Back in my days at the Hustler, Sam would ask me to back him against a producer in a heads-up limit hold-em match. Although he lost the first time, he pounded him over the next few matches. The match was over when he was stiffed for $5k. A few years went by and now over at the Bicycle Casino, a pretty, petite, young Chinese girl challenged me to play heads-up limit hold-em. I struggled against her over a few matches and was a small loser to her. Raising the white flag, I told her there was someone else she could play if she wanted. I warned Sam that her husband had written the program for a heads-up bot but Sam said he would give her a shot. He made it seem easy by beating her in 3 straight matches for about $27k.

Several years went by before I played with Sam again. This time it was at the Hollywood Park Casino. On Nov. 15^th 2014, I had organized a blood draw for the PULS Cardiac Test. Sam walked I told Sam that if you have normal or even low cholesterol, you had a 50% chance of a heart attack. If you passed a stress test with flying colors, you still had a 40% chance of a heart attack. This test will give you your risk of a heart attack with 97-98 % accuracy for 5 years, I said. Sam said, “You know Yosh, my heart is healthier than most. I exercise regularly and go for long hikes.” You really don’t know without this test, I replied but tragically I wasn’t convincing enough. 3 months later Sam suffered a heart attack at his gym and by the time they were able to resuscitate him it was too late. He has been in a coma as of this writing Sept. 11, 2015. Since 80% of heart attacks are preventable, I can only wonder if only…