Pokémon Hold ‘Em
POKEMON HOLD ‘EM – September 26, 2025 – Tucson, Arizona, USA
Ten minutes after midnight, Venus pulled a folding camp chair from the back of her car. She walked to the GameStop entrance and placed the chair in front of the locked door. Then she settled in for the long wait.
That particular GameStop was located in a strip mall off of a busy street. There was another GameStop closer to where she lived, but she had a friend who worked at this one. He would be there when the store opened and would allow her to buy twice the standard limit on packs of the newly released Mega Evolution Pokémon cards.
The strip mall’s exterior was dark except for a handful of overhead lights positioned at store entrances. The parking lot was mostly dark, too. Venus probably should have been more worried about her personal safety. She was a relatively small female sitting alone in the middle of the night. But she barely considered getting accosted. This was not her first campout for card drops and she was sure more fans would arrive shortly. There would be safety in a crowd.
Sure enough, fifteen minutes after she arrived, another car appeared in the parking lot. A couple got out and grabbed their own folding chairs. The guy wore a Pokémon sweatshirt and looked huge next to the girl with whom he held hands. The two of them set up next to Venus, forming the beginning of a line.
After informal greetings, Venus said, “You guys must be here for the Mega Evolution packs.”
“Oh yeah,” the big guy answered. “There’s nothing like getting them first.”
“You got a big card collection?”
“Decent size. But it’s the quality that counts. I’m hoping to pull some rare cards. I’m pretty sure most of them get found on the first day.”
Venus nodded and said with a laugh, “Yep, that’s why I’m here too.”
“Last time I made the mistake of showing up at 7 am and they ran out before I could buy any. I won’t make that mistake again.”
The girl who came with the big guy asked Venus, “Are you here by yourself?”
“Yeah, but I’m also buying cards for a friend. He’s actually paying for all of them so I’ll get my packs for free. And he’s supposed to be sending some coffee.”
“That’s the least he can do.”
“I know, right?”
After another half hour, the line had grown by eight people. A DoorDash driver arrived asking for Venus. He handed her a Starbuck’s bag containing a warm cup of coffee.
The remaining early morning hours were mostly uneventful. Venus talked more with the couple behind her and watched movies on her phone to stay awake. An hour before the store opened, another DoorDash driver arrived for her with breakfast from McDonald’s – a McMuffin, hashbrowns, and more coffee. The couple behind her saved her spot in line when she ran to a nearby gas station to use the bathroom.
As soon as GameStop opened, Venus spotted her friend, Devon, inside. She signaled to him that she wanted 10 packs of Pokémon cards instead of the posted limit of five. Devon handed her the cards and rang her up for a pre-tax total of $71.20. Venus grabbed the cards, drove straight home, and immediately crashed in bed, despite all the coffee in her system.
After waking in the early afternoon, Venus showered, put on fresh clothes, and drove to her friend, Ian’s condo. He was the one who put up the money for the cards and sent the DoorDashers. His girlfriend, Tinsley, was also at the condo anticipating Venus’s arrival with the cards.
Ian was some kind of computer coder. When he described his job to Venus and Tinsley, the words he used quickly went over their heads. He worked remotely part of the week and his once athletic build had grown soft from too much sitting in front of a screen. Tinsley was a hospital nurse. She had a soft, calming voice and a wispy figure. She was used to comforting people when they were feeling their worst.
“You got ‘em?” Ian asked Venus as soon as she walked in.
In response, she held up a plastic bag holding the card packs.
“And the coffee and breakfast arrived okay?”
“Yep. Just like we planned.”
Ian grabbed the bag of cards and excitedly laid out the ten unopened packs on his kitchen table. After admiring the colorful designs on the packaging, he said, “Okay, Tinsley you choose your pack first. Then Venus, you pick your two. And I’ll take the seven that are left over.”
Tinsley took a step toward the table and eyed the lineup of card packs. They were indistinguishable from each other, but rather than indifferently grabbing one, she pretended to study them. She was mostly doing it for Ian’s sake. While she had little interest in Pokémon, Ian could get obsessive about the cards and wanted her to share that obsession. The single pack he bought for her was meant to whet her appetite. Tinsley finally picked up one of the packs in the middle of the lineup.
“That was the one I was going to pick,” Venus immediately said.
“Here, you can have it. I’ll pick another one,” Tinsley replied, offering Venus the unopened pack.
“No, if that’s the one you were drawn to, you should keep it.”
Venus then took her time selecting her two packs. When she was finished, Ian gathered up the remaining seven. “Now to see what we’ve got,” he said in the same voice he used when opening Christmas presents. “Tinsley, you can go first again.”
Tinsley had been part of similar card opening ceremonies. She knew that the thrill for Ian and Venus came from finding rare cards worth lots of money. Ian’s card collection numbered in the thousands and his brain stored a database for each one’s value. Sometimes he would trade cards at in-person or online auctions, but he was never looking for any card in particular. He simply liked the ones worth the most and rather than buying them directly at an auction, he relished the chance to find them in the packs. It was like hunting for gold or playing the lottery. The few dollars he spent per pack might produce something worth hundreds.
