When the opening day of the $1,500 HORSE event finished, Arash Ghaneian bagged up his chips and raced home. He was exhausted, having played through ten levels of poker to finish with 26,100, a little bit above the average.
At 40 years old, Arash isn’t a young gun anymore and the new WSOP structures in lower buy-in limit events mean longer days. As soon as he got home, he crashed. Or tried to, at least. Like most poker players do, he lay awake in bed replaying the key hands from the day in his head. What he did wrong. Where he could have eked out an extra bet or two.
Eventually he dozed off. He was woken up the next morning as his wife, Liz, who is pregnant with twins, jumped out of bed and hurried downstairs. Arash could hear her quietly talking on the phone.
“Something’s wrong because she’s downstairs whispering and I’m just like, she’s not trying to stay that quiet to let me sleep,” said Arash.
Less than nine hours after making good reads at the poker table, Arash had made another one at home. Something was wrong. The next few minutes went by like a blur for Arash. He listened as his wife explained that a doctor’s appointment the day before discovered there were some complications with his unborn twin sons.
While Arash had been playing at the Rio, Liz was at the doctor’s office for what she thought was just another routine checkup, one of dozens that come with expecting twins. She thought so little of the appointment, she took their daughters Emma, 8, and Chloe, 4, to the clinic with her.
“I actually took our kids because I thought it would be cool for them to see the ultrasound, you know, their brothers, see their heartbeats and stuff,” said Liz. “I’m like, ‘oh it will be a fun science lesson for them this summer and see their brothers.’ So they were sitting in the room with me and they were very good.”
If the blur that her husband felt while hearing the news was familiar to Liz, it’s because she experienced it herself in that doctor’s office in front of her young daughters. Liz listened as the doctor explained that based on the sonogram and the way the babies were moving, that they had developed Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS).
Put simply, TTTS is the name given to what happens when one of the twins is getting a disproportionate blood supply. In multiple pregnancies the babies share a placenta, and this allows blood to flow from one baby to another, but in some instances, 15 percent of multiple pregnancies, that flow gets interrupted. If it’s severe enough, the mortality rate runs above 60 percent.
“I just kind of held it together and then the doctor came in and she tried to talk to me in easy terms because the kids were there. That went okay,” said Liz.
She was told that she and the twins would require surgery, and soon. It’s not an overly-complicated procedure but being pregnant only amplifies any time a doctor says the word “surgery.”
“They go in with a tiny laser and just zap these tiny blood vessels and drain out some of the fluid, and it stabilizes the problem and effectively it cures what the issue is, and the babies can continue to grow,” said Liz. “You have to do the surgery or they’re guaranteed not to make it. But, with the surgery, because it’s so irritating to the womb, that it can cause premature labor.”
Liz is told that means she will be on bed-rest for the duration of her pregnancy and she’s likely looking at a premature birth via c-section and her boys could spend some of the early days of their lives in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). It was a lot to take in.
Once back home Liz was faced with a dilemma. What to tell Arash? When to tell Arash? How to tell Arash? Having him overhear the phone call from the doctor wasn’t ideal, but worked in a rip-the-band-aid-off kind of way.
Sitting in the kitchen, just a few short hours before the Day 2 restart, Arash’s mind was thinking about anything but poker. He had a million questions, but thankfully their doctor had prepped them for this possibility. When they found out it was twins, they knew there could be some issues along the way, including TTTS.
Liz was adamant that Arash go play Day 2. There was nothing to do but wait for more phone calls from more doctors.
“I kind of thought, I’m not rooting against him, but if he gets knocked out, that’s okay because I need him, you know? But I just thought, ‘let’s put that aside,’” said Liz. “And I just kept texting him, ‘It’s okay, you’re going to win, don’t worry about that hand, play the next hand.’ I just had a feeling he was going to win.”
Arash went back to the Rio for Day 2 and his ran his stack up to 601,000, good enough for second out of the final 31 players. Throughout the day he and Liz were texting back and forth, the ups and downs of Arash’s chip stack juxtaposed with updates about doctor’s appointments and Liz’s premonition about good things coming.
“She texted me every few hours, ‘You’re going to win. You’re going to win. You’re going to win.’ And I kept texting her like, ‘how can you say this,’ you know? And she just kept saying it and I’m like, ‘this is crazy,’” said Arash.
“I just had a feeling. You know I’m always rooting for him and I’ll say positive things, but this time I really felt it,” said Liz. “Because this is going on and everything in our life is this whirlwind right now with this, and I could really use him at home. He’s going to win, I know it.”
Another long day in the books, Arash raced home yet again but this time he wasn’t thinking about hands he played – or misplayed. He was focused on his family. He got in the front door of his house and wanted to know what was next.
“All I’m asking is, when is your next doctor’s appointment?”
The next morning, after just a few hours sleep, Liz and Arash woke up to get to that next appointment, where the specialist would begin to explain their options. They dropped their daughters off with Liz’s parents and headed to the doctor.
Amidst all of the confusion of talking to doctors in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and Arash continuing to amass chips in the tournament, the date for the appointment got mixed up.
“I got home and went to sleep at five in the morning and I got up at eight in the morning to go to the doctors with her again for another check-up,” said Arash. “It happened to be, the doctor messed up and gave her the wrong date.”
