4th of July Weekend (Quasi-Uber)

The time? 7:02pm, Sunday evening. I'm registered for two micro-stakes poker tournaments that begin in the next half hour, I'm about to fix myself a gin and tonic, and start writing about my weekend. Why don't you grab a drink, sit down and relax with me?

Finished making the G&T and found that one of the tournaments started and I missed the first hand. I would have folded, but the hand ended up being Q's vs. Aces, and the Aces turned quads... not a bad start to a tourney for that guy!

Music for the evening will be Dave Matthews Band, "Under the Table and Dreaming". I was big into Dave Matthews Band in high school, I went to three or four concerts out at the gorge, but then they became so popular with MTV and the frat crowd I was a bit ashamed to like the band. I've continued to listen to them, but on the sly. Tonight I break my silence: I like DMB still, go suck an egg if you think less of me now.

Music, check. Poker with lots of folding, check. G&T, check. Alright, I think I'm set to start recapping the weekend.

Friday marked the first of a three-day Potlatch ultimate frisbee tournament in Redmond, WA. I've been going to the tournament for the past eight or nine years, and when the 4th of July falls on Friday, the weekend, or Monday, the tournament is a 3-day affair instead of just two days. Three days makes the tournament stand apart from the other weekend ultimate tournaments in the summer, not to mention the 100 teams from all across the nation (and Mexico, and Canada!).



I decided to only play one day this year, for a couple of reasons. First, I've been wanting to go to Tahuya Day with Tessa and Jared for the last few years, and I have always picked Potlatch over Tahuya Day. Last year, I made plans to only play one day at Potlatch, then partake in Tahuya Day, but the weather was craptastic, and I would rather be playing ultimate in the rain than sitting in a lawn chair drinking margaritas in the rain, so I stayed at the ultimate fields. The other reason I chose to only play one day at Potlatch this year is because I'm fucking rusty! I play ultimate once every other week, and that just is not enough to be in shape or have consistent throws.

Poker update: knocked out of my first tournament when AJ on an AJ8 flop loses to a naked frush draw that gets there after the money goes in. Next tourney starts up in 7 minutes.

Friday ultimate at Potlatch was great. The weather couldn't have been better, it was around 80 degrees without much wind. We won all three of our games for the first time I can remember in a long time. I think my team a few years ago, maybe even last year, won all three games one day, but the team was a weird mix of really good college guys and crappy old timers like myself--so it wasn't a true Tacoma stink team--like this year! All of the games were tight, with the first going the distance at 16-14 in a game to 15 (a mini-Federer/Roddick match for the tennis lovers out there). The team was playing well, but I made a lot of throw aways, which was frustrating. The team didn't care much, because the throw aways did not lose us any of the games, but the throws I was botching are throws that I *can* make, but I wasn't making due to my rusty game. I should have holstered the cannon, but couldn't resist.

Our game schedule on Friday was such that we played a game, had a 2nd round bye, played a game, had a 4th round bye, then played our final game. The schedule kept us fresh, and even better than keeping us fresh, allowed me to pick up my motorcycle from the shop during our 4th round bye! I got a call from the shop at some point in the morning, and couldn't wait to get my bike! When I got to the shop, it didn't take long for me to pay and for them to wheel the bike around front and get me on my way. Before leaving, I noticed that they had not changed the front tire, which I thought we had agreed on. They did not bill me for it, but the front tire is just as old as the back tire that blew out on me a month ago, and it needs to be changed soon. I inspected the tire, and it still has some tread on it, so there is no imminent danger, but I am dreading taking it back to the shop now, after waiting a month for this fix.

