A cyber poker widow, I sit quietly watching across the top of the book I’m supposed to be reading as my husband clicks his way into the online casino. He sits down at an empty box and types his name. He’s there. Ready to part with his hard-earned cyber-money. It’s not real money, it’s like when you played shops as a child and had plastic money – only this money doesn’t have that satisfying clack-clack sound that those coins made! Although he calls it his winnings, it wont ever be anything more than some numbers held in a web-site database.
The cards are dealt. A Chorus of “ty” appears in the dialogue box as the participants of the game exercise their mastery at the cyber code language thanking the non-existent dealer for their cards.
The pressure is intense as the game progresses. One by one, the players manage to lose money they never really possessed and leave the table. There are only two left now, which is just as well because it’s well past midnight. I’ve tried to get hubby to call it a night but he says he’s on a winning streak! A winning streak to what I ask, and receive a “you have no idea what you’re talking about!” look in return. I glance back down at my book.
“Hmmm!” sighs my husband twenty minutes later, “I need to think about this. Can you go and get me a glass of water hon?” Well sure, why don’t I take a bathroom break for you whilst I’m up, I mutter mutinously under my breath. I collect the water and bang the glass down on the desk letting some water escape. Husband is staring at the screen as if he can will his cards to change. “He’s gone all in.” husband speaks in wonder. “He’s played a cautious game, he checked at the flop, checked at the turn, and now he’s gone all in on the river! What’s he got?” “A better hand than you perhaps?” I ask, receiving that frosty stare again.
A sigh, a click and then it’s over. A straight beats my husband’s pair of kings and my personal Maverick takes his lady by the hand, and apologizes for losing so much! I’m just happy we can now go to bed, thankful that the $2000 lost tonight was nothing more than numbers on a screen!
Katie-Anne, 2005