Eric Cloutier Accidentally Sold Wife’s Wedding Ring in Garage Sale
Poker pros are known for making big moves at the table, and always seem to have plenty of stories about their worst reads and detrimental mistakes that cost them countless amounts of money. One particular professional poker player, Eric Cloutier, has told the ultimate story of an inadvertent blunder that cost him $23,000, not to mention the admiration of his beloved wife.
Apparently Cloutier’s wife, Racquel, was forced to spend a prearranged stay in the hospital. In preparation for the stay, she made sure to get things in order around the house. She made what she thought was the right decision to leave her wedding ring, valued at $23k, at home, even going so far as to hide it in a box in her husband’s closet, deciding that it would be safer if the couple’s 2 year old twin boys were unable to get ahold of it. As it turns out, it wasn’t the male youngling she had to worry about.
Eric decided that while his wife was away, it would be a good time to organize a yard sale, uncluttering the home and raising some extra cash along the way. Ostensibly, Mrs. Cloutier neglected to tell her husband where she had hidden the ring. He claims to have put the box – containing the ring – up for sale among their other surplus household items. Cloutier maintains that he sold the box for $10, ignorant of its contents.
Upon returning from the hospital, Mrs. Cloutier went into the closet to retrieve her ring from the box, only to find that the box was no longer where she had left it. Racquel explicated the situation in her own words:
“I go into my husband’s closet, can’t find the box, and then he tells me he sold it. I said, ‘You sold it? What do you mean you sold it?’ I immediately started crying. I’m very, very, very upset. I’m trying to remain optimistic but I don’t know anymore. There’s a small chance whoever bought the box doesn’t know the ring is in there.”
Some fellow poker players who have commented on the story in relative poker forum have speculated as to whether Eric’s claims are legitimate. One forum poster at CardPlayer, by the moniker of ‘TheFly’, said, “That’s the story I would tell also if I had to pawn my wifes ring while she was in the hospital because I was broke and desperate for cash. ‘Honest mistake honey, I swear’.”
Perhaps it was an honest mistake on Eric’s part, but his success in 2013 – or rather, the lack thereof – could paint a whole different story. Cloutier has earned $569,742 in live poker tournaments over his career, but this year he has been struggling, to put it mildly. Cloutier has only cashed once this year, taking $2,695 (minus the $1,675 buy-in) from a WSOP Circuit Event in January; his first cash since finishing 263rd in the 2012 WSOP Main Event for $38,453 in July of last year.
Unless Cloutier has been investing wisely over the years, chances are he’s not in the best of financial situations. Could it be that Eric really did sell the ring on purpose; not for $10 in a garage sale, of course, but with the intention of using the funds to enter the 2013 World Series of Poker? It’s been reported, since this curious story surfaced, that Cloutier is considering a trip to Las Vegas to compete in the WSOP this summer. Should he do well in Vegas, it would be interesting to see if the ring mysteriously resurfaces.