All In For A Friend
All In For A Friend
To the Editor:
On Saturday night a group of about 22 guys got together for an enjoyable night of cards. It was a familiar scene with plush tables, colorful chips, and the finest assortment of poker faces that can be found in Newtown. The first hand of this marathon No Limit Texas Hold âem tournament was dealt at about 5:45 pm and the game carried on strong until the last river card was turned over well past midnight. The event had all the important ingredients: good food, bad bluffs, and plenty of manly chatter. Some might say that, âIt doesnât get any better than this.â
Oh, but it did, because on this night every single man left my house a winner. True, only one player got to don the glittering gold-plated championship poker bracelet, but every single participant was able to contribute to the common goal of helping out a family confronted by a daunting challenge. In truly classy fashion, all of our tournament winners chose to donate their winnings to our 6â9â guest of honor, Ken Ayles, and his wonderful young family.
Ken is presently battling brain cancer with the most positive attitude Iâve ever seen. Amidst a daily battery of radiation therapy, he faces a course of chemotherapy coming very soon. If heâs overwhelmed by all this, you sure couldnât tell by talking to him, as heâs determined to beat the odds. His inspirational outlook on his own condition has been ample motivation for our extended neighborhood to help the Ayles family during this difficult time.
The benefit poker tournament was a huge success both emotionally and financially. Between tournament proceeds and outside donations our little event raised over $2,000 for the Ayles family. Hopefully this total is still growing. This combined with a recent, tremendously successful neighborhood tag sale brought our benefit total over $10,000. Iâm sure that I share my neighborsâ sentiments when I say that we all feel blessed to live in such a loving and generous community.
I want to thank everyone involved in our latest event. It was truly a group effort of friends, neighbors, and local businesses. Special thanks go out to the Newtown Deli. Their delicious six-foot Italian sub and salads kept us all very satisfied through a long night of poker.
So in conclusion, Saturday night was a familiar scene with a unique result; and while none of us poker amateurs will likely strike it rich in next yearâs World Series of Poker, we can all be certain of one thing: we can all feel like a champ when we push our chips all in for a friend.
Tom Conrod
14 Quarry Ridge Road, Sandy Hook                        October 28, 2008