Our Story
She says...
Gabe and I met in early 2005 through a friend of a friend of a friend of a
friend of a friend of a friend. Are you confused yet? That's the short version.
It all began when some friends and I founded the poker group in early 2004.
Shortly after we founded the group, Brad (known affectionately as "Laaaaaagle" to the poker group)
had lunch with a friend who introduced him to Clint.
As the lunch attendees were walking out to their cars, Clint mentioned the magic word..."poker."
Our obsession with poker was new
at this point, and we were eager to expand our poker group. Brad invited Clint to an upcoming tournament, and
he began attending our regular games shortly afterwards. Eventually, Clint invited some of us to his
monthly game. One of Clint's coworkers, Daniel, played softball
with Donovan who was friends
and coworkers with Gabe. Gabe earned an invitation to Clint's game about six months after I started attending
regularly. Hence, the aforementioned friend (Gabe) of a friend (Donovan) of a friend (Daniel) of a friend (Clint)
of a friend (mutual Laaaaaagle/Clint friend) of a friend (Laaaaaagle)! The first time that Gabe attended
Clint's game, I took great pleasure in stealing his blinds and giggling about it repeatedly.
I don't think that this earned me a new friend or a future husband at this point (or maybe it did??).
In Gabe's second game, he and Donovan mentioned an upcoming trip to Vegas in April 2005. This just
happened to be the same weekend that Brian and I (and my parents) were going! Amazingly enough, we managed
to get together a couple of times while we were in Vegas.
Gabe started playing regularly
with our group within a month after the Vegas trip. It wasn't until Gabe decided to attend one of our trips
that I really started to get to know him. He joined us for the Foxwoods trip in August 2005 and every trip
that we had afterwards. We started hanging out outside of the poker games with groups of friends at movies,
games nights, NTN trivia, dinners, etc. We found that we had a lot in common, from poker to books and more.
Eventually in late 2005, we went on our first date. The rest is history.
He says...
I met Kerry for the first time in early 2005 at Clint's monthly poker game. It was only my second live game of Texas Hold'em, and my play was tentative to say the very least. It didn't take long for the more experienced players to figure that out, Kerry in particular. She seemed to take great pleasure in raising/stealing my blinds at every opportunity, undoubtedly with hands as powerful as 7-2, 6-3, 9-4, etc. You might say she made a lasting impression since I told myself one thing when I left that night... "I'm never going to let that happen again." Of course she was so good-natured about it that I couldn't help but get some laughs out of it myself. We've had quite a few laughs about it since.
The second time I met Kerry was also at Clint's game. I was fully prepared to defend my blinds that night! I must have done a little better because I don't remember being abused nearly as much! At some point during the evening the topic of Vegas came up. It turned out that Donovan (who introduced me to poker...I guess I owe you one DV) and I were going to be in Vegas at the same time as Kerry and Brian. We agreed to try and meet when we were there, not that I would have bet on it. How many times have you said, "we should do something" to a practically complete stranger and actually followed through? As it turns out, we did meet up in Vegas. You can chalk it up to Kerry's friendly, outgoing nature. She sent email to Donovan and I just before the trip and we all managed to get together on a few occasions - once at the Trashy Castle (a.k.a. Excalibur) and once for a tournament at the Sahara. This was also the first time I met Kerry's mom. Who knew she was in line to be my future mother-in-law?
After the Vegas trip, I received my first invitation to the Poker Group's weekly game and began attending regularly soon thereafter. I attended the next two poker group trips, Foxwoods and Atlantic City, and also became a host for the weekly game. Through the group I got to know Kerry better and got to meet a lot of other cool people as well! I learned of her love for books and board games, and discovered those were just a few of the many things we had in common. In short, I thought she was one cool girl! Eventually we began hanging out with friends outside of poker, going out to dinner, seeing movies, playing trivia, etc. I was very happy to have made such a good friend and to have met so many good people in the process. Luckily for me though, my happiness did not end there. In late 2005 Kerry and I went on our first date, and better still, she agreed to be my wife in April of this year. I've never met anybody who could make me so happy, and I look forward to spending my life with her.