Tinsley tore opened her pack and thumbed through the cards inside. Right away, she noticed a couple that were different than the rest. They both had a glittery rainbow design and she placed them on the table apart from the others. One was for the character Mega Venusaur and the other for Mega Latias.
“Are these good?” Tinsley asked Ian.
Ian recognized that they might be. He opened his laptop to a website that was already evaluating cards from the new Mega Evolutions collection. They rated both cards as very rare and put the value of the Venusaur at $200 and the Latias at $169. The other eight cards in Tinsley’s pack were worth around fifty cents each.
Ian stared open-mouthed at the two rare cards and double-checked their identities on his laptop. “This is unbelievable! Your odds of pulling one of those cards is like one in a thousand. Having two in the same pack is probably one in a million!”
“I knew that pack was special,” Venus said jealously. “That’s why I wanted to pick it.”
Ian did not like the tone in Venus’s voice. He wanted pack opening to be fun and not divisive. He tried to sound conciliatory when he optimistically said, “This probably means we got a lucky set of packs. The delivery to that GameStop must have been filled with good cards. We’ll all probably find winners.”
With that, Ian volunteered to open some of his seven packs. He went through the first three without finding anything valued over 75 cents. His optimism faded.
Venus tried one of her two packs. It was filled with common cards worth about six dollars in total. Under her breath, she said something about how she should have been allowed to choose packs first after staying up all night to buy them.
“Let me try more of mine,” Ian said with a new spark of enthusiasm. He went through three more with disappointing results. No rare or unusual cards. He and Venus glanced at the valuable sparkly rainbow cards still displayed on the kitchen table. Their moods had obviously soured since card opening began.
The tension in the condo weighed heavily on Tinsley. To try and break it, she graciously said, “Why don’t the two of you each take one of the good cards. You’re into Pokémon a lot more than I am. You’ll appreciate them more.”
Venus did not respond, but Ian replied, “No, those are your cards. You picked them fair and square.”
Venus perked up with a new idea. “If you really don’t care what cards you have, maybe we could trade you for them. You could look through my collection and see what you want.”
Tinsley tried to appear open to the idea as she said, “I guess so. I’m not sure what I’d be looking for.”
Ian frowned. “I think you should just keep the cards you have.”
Tinsley sensed the situation turning dark. This was the kind of thing that could spiral and break up friendships. She foresaw Venus and Ian arguing and Ian sinking into a long funk.
“I think I’ve got a better idea,” Tinsley announced. “How about I trade you the cards for your unopened packs? There could still be some valuable cards inside of them so it’s not like I’m just giving you Venusaur and Latias for nothing.”
Ian’s face brightened. “That’s true. We don’t know what those packs are worth yet.”
Venus added, “I’m happy to trade if you want.”
Ian and Venus continued to talk up the merits of the unopened packs, convincing themselves they were making a fair trade. Ian remembered what he said about the GameStop being loaded with high-value packs. Deep down, he and Venus may have known the unopened packs were likely worth around the $7 paid for them, but they did not dare verbalize it.
Tinsley played along and acted like she was intrigued with what she might uncover. Eventually, she handed the Venusaur card to Ian and the Latias card to Venus. When smiles returned to their faces, Tinsley felt relieved.
“Everyone’s happy, right?” Tinsley asked.
“Very happy,” Venus said, admiring how the colors on her card changed at different angles.
“You should open up the last two packs,” Ian added, still hoping to get Tinsley interested in Pokémon.
“Alright. Let’s see what we’ve got,” Tinsley said as she put on an eager face and peeled open the first pack. She saw more of the low value cards that filled every pack and then a flash of gold. She knew right away it had to be valuable. She pulled out Mega Gardevoir. Ian’s jaw dropped as he checked online to find it was worth $510.
Even if everyone were thinking it, no one said anything about regretting the card trade. Almost reluctantly, Tinsley opened the second pack and saw another flash of gold. This time, she found Mega Lucario worth $550.
“It’s not possible!” Ian said in awe.
The golden cards sat on the table as Ian and Venus stared in silence. Both had already forgotten their less valuable rainbow cards.
Tinsley was not sure how to interrupt. Without saying a word, she picked up the two gold cards and walked out of the condo. When she reached the door, Ian shouted a question about where she was going, but she kept walking. She went home, pulled out a computer, and found the auction site she had seen Ian use. Within half an hour, she sold both cards. After mailing them off to new owners, she thought about what to do with the money.
The next time Tinsley saw Venus and Ian, she handed them concert tickets.
“Wow, these are great seats! How did you afford these?” Ian asked.
“I didn’t want those gold Pokémon cards around anymore because I knew they would just drive you crazy. So, they turned into these concert tickets. Not a bad trade, if you ask me.”
When he realized what Tinsley had done, Ian looked horrified. Then he thought more about it and his expression softened into appreciation. He looked at Tinsley and said, “You know, I can’t wait for another card drop. Next time, you’re opening all my packs.”
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