TOC Day 4: Epilogue

When I got to the airport, I found my flight had been delayed to 8:55 due to "ATC restrictions." Great. Slow-rolled again. Well, at least I have time to make some phone calls.

I was amused at the dichotomy between the Orleans and the rest of the outside world. At the Orleans, even at 5 AM, there were poker players walking around who noticed me and congratulated me. At the airport, no one has any idea who the hell I am. Back to complete anonymity. Which is not a complaint, just an observation. Different worlds.

I took my check from the Orleans (yeah, they took photos of me, with and without the hat, and then hugging the cash, doing other poses, or as my friend Eric put it, "OK, now look like every other picture that's been taken at a final table", but I got them to cut checks for me and my backers which is what took so long) to my local Schwab office and the guy at the counter didn't even blink at the amount. "Had a good time in Vegas, eh?" He wasn't a poker player so I explained briefly. He wanted to know how accurate Rounders was :-)

So, I've more or less settled back into my life as usual. The amount I won is nothing to sneeze at, and is more money than I have had at any point in my life so far, so while it is certainly a windfall, it's not quite life-changing yet. I'm not going to quit my job (if we do well and IPO and all that I could make 10x or more what I did in the TOC), and as I related in another post I was back at the Oaks yesterday playing $15-$30 hold'em and $9-$18 stud (and $60-limit lowball — gotta learn more about that game in case they add it to the TOC :-) )

As was quoted, my house does need a new roof, and the backyard has looked like a jungle since I bought the house a year ago and have done nothing to it since, so it probably needs to be landscaped before I can put in a deck and a hot tub. And my parents' 30th anniversary is coming up next year so I'd like to do something really nice for them. The rest gets invested (now there's high-stakes gambling...). And I do plan to play in the WSOP next year.

Thanks again to everyone for supporting me. I'm proud to have represented RGP (and the Bay Area). May you all enjoy the successes and riches that you deserve.

P.S. The hat is not for sale.

P.P.S. Anyone want to buy a horseshoe?

(Thanks to Chuck Humphrey for sending me the image file.)