The loss of Jack Mayercik will be felt deeply by those who knew him. Jack was one of the most passionate people I've ever met when it came to this hobby. Jack founded our Deep South Chip Collectors Club chapter a few years ago, and he was an inspiration to all of its members.

For those of you who may not have met Jack, he won 3rd place in our 2004 CCGTCC Convention Poker tournament. Man, he loved to play some poker. If he wasn't in a chip meeting, you could find him in the nearest card room playing Texas Hold'em. He was also the one who saw to it that we had a members-only poker tournament after each club meeting. And boy was he good at it. You never knew if he was chasing you with an inside straight, or if he held the stone-cold nuts. In the end, I usually gave him credit for the latter.

There seemed to be only one thing Jack enjoyed more than poker, and that was having a chip meeting. God bless him, that man loved to meet and talk (and talk and talk) about chips . Jack loved chips. He loved to trade them, he loved to talk about them, but most of all, he loved to get to know his fellow collectors. He'd spend time with every one of us at the meetings. He really got to know you on a personal level, he cared about each of us.

If it weren't for Jack, not only would our club not exist today, it wouldn't be nearly as organized and FUNctional as it is today. He pulled it all together every meeting. He sent out the emails, he made the badges and cards, he arranged everything with the casino, and he stayed in touch with everyone. He was our motivation. Lord knows how we'll manage without him.

More importantly though, Jack kept our hobby fun. He loved to trade, he loved to have raffles, he loved to play games, and he loved to laugh. In fact, Jack had a motto regarding chip collecting, and I think life in general. He finished every email and every meeting with it, and I urge us all to heed it and pass it on...

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right."

I'll miss you Jack.