(CBS) Each year during the fourth quarter I sit down with my wife to negotiate the poker tournament budget for the coming calendar year. The currency of negotiation is not dollars, it is time — especially weekend nights away from home.

The process is difficult, emotional, and fraught with peril. But once it is done, as long as I stay within the budget I can pretty well count on staying married for another year.

The World Poker Tour event at Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas (known as the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure) was not in the 2007 poker budget. The only budgeted tournament in January was the WPT event at the Borgata in Atlantic City at the end of the month. But when I went online in late December to firm up my hotel arrangements for the Borgata tournament, I realized I could not play in the Borgata main event — it conflicted with other weekend plans we had made that could not be cancelled. So I negotiated a reallocation within the agreed budget, canceling the Borgata and substituting the Atlantis event.

After arriving in the Bahamas, I checked in at the hotel and went to the casino cage to pay my tournament entry fee. The tournament had actually begun for half the starting field, but I arranged to start Saturday with the second half of field.

That meant I had the rest of Friday to get acclimated, and to brush the rust off my no-limit Hold 'em tournament game.

One of the things that distinguishes the Paradise Island tournament from all the others on the circuit is that it is filled with 18-to-21 year old Internet whiz kids. They are too young to play in casinos on the mainland — but they can play in the Bahamas, where the minimum age is 18. They talk a different language and comprise a subculture within the poker subculture. Surprisingly, none of them were at my table, which was OK with me. They tend to be hyper-aggressive and very difficult to "read."

On the second hand of play I was dealt 5-5 in the small blind. One player raised to 175 and five of us saw the flop, which came J-J-7. I checked, the raiser, who had A-A, bet, another player (holding A-J) raised all in, and two players called his raise. Needless to say I folded.

And, of course, one of the two remaining 5s in the deck came out on fourth street. Had I made a terrible call on the flop, I would have won a huge pot. Not an auspicious start. When your luck is running the way you'd like, the 5 comes on the flop, not on fourth street after you have folded.

I did not win a pot during the first 30-minute round, and when the blinds, doubled my 2,000 starting chips were down to 1,600. Early in the second round, I missed another big opportunity when I flopped middle pair and had to fold to a big bet. Again, the perfect card for my hand came on fourth street, after I had (correctly) folded, and someone else won a big pot that could have been mine.

Frustration was starting to set in when I was dealt K-7 of diamonds in early position. I called, as did four other players. With 250 chips in the pot, five of us saw the flop which came 8-4-3, all diamonds. I had flopped a king-high flush. I opened for 150. Another player raised to 450, holding the ace of diamonds and another random card (not a diamond). A third player then re-raised all in, and a fourth player called.

I called for all my chips, and prayed that no more diamonds would come. We all turned over our cards at that point, since the betting was complete. One player had flopped a queen-high flush, another had flopped a jack-high flush and the third guy had the ace of diamonds (and was hoping a fourth diamond would be dealt). Happily for me, fourth and fifth street were harmless non-diamonds, and I dragged in a huge pot.

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