I made it back to Potlatch for the last round, this time on the motorcycle. The ride back to the fields felt a little weird. Not good or bad, but just a little different. The clutch is still a lot tighter than I am used to, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I am used to the clutch catching right in the middle of the release, but now it catches about 3/4'ths of the way when I release the clutch lever. This makes shifting between gears a lot faster, but it also makes the initial shift from idle to 1st gear a bit longer. Again, some good to it, and some bad, but now that the weekend is over and I have gotten used to it, I think I prefer the tighter clutch. The fact that the back tire has a larger diameter than the old back tire, and the new tread on the back tire vs. the worn front tire also affect the ride.

One of the fun new sideline games at Potlatch this year was a Dare game based on cards. How the game works is a deck (or two, or three?) was passed out on Thursday night before the tournament started Friday. The goal of the game is to find the next higher up card than yours and ask them to give you a dare. If they do not think up a dare for you in one minute, you get to swap cards with them--also, if you complete their dare, you swap cards with them. I never got a card, nor was I too interested in playing because of only being there one day, but a lot of my teammates were getting into the game and trying to work their way up the ranks. The two best dares I saw on Friday were one guy licking the entire length of field tape (tape is put down at Potlatch along the sideline), which was about 100 yards. He was on all fours crawling along licking the tape from end to end for a king! The other dare was a girl going for a jack, and she first had to get this guy and all his friends cold beers, and then make out with another girl of this guy's choosing. By the time I left on Friday, my friend Josh was up to a queen. I stayed to watch the showcase game between Team USA and Team Canada, while eating free pizza and drinking free beer. Team USA won 16-14.

I had such a good time on Friday at Potlatch that I was beginning to question my decision to only play one day, but I'm glad I followed through with Tahuya Day. I got up early and met at Tessa and Jared's for an 8:00am caravan down to Tahuya, WA. The weather was flawless, and I was on my bike for the second day in a row, and it felt great. The caravan down was fun, and I'm glad to report it was uneventful. We rolled into Tahuya right around 11am after a stop at the QFC for a hundred cans of beer and some ice. The guys cracked open beers as soon as we dropped off our stuff, and I got to meet Tessa's family and friends. Her dad grew up in the house, and I can see why he never left.



They've got a compound similar to my friend Marc's, where Tessa's parents own one house, her uncle owns the next one down, and her cousin owns the third in the string, right along the water. The porch is huge, and there were probably 20 of us up there sitting in the sun and shade drinking. We got one game of liar's dice in before the parade started up, and Brian put me to shame at the end game. We were tied at five dice each, to Ben and Erin's zero dice (noobs!), and he ran a clinic.

The parade was pretty short and sweet, which is the perfect kind of parade in my eyes. Tessa's dad partook for the first time in a while, and his family pelted him with water balloons and water guns as he rode by, like any good family should! Tessa's mom made a strong margarita, and although I remember thinking, "Wow, this is a strong margarita!" I still had a second one, which promptly put me to sleep after the parade ended.

I woke up to people taking pictures of me passed out on the living room floor, so I woke up by being the first to hop into the inlet. It took me a while to figure out what to call the body of water just off Tessa's back yard, and apparently it is an inlet. It juts off the Hood Canal, and apparently Bill and Melinda Gates rolled up one afternoon last Autumn and Tessa's grandmother, a house down, was out ready to yell at the trouble-makers and run them off, then realized who they were.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shooting off small fireworks and swimming in the inlet. At one point, all of the youngsters (i.e. under 50), hopped in the boat and Tessa took us for a ride around the Hood Canal--it was awesome:





Poker Update #2: Second tournament started, and I'm chipping up in this one. Just had AA in the big blind and it was limped 3 ways to me, and for the first time ever, I checked with aces in the big blind. I bet the flop and it folded around, so nothing extraordinary happened, but I sat there with aces and my option and wondered, "Have I ever checked in the big blind with aces? I don't think I have, let's see what happens."

