Your Luck is Not Determined by the Turn of a Card and Real Men Wear Pink!
Do you know how incredibly lucky you really are?
So you say, “but Dusty, my ace king never seems to hold up when I get it in against ace jack. My pre flop aces always get cracked. I’ve been buying lottery tickets for years and have never hit it big and my horse just never seems to come in.” But if you really think about your gift of human life, your ability to love and be loved, I think you’ll realize just how lucky you really are.
Of all the other living organisms on earth, you were born a human child, and that’s not even considering other life lying beyond our realm of the universe. I mean really – think about it for a moment - try to contemplate the odds of you being born a human rather than a fire ant, a blade of grass, or a parasite living your life stuck to the side of a fish. Well the odds of this are simply too enormous even to ponder. So I guess we’ve all hit a sort of ‘lottery’ before we even knew we wanted to be lucky!
I suppose this is an egoic way of thinking in that it assumes being human is somehow superior to being the fire ant, the blade of grass or the petite little parasite living its modest life stuck to the side of that ill-fated fish. But, if you do feel lucky to not have been born into the parasitic family, you may wish to read on.
The other night I made the final table of a five dollar re-buy. I was third from the bottom in chips on the button with the second hand dealt at this final table. I had around twenty big blinds when the player under the gun made a minimum raise. The table folded around to me and I pushed all in. It seemed I had gotten lucky being dealt a pair of kings pre-flop. Both blinds fold and expecting the under the gun player to call his big hand or fold his trash, to my delight, with little thought he calls with his ace four off suit. I get that sick feeling in my gut as the ace drops on the flop and I’m all done by the river. I was very disappointed with all my bad luck of late. This would have been a much needed $7,000 plus payout had I taken first place, and of course, when I make a final table I expect to take first place, barring bad luck that is.
Feeling disheartened and dejected, I shut down the PC and walked out into the living room where I told my non-poker playing wife about yet another episode of bad luck. She consoled me and asked me if I played well. I replied yes I played the entire tourney at my highest level and she said “that’s all that really matters isn’t it” and gave me a hug. I immediately realized that I am far luckier than I sometimes give myself credit for. To have the support, understanding and compassion of such an incredible individual as my beautiful wife.
You see friends, my wife is today recovering from her second surgery in three weeks. This one was a minor, yet painful surgery to install a port that leads from her right chest wall through an artery going toward her heart. I’m told this will mix her medications better and will avoid her having to constantly get stuck with needles and avoid the blowing out of the veins in her hand, wrist and arm. A few weeks ago she had a total hysterectomy and pathology reports found metastasized breast cancer in her ovaries, uterus and cervix. It is also metastasized to her bones. She began treatment two years ago after a radical modified mastectomy taking her left breast and 47 lymph nodes. She then underwent chemotherapy and radiation. We hoped for the best but recent scans showed new problems. Many tears have been shed, much anger has been felt. But through it all, she still smiles, laughs, loves and lives life to the fullest. She is compassionate and caring and always puts the interests of others before her own. I learn a little more about life from her each and everyday and I admire her in every way. Her body has become a road map of battle scars and yet she is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
Ah my friends, I am truly a lucky man to be such a part of Susan’s life. Now you may say, “well it doesn’t sound like Susan is so lucky”! But you would be wrong. Although it was very unlucky that she contracted a type of cancer known as lobular breast cancer, easily missed in yearly mammograms and in her case missed each year for at least five years, the fact is, there is no single individual on this planet who is not terminal and there never has been.
Susan will soon begin her treatment and she will again get the upper hand on this dreaded disease. She is very lucky to live in this time of modern medicine when a cure may be found at any time as she continues her battle. She is indeed lucky to have so many loving and caring friends who pray for her, sending good will and the best intentions for her well being. She is lucky to have me. That’s right; I will take credit for the love and care I give to her, and the loving thoughts I feel for her, as she knows I will always be at her side and will always have her best interests in my heart. She is lucky to know her God that she counts on to carry her through times that can seem so treacherous and sometimes unbearable. She is lucky to have the kind of attitude that will not allow luck to determine the outcome of her life as she will not blind out of life and intends to fight until she defeats her stealthy opponent.
One hundred years from now none of our lives will still be in existence, but we will have been truly lucky to have lived them. Some of us will have been extremely lucky enough to have shared our lives with someone as incredible and extraordinary as my girl Sue. So please my friends, appreciate the luck you are given, accept the bad with the good and count your blessings each and every moment… and don’t ever forget…your luck is not determined by the turn of a card and indeed poker truly is just a game.
So guys, man-up, take a night off, put on your best pink shirt and take your girl out for a nice dinner…she deserves it!
By Mark McCann, AKA on PokerStars as OlDustyAces, AKA on FullTilt as Ol_Dusty
