6 posts tagged “poker”
This was taken on the Wednesday before Christmas
Poker night was Tuesday night. We had a good crowd—eight people, if I’m not forgetting anybody. I didn’t do so well. I didn’t have very good cards, but I suppose my betting wasn’t top-notch either. I went out either second or third. Not too good. Bill was all-in on probably four or five occasions, but somehow managed to grab third place. Jen was consistently good, and she ended up with second place. Natalya did very well, and luck was on her side, AND SHE WON!!! I’m pretty sure she didn’t cheat, too. :-) Just to show how her luck went, on the last hand, Jen went all-in and Natalya called. Jen had a 3 and another card, maybe a Jack, and Natalya had a 5 and an Ace. On the Flop came a 3, a 4 and another card that didn’t help either player. Then on Fourth Street, nothing to help either player, and, on the River, came a 2! Natalya had a straight! Amazing…Congratulations, Natalya!
Last night I played poker with some friends, and I won! I’ve played for awhile now and I’ve gotten close to winning before, but I’ve never won.
I was steadily losing money until we switched decks, and, bam, I started winning! I admit I got really lucky. It’s easy to win when you have the cards to back it up; when you don’t have to bluff.
Disclaimer: We each only put in 5 Euros (about $6.50) for the whole night, so although we played for money, it certainly wasn’t high stakes, and I believe we can all afford it. I won 20 Euro and 2nd place won 10 and 3rd won their 5 Euro entry fee. There were only 7 of us.
Last night was the first Wednesday night poker night. It went well, I believe. I had just received my new poker chips (finally, but worth the wait) on Monday, the night we won the trivia at O’Reilly’s, so this was also the first night of poker with these chips. We had it at our place.
The way it works is everybody puts in 5 Euros, and first place wins the most amount of money, 2nd place wins something less, and 3rd place wins their 5 Euros back. Yes, we are playing for money, but not enough to get upset about; only enough to make it interesting and worth playing for. We play Texas Hold ‘em, no limit.
There were 8 of us last night, and everybody arrived by 7:10 and we started playing even though the food wasn’t quite ready. When it was ready, we took a small break to serve ourselves and start eating, and then we continued playing while we finished eating.
Natalya fixed her (now) famous dish of meat/potatoes/cheese (I’m not sure what it’s called) and everybody scarfed it up and it was gone not 15 minutes after it was ready, so I’m assuming they all thought it was as delicious as I always do.
I have a Nintendo Wii, and Matt enjoys playing games on it as much as I do, so he played badly so he could have a good bit of time doing that, hence, he was the first one out.
It was the first time ever playing this type of poker for John Sarabia, and he & KT had an interesting hand. [You can safely ignore this section if you don’t have any interest in poker.] On the flop were two Kings and another card. There was good bit of interest (meaning money in the pot) and it was KT raising to get it in there. I don’t remember if it was on the turn or on the river, but another King came out! KT put some more money in and John was the only one to call. KT had a pair of Aces, giving her a Kings-over-Aces Full House, but, in a bad beat with his beginner’s luck, John had the fourth King! Unbelievable. KT was lucky John didn’t put her all-in.
Bill, Beau, Stephanie, and myself all faded out sometime between the last paragraph and the next, not necessarily in that order.
The last three players were KT, John, and Natalya. Natalya didn’t seem to have good cards the first half of the night, and was a bit upset about it, but played what she had very well and stayed around long enough for her luck to change. She picked up a few pots late (valued higher since the blinds had gone up) and stayed in to make third and win her buy-in back. I’m proud of her…especially since I made some bad calls and frittered my chips away uselessly about 30 minutes before!
John and KT battled each other for awhile until KT finally hammered the beginner’s luck out of John and took the last of his chips. It took awhile, though: it was at least three times someone came in to check on the game after playing some Nintendo Wii and exclaimed, “You guys are still playing?!?!?”
It was all over by 11:15 (next time we’ll cut the blinds time some and speed it up) and it was well worth my time and money, even though I didn’t win. I find it all very thrilling! I forewent the Wii just to continue dealing since I wanted to see what would happen. I love poker night, and someday, with a little more luck and skill, I’ll actually win!
Sometimes the frustration of waiting for something you really want is thick, like the reality fog that lies between your dreams and your waking life. Once you order it, you know it’s coming, you can picture what it is and even imagine how it will feel in your hands or what you can do with it or how it will make you feel.
I’ve been playing some poker with friends for a few months and I decided I’d get my own set of chips. I ordered these pretty nice poker chips. I’m waiting for them. I’ve been waiting for them. I know that they could come any day. Seriously. I ordered them about a month ago, and after about a week, I got a package slip at the post office. I gave the guy behind the counter my slip and he returned with a package which seemed the right size for the poker chips I ordered. I was ecstatic, but when I lifted the package, it was extremely light for what should be hefty chips. When I opened it, it was only the case for the chips. Just the case. Only the case. The slip inside said “2 of 2.” L After that, I thought the next package would come any day. It’s been an additional 3 weeks and it’s killing me.
Something similar happened when I was in college. My brother said he was going to send me his old computer since he was upgrading and I didn’t own a computer. I told my friends how I was expecting it and how eagerly I was anticipating those boxes. One day, two of my friends (Jay & James) and I returned to my apartment in college and there were two computer-sized boxes. I was overjoyed! I started to try and open one and I could tell that they were virtually empty (maybe just the Styrofoam inside). I was heartbroken. That day was April first. I thought, “Man, my brother is cruel! He sends me empty boxes for April Fool’s and he knows that I’m really looking forward to get this computer!” Then I noticed an old address label on the box that had Spokane, WA on it…wait a second, my brother lives in L.A....and Jay is from Spokane! I was actually pleasantly surprised because I knew that my brother’s package was already on its way and he wasn’t waiting for me to get the fake ones! I let my friends know I figured it out and they laughed hard, saying they got me, and they did! I was buying it for a minute or two. I give ‘em props—it was a good joke!
UPDATE: I emailed the company I ordered the chips from and they are sending them again! I see a "Return to Sender" action upcoming...
2nd UPDATE: I received the chips and they are cool. Still never received the other box of chips.
Today is my first real post. I just finished a book. Last Call by Tim Powers.
I thought it was very good and I would recommend it to anyone that plays poker, which I don't, or that likes books about magic in the modern world. I would recommend any of Tim Powers books, even though I've only read three so far. His plots are done very well and he ties in historical facts and people. If you think you like the kind of book I'm describing, and you're going to Las Vegas or like Vegas or you play a lot of poker, read it!
My problem is that I get addicted to it (the book), and I just keep reading when I should be doing other stuff. It's that good. I do that often with books, but this one really had me.
As for buying the book, I would suggest going through Amazon.com's used book section and buying it from there. I don't remember how much I paid, but I paid less than retail, it came pretty quick and it was in (seemed to me) perfect condition.