Back to Tahuya. Beers, clams, steak, swimming, and fireworks. That, my friends, is hard to beat. I grew up shooting off fireworks with Marc at his cabin, and we would get pretty into it, rigging our own fireworks in our teens. When I hit college I grew a bit tired of spending mass amounts of money on things to just blow up (funny how that changes when you use your money instead of your parents'!). Jared and Reuben went nuts this year and spend $300 on mortars and all sorts of goodies, and I couldn't help but share their enthusiasm. I taught them a thing or two over the course of the day, but they had plenty of ingenious ideas themselves.

The two highlights of the night had to be Ben knocking over my tower of beer cans with a single roman candle shot, and when Reuben's huge mortar decided not to shoot up into the air, but instead exploded in the mortar tube and shot gravel shrapnel that cleared the house. I was 15ft from the shell and was lucky enough to turn my back on the blast just in the nick of time--I could hear the gravel hit the windows! That woke us up. A honorable mention would be Erin's early show of lighting a ground bloom and sticking it in a Corona bottle, which cracked the bottle in half. We tried to duplicate her feat numerous times and we turned another Corona bottle black, but couldn't break it in half.



Once the fireworks were done, most of the crew took off for Seattle, to sleep in their own beds, but Tessa, Jared and I stuck around and slept in the game room. The dozen or so beers since 11am found me with the sandman as quickly as my head hit the pillow. I was awoken in time for breakfast: bacon, eggs and whatever those breakfast rolls that start with a C are called--not cinnamon rolls. Polished that off with the help of some OJ, thanked Tessa and her family for the great hospitality, then headed out from Tahuya a different way than I came.

I rode north from Tahuya, and my word of mouth directions from Tessa's mom and dad weren't entirely clear, so I just followed the road along the water until it turned into a gravel road. I was a bit hesitant to ride on the gravel rode, given my nearly bald front tire, but the sign said only six miles, so I was hoping a return to pavement was the reward. Up until this point, I was still being very careful on my motorcycle, and riding still didn't feel quite right. On the gravel I was mostly in first gear, and the gravel road twisted along the Hood Canal for the six or so miles. I kept thinking I should stop and take a picture of the interesting road and forest, but there weren't any places to pull over and a few cars did cross my path on the ride.

For some reason, when the pavement returned, I also got my riding groove back. From being extremely cautious on the gravel road, I must have gotten a better feel for the bike. The road after the pavement came back was also one of the most fun roads I have ridden on. Between the start of the pavement again and Bremerton, I passed by every mile-per-hour turn sign from 10mph turns to 45mph turns, twice over. There were dozens of 20mph turn signs, and with proper balance on the bike, I was able to take them at great ease going 35mph--which gave me riding confidence back. After the first few turns, I was comfortable knowing the right speed to stay safe, so I didn't have to look at the speedometer while negotiating turns, which seems safer and the right way to do it.

I had a lot of fun on the ride back to Seattle. I got to the Bremerton ferry terminal literally two minutes before they started boarding, and as a motorcycle I got to hop to the front of the line, where only one other motorcycle was waiting. We briefly chatted and it turns out that he was coming back from Tahuya as well! Not bad for a town of 5,200, as of the 2000 census.

Poker Update #3: Second tournament, just got the addon for 11k chips at the first break, which is about 1.5k above the average stack. Got a ways to go, 550 runners left, 90 pay, $700 and change for 1st.

The ferry ride was nice. Since me and the other motorcyclist were the first vehicles allowed on, we also got dibs on seating in the ferry. I found a booth and zonked out once the ferry started moving. I woke up probably thirty minutes later when the sun started to shine on me and woke me from my slumber. We were in the middle of the body of water just west of West Seattle, and we had a gorgeous view of downtown Seattle:





I rode back up Hwy 99, spent a few hours at home taking a shower and talking to my Erin in Italy, then rode back over to Potlatch to catch the last few rounds of disc. I enjoyed the quick ride over the 520 bridge, and got to the fields just as my team got booted from the tournament in the D-pool quarterfinals. A team from my college was playing in the C-pool semi-finals, and I cheered them on, but they lost 8-11 in a tight game. The score was tied at 8-8 and there was a marathon point that must have lasted 15 minutes, whoever wins that point wins the game, and sure enough, that is what happened.

