case in his hands. He sees me look at it. 

“I brought my poker set in case we wanted to play Texas Hold’em. Do you play?” 

“I’ve played in the past.” I say. 

“Maybe we can find some people to play with.” 

“yeah.” I hesitantly respond. 

all I could think about was, how much more time am I going to have to dedicate to this situation? I think to myself “I’ll figure a way out of this after a few games of pool.” 

We shoot a couple games. I win them. Then Ralph walks away. Down the stairs he came up. I hear him talking to someone at the bottom. He climbs the stairs again, this time with 4 other young men. closer to me in age. 

24-26 I’m assuming. 

I didn't ask their age. 

Just their name’s. 

As I shook each of their hands all I could think was 

“God Damn it. Am I really about to sit here all night and play cards with these guys?” Im sure they are all great people. Again, my unwillingness to participate has nothing to do with the people involved and everything to do with me and my own insecurities.  

They each introduce themselves to me. 

Ian, 

Mason, 

Alex, 

and… 

Gator. 

Yeah. Gator. 

I Thought to myself “Gator? What mother in her right mind would name her child Gator?” 

Then I thought “Oh, it was probably his dad that chose his name.. Duh.” 

We all sit down around a table.

The question is asked “How much is the buy in?” 

“Shit. We’er playing for money?” I thought to myself. “I really don't want to play for money.”

“Five Dollars?” someone suggests. 

Everyone agrees, starts taking out their cash and lying it on the table. Hesitantly I do the same. We divvy up chips and determine their values, deal the cards and start playing. I loose a few hands and keep thinking “Great I'm going to loose five dollars.” 

Eventually I catch a break. A straight on the river. The rush was exhilarating. I scoop in a huge pot. Probably ten dollars worth of chips!

I think to myself “This is great! I can get used to this!” 

(Happiness in favorable situations. I’m working on it. okay?) 

Anyways I win a hand. and a lot of chips. we play a little longer and I loose a few more hands but I also win a few. I’m up chips. Eventually everyone gets bored of the game. and we decide to call it and cash out with what we have. I walk away with ten dollars. I felt good. I felt like gambling could potentially be a viable way of earning an income… It’s a slippery slope.

Every one says their good-bye’s and their nice-to-meet-you’s and we part ways. Ralph and I walk back to our apartment’s. He lives on the same floor as I do. Right around the corner actually. Its 11 p.m. at this point. before I go inside ralph asks me if I want to continue hanging out? 

I say “I’m tired. I think I'm done for the night.”

 However, I wasn't done for the night. You see, Ralph wanted to go hit golf balls at this fancy driving range called Top Golf, but I wanted to play more pool. It’s what I wanted to do from the beginning of the night. I wanted to go to a bar for an hour or so, shoot pool, come home and get a good night sleep. I still hadn't done that. and I wasn't going to let these schedule changes effect my plans. I took a shower and then went out. Sorry Ralph.

There’s a bar called Johnny’s a few blocks from my apartment. 4 decent tables and a good scene with decent competition. I get there and say hi to the regulars. eventually get on the table and play a few good games. I end up getting introduced to man named Robbin. He racks them up and asks if I want to play for a shot. (Yeah more gambling.) 

I say “I don't drink.” 

He says “We’ve got to play for something. How about if you win I’ll get you a cup of water.” 

I say “fine.” 

I break. and win. 

He shakes my hand and says “I’ll go get you your water.” 

The next person steps up to play. A guy named Miko. Ive met him before and played with him a few times. He’s a good player and nice guy but always wants to bet on the game. He says its because he's Russian. I think its because he has problem. 

“What are we betting?” he asks.

“Classic.” Think to myself. 

Normally I would do all I could to play the game for fun and not money, but tonight I felt good. With five more dollars in my pocket than I started the day with, I thought why not? Like I said, its slippery slope.

I spit out a number “A dollar?” 

He agrees to the terms and racks the balls up. 

Robbin returns with my water. I thank him and take a gulp. 

I break, and play a good game but Miko eventually takes the cake, and my dollar. He beats me, and I’m reminded why I shouldn't gamble. We shake hands and I walk away from the table. I head towards the door. I’m just going to go home. I realize every win I’ve had tonight was luck. and that any chance I had of demonstrating skill was lost about 6 hours ago. (before the exhaustion hit) 

As I make my way to the door I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see Robbin. He has takin control of a table and asks if I want to play. Unable to turn down a game of pool I agree. I put my quarters in the table and rack up the balls. He breaks and beats me. 

He says “lets play again!”

I put more quarters in the table and re rack the balls. again he beats me. 

“another one!” He says.  

I say “I'm out of quarters.”

He pulls 75 cents out of his pocket and throws it on the table. 

“Rack ‘em up!” he says. 

