The SNP Story: Behind the Bad Beats

They had a forum; they had a gift exchange; they had a few cryptic threads. In 2007, they were 25% of P1T. Now their forum is dead; their numbers may be decimating, leaving SNP =( , so what, you ask, is (was?) exactly SNP?  We now bring you the full story.

SNP, Sunday Night Poker, consists of a small group of Khmer friends who get together every Sunday somewhere in Anytown, USA to play 4 to 5 hours of a form of Poker called Texas Hold Em. The play is tournament style where every player puts in 2 dollars for every game, and the last man standing takes the whole pot. Yeah, some of you may have heard of this game, and some of you may have lost your shirts in this game, but that's not what this story is about. On the eve of 2007, SNP became official when SNP t-shirts were made and handed out to members. "The shirts were awesome," said _______, a faithful SNPer, "they had real sleeves and everything."

On January 14, 2007, a month after the T-Shirts, the SNP Charity Box was established. The rule for the box was simple: 20% of every SNP pot goes into the charity box, the sum of which was to be donated to a Cambodian charity of choice at the end of one year. "We figured, if we're going to be gambling our Sundays away, we'd have something to show for it at the end of the year," explained ______, another faithful SNPer. The box also signed up three lifetime sponsors, who pledged to match a grand total of 40% of SNP charity money.

On Thanksgiving of 2007, the box was open amidst a hoopla of turkey and apple cider. The members gathered and counted the charity loot which, combined with the matching donors' portions, came to $506.* $100 of the money has been donated to a school well in Prey Torteung, Battambang. The remaining will be donated to the Cambodian Children's Fund, a charity that was brought to SNPer's attention by a fellow myp1ter. "I'll tell you what, it was hard work to play poker every Sunday for almost a year, but knowing it was for a good cause made it bearable," confided ________, the last faithful SNPer.

*Special thanks to an anonymous P1Ter who donated an additional $20 to the pot b/c he happened to be present at the box opening, through no fault of his own.

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