The finals was a rematch of the showcase game from Friday: Team USA vs. Team Canada. I didn't end up staying to see who won, but I did watch a few of the points with my Tacoma team. I found Josh and he was sporting a fluffy white baseball cap with the Ace of spades on it... I talked to him and found out that not only did he get an ace card in the Dare game, he got all four aces, one of each suit, which won him Five Ultimate shorts, a jersey, and the hat. I didn't realize Five Ultimate was putting on the game, but I told Josh I wasn't sure I even wanted to know what he had to do for those aces. He told me that his favorite dare was finding a woman, switching clothes with that woman, then serenading one of the girls who works for Five Ultimate in the other girl's clothes. Oh, and he had a zillion girl's numbers on his cast--so it looks like he had a good time this weekend, too!

If you see this man, run in the other direction.



Poker Update #4: Up to 19k chips with the average around 10k.

Hmm, running out of things to say about this weekend... it was fun! The weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse this week, but I'm still hoping to get out and hike. Also, take some resumes out this week to middle schools in the area to see what the job prospects are looking like for next year.

Well, I was hoping to do better, but the time is 9:29pm and I am finished with the weekend recap. I could keep on rambling with stuff while I play poker, but I may as well just finish this post off and call it a quasi-uber. Hope you all have a good week!

It's the Wherewithals! The Wherewithals!

Stacey's band played a show in Ballard last night, and they played good. Not to say they weren't good when I last saw them about a year ago, but Tessa put it best by saying the band sounds polished now. Hop over to Tessa's blog if you want to see pictures. My calves hurt by the end of their set, getting my standing-still groove on, and the more my calves hurt--the better the show!

Just waxed my in-class math test, but have to work on my take-home test now. It isn't due until Monday, but I'll be playing in the Hanford Hoowwwwl all weekend long. The tournament raised $4000 for the Special Olympics last year, hopefully we can best that this year. I've already arranged for Friday night to have two poker tournaments, and if you know ultimate tournaments, you know there will be copious amounts of drinking and fun had by all. Can't wait!

I'm a Lightweight

Literally.

So, Seattle has these gargoylish, cyborg street lights. During the day, they function on a normal, American rotating sequence. But at night, things start to get a little crazy! The normal, fair sequence goes out the window as soon as dusk hits, and the weight-induced sensors activate--much like the gargoyles from my favorite cartoon on Friday afternoons grades 6 through 8.

In theory (if that isn't a harbringer of doom for this paragraph, I don't know what is...)... in theory... it works out great. The light stays green one way until a car comes in the other direction, then the light changes for that person until someone comes in the original direction the light was green. The problem for me lies in the fact that I am just too damned skinny. The combined weight of me and my 300lb motorcycle isn't enough to register the weight-scale, so the light stays red for eternity. I toyed with hopping off my bike and hitting the pedestrian signal, but I wasn't positive it would make my light green at 65th and 25th AVE, because the north and south green lights are split up. After a minute of getting shafted on the light right-of-way, I gunned it up the hill and back home. F cyborg lights.

Other fun things tonight:

The second-place vote getter for my title this evening was: "If I was an Aboriginee, You'd be Dead!" My Mom and I headed down to University of Washington for the first Women's Volleyball game of the season tonight around 7pm. We rolled through the light at 25th AVE and I think 50th, where it crosses the Burke Gilman. I thought I spied Tessa and Jared on their bikes waiting to cross 25th, but the girl looked much taller than the Tessa I remember. We swung up to our usual parking spot in a restricted, but never checked, parking area up on the UW campus and walked down to the pavillion. On the way, we walk on a road parallel to the Burke Gilman. The road is just above the trail, and we eventually make our way down onto the trail via various dirt paths that lead down to the B.G.T. As we were walking down the dirt path, Tessa and Jared go whizzing by on their sporty bikes towards Gasworks.

