Up Your Ante

 

Know When To Hold 'Em

Diego Saavedra spoke seven languages fluently, Spanish, English, French, German, Greek, Japanese, and Texas Hold’em. The medical examiner stated Diego was already dead when someone pinned a Queen of Hearts playing card and a note to his chest with an ice pick; that’s why no bleeding. The note read: Nobody is that lucky, or that good. 

The Table

The world’s poker aficionados have come to know the faces and names that permeate all of the major poker tourneys. Their feats at the table become the stuff of legend, and the cream of the crop are inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. In 2010 the winner of the World Series of Poker took home a record 8.9 million dollars, for a $5,200 buy-in. At the last table stakes game that Diego sat in on, the buy-in was five-million apiece for each of the eight players. This game wasn’t on the Poker-TV vanity circuit, it was a real-life, private game between some of our planet's wealthiest individuals. These men and women are not gamblers, they are poker players. To them, the money won or lost meant nothing, the power of the win is everything. 

The Island Wasn't Deserted

I’m Peter Pansy, Private Eye. In another time, Diego had been my classmate and good friend at Yale. His father called from Barcelona apprising me of Diego’s death, and asked me to meet him on Saba (pronounced SAY-bah), the five-square-mile island of the Netherlands Antilles where his son had been murdered. He explained, “There are ten miles of paved road, the population is fourteen hundred or so, they have two new police cars, and no real experience with violent crime. Peter, I must know who did this to my Diego.  Por favor, you will help me, yes?”

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