A Requiem to a Friend Who Was a Champion in My Eyes- Part One

Let me tell you about my friend Paul, he just passed away a week ago, God rest his soul. He was just 44, too young yes, but terminal illnesses do not care whom they hit.

Paul was a strong poker player, and I've told him time and time again that he could have held his own even in WSOP, but in all the years this event has run, he just joined once. In that one, he missed the finals table by an inch. He was well-versed in the technicals, he was a good bluffer, and he could do mental calculations (odds and outs) easily. Oh, I almost forgot, he finished an engineering course but he realized that poker held more allure for him than that chosen career. (About money, he was earning tons of it when he was a practicing engineer, so it was not principally about money. Besides, he came from old money, and while he was not in Forbes' list, I am surely not in his financial station in life).

He was a kind-hearted man, there was this one time about 7 or 8 years ago. It was a small casino, and in a poker game, he dealt a man TWO consecutive bad beats involving giant pots. I mean giant, at the end of those two beats, the man was unable to come up with money, not that he did not bring it, but he admitted that he no longer had them. It was a friendly field, credit lines (private) were allowed. Well, Paul was kind-hearted, but on a matter of principle, he would not let it be. He forced the guy to sign a document that said that he (the debtor) would be given just a month to come up with the 10 grand (thereabouts) or else face the possibility of legal action. A month was a long time really, and I even thought that if I were in Paul's place, I would have given him a week, not a second longer.