A Chip & a Chair
Rubicube Gaming Private Limited
For those seeking thrill & chill using skill
"As long as I have a chip and a chair, I'm still alive in this event."
Poker teaches us a lot of things and one of the things that has always stuck with me is the fact that you may be down but you are never out!
The term "chip and a chair" means that as long as you have a single chip and a seat at the table in a tournament, you can still come back and are not dead yet.
The term is thought to have originated from the 1982 World Series of Poker main event, which was won by Jack "Treetop" Straus.
Straus was all but eliminated from the main event after losing a sizable pot, only to discover that he still had a $500 chip hidden under a napkin (that's how the folklore goes, anyways). Straus didn't declare himself all-in, so he was allowed to continue playing with his single $500 chip.
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Straus ended up going on a magical run, and eventually went on to ship the main event, despite the fact that he was certain that he had been almost eliminated.
Jack's epic comeback in the 1982 World Series of Poker main event is proof positive that you should never give up in a poker tournament, even if you are down to hardly any chips. You just never know what could happen. Straus ended up winning $520,000 in the 1982 World Series of Poker main event (almost $1.6 Mn in today's worth).
There are a lot of times in life when we feel down and out. It is in these times that the chip and a chair story gives inspiration and make us believe that statistically you are never 100% out in life!
A very important caveat - while this happens in poker (and life) and is very motivating and inspirational, it is still a very rare occurance. A good amout of times the chip and chair wont last. But then, what we need to remember is that its only one tournament that we have busted out of. Life has many more tournaments for us and like Poker if we follow the process right consistently, the results will be in our favour in the long run. So if over, one has to pick oneself up and move on to the next tournament :)