Heads Up Dominance

Some of you might remember an old blog I did this summer about Eric Wolf.
If not, I'm going to repeat the Reader's Digest version of that story because it still cracks me up.
Eric is an OU student who occasionally drops by Riverwind to donate from his tuition fund into Addison's tuition fund.
During the month of June, when I took the family to Vegas for the World Series of Poker, Eric was there the whole time so we hung out quite a bit.
Early on, Eric managed to acquire a "flag," which is a $5,000 chip. He also had two or three $1,000 chips. Instead of cashing these out, he carried them in his pocket the whole trip and took every opportunity to show them to me.
One day, Eric called me and sounded like he was about to throw up. "Dude, I lost two of the $1,000 chips. They fell out of my pocket in a cab."
Knowing Eric, I knew what he did next, so I said, "I assume you took the flag over to the blackjack table to try to win back the $2k. How did that go?"
He said, "Let's just say I don't have the flag anymore, either."
During the month I spent in Vegas, I had one or two $1,000 chips in front of me for about 30 minutes. I got so nervous about losing them or someone stealing them that I quickly cashed them out. I can't imagine how sick I would have been had I actually lost them.

This weekend, I went to Durant for the World Series of Poker circuit event at the Choctaw casino. Five of us went, and I was rooming with Eric.
We kind of have this big brother-little brother thing going, which basically means I make fun of him all the time and he fires back with whatever new jokes are going around the frat houses at OU these days. But of course if he ever needed anything I'd be the first to help him out.
This weekend, all Eric needed was a little reality check. He won $3000 the first night we were there and made sure everyone in the group heard about it 5 or 6 times. And to his everlasting delight, I lost a pretty penny on that first night.
After the second night of our trip, the five of us decided to play a double-elimination, heads-up tournament at our hotel, for $100 per person. Up against a roomful of professionals, Eric didn't stand a chance. He got last place, and I ended up winning the tournament.
Despite being up $3000 for the trip, Eric refused to surrender his $100 to me, probably because he knew I was going to have it framed and hung in my living room.
The other guys also like stirring Eric up, so they suggested we play a double-or-nothing match for the $100. He agreed, and five minutes later I had another $100. I didn't really want the stakes raised any higher than that, but I agreed to play Eric for another $100. He lasted a little longer at this one, probably nine minutes, before another decisive victory. Finally he had the good sense to wave the white flag and call it a night after four consecutive losses (two in the tournament, two afterward).
Since he was smart enough to quit, Eric still managed to show a nice profit for the weekend. And since Eric was smart enough to quit, I still finished the weekend in the red. But dominating a heads-up match against my "little brother" almost made it worth it.