So I always thought alcohol blackouts were BS

[Peyton]

I am 40 years old and I've been helladrunk lots of times. I'm not a regular drinker but occasionally when I do drink I will drink way too much, even to the point of getting very sick.

That being said, I have never forgotten anything that happened while I was drunk. Not a single thing. Sometimes details have been a little hazy, but I always had a memory.

I thought "blackouts" were a bogus story that college girls used after they got trashed and ended up sleeping with half a fraternity. "Oh yeah I blacked out, I just don't remember what I did".

Well, now I know.........blackouts are very real.

On Friday night, I went to play poker with 4 friends and I decided to take a bottle of rum with me that I won in Jamaica a couple of years ago instead of drinking beer. I like to take shots to get a buzz on because beer just makes me feel too full before I get a good buzz on.

Well I'll tell you, once I got to about my 3rd shot, they started going down a lot easier and more frequently and I think my decision making regarding the rate of my shots deteriorated quickly.

Strangely enough, my decision making on the card table was still great. I was getting crappy cards and folding them on most every hand.

Anyway, about an hour in, I won my first hand when I went all in with an open ended straight draw and two over cards after the flop. About 4 or 5 hands later (I think), I looked at my hole cards and saw a pair of bullets. I think the time was probably about 8:45pm, and all 5 members of the game were still in. By now, I am pretty damn drunk, but still functioning somewhat.

The next thing I knew my wife was yelling at me to wake up because she was there to take me home. I was lying on the bathroom floor and like any drunk would do, I stumbled to my feet and said "but I'm plaaaayin gooooood".

So on the way home I asked my extremely pissed off wife what time it was and she said "it's 12:30 am". I was completely obliterated and went straight to bed to sleep it off.

When I woke up in the morning, I apologized to my wife and started telling my daughter how I messed up my chance to win at poker night by getting too drunk and getting sick. We were having a good laugh about it.

A little while later, I was going to ride to the store, so I reached in the pockets of the jeans I had been wearing the night before to get my license, and I pullled out $50 that was not supposed to be there. I immediately said to my wife, "OMG, not only did i get totally obliterated and sick at Chris's house, I stole the fucking prize money somehow". She replied that she thought I had won it.

I said "No way. Last thing I remember I had only won 1 hand and every single person was still in the tournament. I think I got sick right after that and fell asleep on the bathroom floor".

She said "I think you won that money."

I sent an e-mail to the host telling him that I believed that I had stolen the money in my drunken stupor and to please tell me who was suppose to have it, but a little while later we went over to his house to get my car.

When he answered the door, he was laughing at me a bit and I said "Dude, I have the prize money, I am sorry dude, I don't know how that happened."

He responded "No dude, you won it". I told him the last thing I remembered was looking at a pair of aces and that I didn't even remember if I won with the aces.

He told me I did not win with the aces, that he had called my all in with pocket 7s and caught a 7 and that I had cursed him out for winning with only an 18% chance.

Then he told me that I had actually knocked out every single member of the poker tournament after that, despite the fact that at the time I blacked out, I had only won a single hand of poker all night. He said a while later I had knocked out two people by going all in with 77 against AJ and AK and miraculously catching the third 7 on the river.

I told him "even though I was fucked out of my mind and I can't remember it, I was still favored there with 77".

I thought if Chris told me what happened, I would remember it, but nothing. From the moment I looked at those aces to the time my wife woke me up, I have total amnesia. Freaking wierd feeling man.

So the good thing is, that since I won, at the next tournament when they are making fun of me and showing me pictures of myself with my head in the toilet, I can still tell them "well how incredibly fucking bad must you be at poker to have lost to me?"

The bad thing is.....I couldn't enjoy winning because I don't remember doing it.

The moral of the story is..........alcohol blackouts are real................and no limit holdem really is a game of luck.