I say “I don’t know man Im really tired. I don't know if I want to play another.” 

but Robbin’s persistent. “come on man, one more.” 

“Nah man, Im playing poorly. I just want to go home and go to bed.” 

“One more!” he says. 

“Fine. alright one more.” I respond. 

I rack the balls and the lucky bastard hits the 8 ball in on the break. 

(For those that don't play pool, if you hit the 8 ball in on the break it’s an automatic win.)

“Shit.” I say. “Now I’m really done. I should have left an hour ago!” 

“No another!” Robbin yells. as he throws more quarter on the table. 

“Dude I dont want to play another. you just want to keep beating me!” 

“Last one! They are about to close. lets get one more in!” 

“Ughh.. Fine.” I rack them again. and again he beats me. 

At this point I never want to play another game of pool again. (not really) 

The bar tender walks by and says “finish your drinks we’re closing.”

Robbin and I make our way to the door. on our way out he tells me about his son, Robbin the third. He’s nine years old and started a foundation called Kids Speak For Parks. He tells me about how his son is fighting for the preservation of a bunch of national monuments all across the country. They came from Hawaii and are making their way across the united states fighting for this cause. He shows me the Huffington Post article about it. As cool and impressive as it all was all I wanted to do was go home. The bar was closed. Everybody had left and his stories were becoming redundant. (He was a little drunk). I started walking back to my bike. he walks with me. his hotel was across the street. 

We shake hands and I say “It was nice meeting you.” 

“same to you.” He says. 

I get on my motorcycle and ride home. its about 2:30 a.m. I pull up to the parking garage of my building, and see two people laying on the ground. I slowly pull up to them. One sits up and puts her hand out signaling me to stop. So I do. She waves at me to come closer. I inch forward on my bike and turn it off. 

She asks “Do you live here?”

I say “yes. do you?” 

“No. I’m from Atlanta. Our Uber dropped us off here but we aren't staying here. I just want to go home.” She drunkenly says. 

I laugh and ask where they are staying. 

“Murray.” she says. 

Now, I live on the north side of salt lake city. 200n. Their hotel was on 4927s. thats 10 miles away from where the Uber dropped them off. 

I say “Murray!? you guys are a long way from Murray!” 

she groans and lays back down. “I cant get the Uber to come get us!” 

As she says that a car pulls up and the driver asks if her name is Alex. 

She says “No.” 

the car drives away. Alex’s Uber was here. 

The girl on the ground says “Fuck it, I’ll just walk home.” 

I tell her “You can’t walk home it will take you hours to get there. I’ll give you guys a ride. Let me go get my car. Don't move.” 

I ride into the garage, park my bike, and drive my car down to pick them up. they both crawl in. The girl who's done most of the talking gets in the front seat, the quiet one gets in the back. I ask their name’s. The girl in the back tells me her name is Rebecca. 

“What’s your name?” I ask the girl in the front. 

“huh?” 

“Whats your name?” 

With out opening her eyes or lifting her head from the seat she says “Maci.” 

I say “alright Maci, where are we going?” 

She hands me her phone. The address is typed into the uber app. I start heading towards it. 

“alright Maci listen. Are you listening? Im happy to help you but I do not want to clean throw up out of my car. If you start to feel sick tell me to pull over. This is not the situation to be prideful in. we clear.” 

“mhm” she mumbles. 

Two minutes down the road I feel Maci grab my arm. I look over at her. She waves me over to the side of the road. she opens the door and releases half of the nights drinking, and a little bit of dinner onto the side of state street. 

She comes back into the car and says “I’m good.” 

I continue driving. A few more miles pass and I feel the death grip on my arm again. Without asking I pull over. The other half of the drinks and the rest of dinner are brought into the world. 

Maci comes back in and says “I want to go home” 

“We’re going Maci. We’re almost there.” 

“how long?”she asks. 

“Ten minutes.” I tell her. 

“I want to go home.” 

“I know.” 

We get to their hotel. 

They get out

say thank you

and go inside. 

I drive home. 

I tell this story, in this way, because I don't think the thing to focus on is me giving a couple drunk girls a ride home. I think the thing to focus on is how the universe worked tonight. the coincidences that kept me from sticking to my schedule, and where they brought me. If I didn't play pool with ralph I would have never sat with Gator and the boys for a game of Texas Hold’em. If I had made it to Johnny’s earlier I probably would have been leaving as Robbin was walking in. He would have just been some one I said excuse me to as I walked out the door. I would have never heard about his son or the cause he was fighting for and I certainly would have never met Maci and Rebecca. If I stuck to my plan they would probably have been getting dropped off in front of my apartment as was entering my second REM cycle. Which means they probably would have been walking home that night. 

The universe works in weird ways.

Its just one big gamble. 

Sometimes you lose

But sometimes you win. 

I think I can chalk tonight up as a win.