Having two kids is never easy, especially in this crazy lifestyle we lead. There is virtually no structure to everyday life. In January, we decided to sit down and try to create some kind of daily schedule to try and make things less hectic. After we worked it out, I got an IM telling me to talk Trevor out of the bet he'd made. I had no idea about it so I heard all of the details and thought "ohhhh great, this should be fun." Trevor made a bet that he could play 60,000 hands of heads up in one month which was twice the amount of hands he had ever played. My opinion was that it was a terrible idea, particularly because we had finally set up a schedule and it was the first month we were going to try to live with a structure but I told him that if that's what he really wanted to do, than he should go for it but if he lost I was going to hurt him :). During the month, he did really well balancing everything and sticking to the schedule despite online poker slowing down a bit and having Wednesdays completely off.
At the end of the month, he was slightly behind schedule on the amount of hands and he was supposed to play a tournament at the Borgata. It started on January 30th and if all went well, it would be 5 days long total. He made it through day 1 so the tournament would resume on February 1st since the 31st was day 1b. Only the 31st remained to close out the bet so he had his work cut out for him. The tournament started at 11 am and went until probably about 1 am on Sunday, then he drove an hour home, and woke up the next morning and had to finish playing 3,700 hands to ensure he won the bet. By the time he finished, the day was gone and he needed to be back at the Borgata at 11 am for day 2 of the tournament. After 5 straight days of nothing but playing poker from morning until late at night, he made the final table.
I scrambled to find someone to watch the girls so I could go down with him and watch. The chances of finding someone was pretty slim and I had pretty much given up on the idea when I got am IM from Casey. He was flying in for the FT and offered to bring his girlfriend Caitlin with him to watch the girls. We booked a room at the Borgata and the next day, headed down with the girls to meet up with Casey, Caitlin, and Ken who also flew in to watch. Trevor headed off to play while I got the girls situated and made sure Ava was comfortable with Caitlin since she can be a little shy sometimes. Caitlin was instantly great with both girls and I felt at ease leaving them with her regardless of the fact that I had just met her (I would like to point out that Casey told me all about her educational background and current work - she works with kids all day everyday and I know Casey well enough that I trust his opinion and judgement). Throughout the day, I received phone calls, texts, and messages and comments on Facebook all to wish Trevor well and get updates. People came out of the woodwork just to say good luck and follow along. It was an exhilarating experience to watch Trevor go so far in such a big tournament. I've watched him play in many tournaments and watched quite a few final tables, but this was only the second time I've seen him in person make it that deep in the tournament. When it was down to seven players, he was guaranteed the most money he'd ever won in a tournament and when it was down to six, he was guaranteed his first six figure score, something he wanted so badly. I was so proud of him and incredibly happy for him the entire time.
Going into the dinner break, Trevor had a ton of chips. We headed to dinner at Bobby Flay (Casey lost CCR for anyone keeping score) and immediately after dinner, I packed up the girls and drove the hour home to drop the girls off at my Mom's house and then turned right back again to drive the hour back down to the tournament. It was so nerve wracking because when I was about to leave my Mom's house, Trevor was short on chips. I really wanted to get back in time to finish watching him play but obviously did not want a speeding ticket so I quickly but carefully made it back down in plenty of time. The tournament moved incredibly slow because most people at the table were afraid to get knocked out so they wouldn't play hands. The tournament director said it was the longest final table in Borgata history. Around 1 am, after playing poker for countless hours and days on end, Trevor got knocked out in 3rd. He played his heart out and the outpouring of support from all around was amazing. It seemed like the world stopped to watch it all play out - obviously not the WHOLE world but OUR world stopped. I was truly blown away by the poker forum who all seemed glued to their computers watching and waiting and rooting him on. The overall experience was something like never before and it was really a great moment in our lives that will not soon be forgotten.
Trevor was happy with how he played and although he obviously really wanted to win, he was not down on himself at all and was in great spirits and ready to celebrate. We all went to his favorite little bar in Atlantic City, Ducktown. He instructed everyone to pick an appetizer they wanted so after we finished ordering and our food arrived, our table looked like this:
And this isn't everything. There was a ridiculous amount of appetizers on the table but we all laughed and had a great time and Ken had the great honor of making the waitress want to throw up thanks to his talk about his dog and peanut butter but that's a gross story for another time. We finally left Atlantic City to head home around 4 am and both Trevor and Ken passed out on the ride. The next day, we went out to lunch at Pizzeria Uno before Ken had to get to the airport.
There was a nice sense of calmness after all was said and done instead of the chaos we'd been living just days before. Since then, things are still hectic and time never slows down but there hasn't been quite as much poker played. We went to Florida in February for a tournament and vacation and next week we're headed to the Dominican for another tournament but this time, the girls are staying home. The decision to go was very last minute and rather than rush to get passports for both kids, we arranged for them to stay with my Mom for the week and we're going to use the trip mostly as the relaxing honeymoon we never really took. I love my girls more than I could ever possibly express and I'm going to miss them like crazy while we're away, but I'm looking forward to relaxing on the beach with my husband, just the two of us.
I want to thank everyone again for all of the support for Trevor, it really meant the world to both of us. I'll be posting a blog about our Florida trip and then I'll finally be caught up to present day. Thanks for reading!
