I talked to my wife before last night’s home game got under way. She had forgotten I was playing poker, so I offered to make her feel better:

Me: I’ll give you half of my winnings.

Her: I want 70%.

Me: How about 51%?

Her: You’re not a nice husband!

Me: Okay, if I make $80 you can have 70%, otherwise just 50.

Her: Ok.

$80 would mean quintupling up, so I figured it was unlikely. Then one of the guys poked his head out and asked if I was okay with doubling the stakes. Oops.

I ended the night with about 4.5x the buyin and texted my wife the results.

Me: On my way. Up 143.50

Her: Thank you!! I will get 100.45 from you!! 😉

The problem with this structure, of course, is that once I triple my buy-in, I’m now playing to either lose a few bucks or make over four and a third times the buy-in. Anything in-between loses me money.

I think I’ll take a page from the IRS and introduce brackets to my next deal.