21 Aug
(Photo: Cardplayer.com)
Part-time poker player and dealer John Langevin has had a few paydays at the tables over the years, but his most recent couldn’t have been more timely – his $22,993 scoop at the 2017 Card Player Poker Tour Scarlet Pearl stop giving him the opportunity to pay the huge medical bills his mother Josephine faces as she battles a progressive lung disease.
The Pensacola News Journal describes how Josephine ‘was just ending a hospital stay Friday when her son, John, said he was going away. He didn’t tell her where he was going and only described it as “down the road,” a not-quite-truth he told to shield his mom from potential disappointment if he came back empty-handed.’
John, who describes poker as “not a card game, it’s a people game”, had decided to play the $360 buy-in event along with 536 others, and found himself mid-stacked on the second and final day of play.
“I didn’t want to make it a big thing, then I get eliminated in the first hour then come back home, so I just casually went over there and played,” he explained.
After fighting his way to the final table, he says: “I sat down, I was totally comfortable, I was in my zone,” although he decided not to push his luck when down to the final three, despite being the chip-leader.
“Both of them were really tough opponents so I didn’t feel like playing for another seven hours and getting a massive migraine trying to figure these two people out, and it could’ve gone either way,” he told Pnj.com – opting instead for a 3-way chop, giving him $22,993 and the tournament trophy.
It’s not John’s biggest poker score, having previously won the 2014 Spring Break Poker Classic in Biloxi for a $51,894 payday – but it might just be his most important, paying the medical bills for his mother’s illness a weight off both their minds.
“They kept telling me to quit smoking a long time ago but I didn’t listen, so I got what I deserved I guess,” said Josephine, who has now quit smoking and changed her diet as she battles the disease.
