Impressions

I was in this bar last week and I ran into this guy I've met a couple of times. I swear I didn't even bring poker up, but he was talking about how addicted he was to his Playstation poker game (not sure which one).

Turns out, this guy had called in sick to work before because he had stayed up all night playing poker for fake money.

"Dude, I got up to like 2 billion in chips," he said.

"Man, if you're missing work in a fake money game, that's pretty sad," I said.

A couple of days later, some co-workers were talking about gambling. Most of them seemed to think that poker -- like all gambling -- is an unwinnable game. I spouted off some line about how you aren't playing against the house in poker, but mostly I kept my mouth shut.

Then, riding in a car with a photographer to an assignment, he asked how much I expect to make in Vegas. I told him it's a kind of pointless venture to anticipate how much money you're going to make because it's impossible to know. I gave him the old saying about how poker is all luck in the short run and all skill in the long run.

"I don't think I could deal with that," he said. "It seems to me like it's all luck all the time."

Sometimes I want to yell, "How bout these Benjamins."

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I'm in the San Francisco airport now waiting for my connecting flight to Vegas. Almost there!