Dealing with a medical scare during a pregnancy is nothing new for the couple though. Not far into Liz’s first pregnancy, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Cancer. An aggressive treatment plan cured her and saved the baby. Doctor’s warned them though that the likelihood they have another child ever was extremely low. Four years later they had Chloe. Now, another four years after that, the twins.
When Liz told Arash it was going to be twins, it took some convincing. Knowing what the early stages of pregnancy feel like, Liz took the home test to be sure. She told Arash and booked an appointment to see her doctor to get confirmation. She told Arash not to bother coming to the appointment.
“I’m like, ‘it’s the third kid, you don’t need to come.’ And he should’ve because they’re like, ‘It’s twins’. I couldn’t talk I was speechless,” said Liz. She went home with an ultrasound photo in hand and found Arash doing the dishes.
“She shows it to me, and there are two photos side by side. I’m thinking, technology is so great I get to see two side-by-side pictures of this child before it’s born,” said Arash. Over the next few minutes, Liz repeatedly pointed out the two heads, one on each photo. Finally it clicked. “I go, ‘Twins?’ It took me a minute to register and I just turned off the faucet and I sat down. And I was just shocked for a good few days.”
That day seems like a lifetime ago to Liz and Arash. Leaving the doctor’s appointment they didn’t actually have, Arash didn’t have any time to prep himself for a run to the final table.
“I never ever thought of who is at my table, review what I did wrong or what I’m doing right. I literally had barely half a drive from Henderson to the strip to just, ‘okay you’ve got to get yourself together’,” said Arash.
Arriving at the Rio for Day 3, Arash was running on very little sleep, less prep time, and could feel the stress of the uncertainty at home weighing on him. Like most pro poker players, Arash is a numbers guy and he understood the probability of losing one or both of his sons before they were even born.
Still, Amash unbagged his chips and went back to work. This was one of the few tournaments he would play this year and the one that meant the most to him. He’d played it before and gotten close to the final table, finishing 14th in 2008.
Before the Series began Jim Carroll, Arash’s good friend, knew how badly Arash wanted to play and agreed to put him in the event. Throughout the tournament Arash leaned on Jim for emotional support.
“Just last minute he says, ‘let me stake you in this thing and play it.’, and we decided last minute,” said Arash. “I played a satellite and chopped it, but we still got the rest of the money together and I played for just Jim. And he just kept texting me, ‘Have faith. Have faith’.”
Day 3 was winding down and Arash was still in it and was armed with a rather healthy stack. Originally scheduled for three days, the slow structure combined with a 772-player field meant a fourth day would be necessary. The players bagged their chips at around 2 am and were told to be back in just 11 hours.
Only two other players stood between Arash and the bracelet and a $239,750 payday – that Arash would share with Jim. Arash was second in chips behind Robert Campbell and ahead of David Levi.
The final three players started Day 4 at the secondary feature table tucked away in a corner of the Amazon Room. Sitting in the audience was Liz, four months pregnant and hanging on every card. Eventually, Arash got heads up with Campbell.
The two players went mano-a-mano for three hours, with each taking turns as chip leader. Eventually Arash regained the advantage and never let go, sending Campbell out as runner-up. That left him with the bracelet and, for the first time in four days, a chance to let it all hit him.
“And I just broke down and I’m comfortable saying that. I’m not embarrassed by it,” said Arash of the tears he shed in the minutes following his win. “It took me a while obviously to get my words together. I really don’t know how I did it.”
The tournament was done and Arash had accomplished a lifelong goal. That much was certain, but what wasn’t certain was the future of his sons. With that in mind, Arash knew what he had to do and had no qualms doing it.
“I’m actually dropping out of the World Series until this is taken care of. I think it’s best for me to just deal with this,” said Arash, who had originally planned to play four or five events this summer. “I’d like to come back and play a few more events, the championship, maybe the $10K HORSE. If it doesn’t happen, this was great. I’ll be back next year.”
For many players – those who haven’t won a bracelet mostly – the bracelet ceremony each day can be a bit of a nuisance. It’s seen as an unnecessary interruption in their day. For Arash, it was the culmination of a lot of work and an extremely stressful week for him and his family. He used the ceremony as a chance to honor Liz by making her a part of it, bringing her up on stage so she could be the one who actually presented him with the bracelet.
After receiving his bracelet from WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel, the three shared a private moment offstage. Effel is also the father of a set of twins. He offered encouragement and words of advice for what lied ahead.
Following the ceremony, Arash and Liz went home to wait for word from a specialist in Los Angeles. They’d been told that the surgery she required could be necessary immediately or in a few weeks. Either way they’d need to be in L.A. at the drop of a hat.
The waiting didn’t take long at all. Three days after getting his bracelet, Arash and Liz were in Los Angeles for the procedure. As scared as Liz and Arash were, the surgery lasted just a few hours and the doctor’s told them they were confident that the issue had been resolved and both boys would be fine.
The pair returned to Las Vegas just a few days ago and they are starting to return to a normal life after one of the most stressful weeks ever. Through it all Liz knew that Arash would be back at the WSOP this summer. The same faith that drove her to believe he’d win the bracelet had her convinced her surgery would go fine and he’d be able to play more events.
Having already won the $1,500 HORSE event, Arash can’t help but stare at the WSOP schedule and see the $10,000 HORSE Championship event on July 1. That’s another ten days away though and he’s got something more important right in front of him, Father’s Day. Arash, Liz, Emma and Chloe will share the day together, celebrating not one victory, but two.
This article originally appeared on BLUFF.com on June 21, 2015.