Guest Article

The Wealthy Spirit: Luck, Loss and Gambling

Chellie Campbell, Financial Stress Reduction Expert

This is the story of an exciting night of poker!

I was playing my favorite game, Omaha High-Low, and things weren't going great. I would just miss making my hand or make a second-best hand and I was getting a little grumpy. But I said my affirmations under my breath, and just felt things would turn around.

My good friend, Debby, was in the game and she was going up and down, too, when this hand developed:

The board (community cards) was 8-10 of diamonds and 5 of clubs. She checked, I checked, and the man behind us bet. We called. The turn (the next card on the board) was the 8 of hearts which paired the board. We both checked and the man bet again. We called.

The final card was the 9 of diamonds. It was my magic card! I had the Jack-Queen of Diamonds in my hand and that made me a straight flush 8-9-10-J-Q of Diamonds! Debby checked to me, I checked because I thought the man would bet and I could raise. But he checked, too.

So Debby turns over the 7-6 of Diamonds and says, "Well, I have a straight flush!"

I was shocked because I hadn't even thought there was another straight flush out there.

My mouth dropped open and I said, "I have a straight flush, too!!" 

And we both started screaming, the other players at the table jumped up and cheered, because that meant we had won the "bad beat jackpot" of $30,400! The bad beat in our game was four 9s or better beaten, so we qualified 50% goes to the losing hand and 25% to the person that won the hand and the players at the table split the remaining 25%. 

Debby got $15,200, I got $7,600, and the other players got $1,500.

Happy winning for all!

Never forget that even when it seems like you're losing, a big win can come along and save the day.

Just so you know, I’ve won 31 jackpots over the last 20 years and 5 of those years were during Covid when I didn’t play at all. My total jackpot wins are $133,466.

I once won 3 jackpots in one week for a total of $14,450!

Maybe you’d like to change your mind and change your money? Think LUCKY!!

Chellie Campbell, Financial Stress Reduction Expert, is the author of bestselling books The Wealthy Spirit, Zero to Zillionaire, and From Worry to Wealthy: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Success Without the Stress. She has been treating Money Disorders like Spending Bulimia and Income Anorexia in her Financial Stress Reduction® Workshops for over 25 years and is still speaking, writing, and teaching workshops—now as Zoom classes and The Wealthy Spirit Group on Facebook—with participants from all over the world. Website: www.chellie.com.