How was the ride?

No sooner do I unswivel my head and tell Mom about knowing those two people on the bikes, when I almost run into Marie Holzapel. She was on the latin class trip I took to Italy my Sophomore year at RHS, and she is the preppy blonde-type I longed after for much of my youth. She was walking down the trail talking with another girl I recognized, but couldn't put a name to. She didn't notice me *single tear*, but it was kind of weird running into 3 people I know within about 20 feet of each other on a foresty section of the Burke Gilman Trail.

I didn't say "Hi" to any of them, but it still weird for me to run into people I know. After living in Tacoma, Sacramento, Portland and Tahoe for the last seven years, I've gotten used to not knowing anyone where I go out. Coaching at a local high school isn't going to make me any less anonymous. I've already had to watch what I wear to tennis practice. My normal attire consists of wanna-be cool shirts with snazzy sayings, like, "I get loaded at Gray Lumber" or various beer shirts. In high school and college, they were all the rage (or banned). When I'm coaching high school, they just don't seem very appropriate, so it is usually just a plain ol' white shirt or a sporty shirt for me.

Lake Tapps tomorrow!

Weekend Update (marathon 4-hour post!)

Lots of things to update: sports, ankle, poker, Stacey, blogging...

This weekend started out a lot of fun. Got off work on Friday early and remembered to use up the rest of my $10 iTunes gift card from my sister. I had my eyez set on "All Eyez On Me" the two-disc compilation by Tupac.


I don't have enough good rap, and what's better than some of Tupac's best? I smoked a blunt and listened to the rhymes of Tupac while catching the first game of the Red Sox/Yankees series (OK, I don't smoke, but it just sounded right). Now, I'm not the biggest fan of watching baseball on TV (or in person, for that matter), but watching the Red Sox and Yankees play is always a good show. Their rivalry is right up there with any rivalry in sports. I root for the Red Sox primarily because I can't stand the Yankees. When you have an unlimited budget, and it seems like half of your team is going to the Hall of Fame, where is the challenge?! Now, the Red Sox aren't much better, I'm pretty sure they are the 2nd biggest spending team--but the only reason for that is because they are trying to compete with the Yankees.

The Yankees had the game in the bag and Alex Rodriguez had hit two more homeruns to add to his amazing April. The Yanks had their Hall of Fame closer, Mariano Rivera, in to close the game out, when the craziness started to happen. Boston scored five or six runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to come from behind and win the game. Feeling good about the game, I decided to go hot tub down in South Lake, then head to the casinos to play poker.

The hot tub was empty, and I soaked in the tub while contemplating writing and life. I keep having ideas for characters to base a story around, but whenever I start writing I get all caught up on the background--which doesn't make for very entertaining writing. I'll have to work on just diving in and writing the entertaining parts, then weaving in the history as I go. While contemplating life, I decided that I'm pretty sure I want to move back to Seattle come November or so. It could be earlier than that, it could be later, but I don't really want to miss out on friends and their lives anymore. Knowing that I'll be leaving Tahoe then also impresses on me how important it will be to soak up all of Tahoe while I can. That means lots of hiking, lots of swimming, and hopefully lots more pictures :)

I started to prune in the hot tub, so it was time to move on to the casino. The obvious problem being, 'how do I change out of my swim trunks?' I ended up parking in a dark and gloomy corner of the casino parking structure, where things much worse than getting naked had been going on. I looked around and didn't see any movement, so I wriggled and squirmed out of my trunks (which is much harder in a car seat than I thought it would be), and into my strategically placed shorts and warm-ups. I got out of the car, pretending like nothing sinister had occurred, and of course the first thing I see is two people in a mini-van right behind my car staring at me. I quickly break eye-contact and head to the poker room.

I check in for $3/$6 limit (in my comfort zone, money-wise) and get a seat right away, which was unexpected. After a quick scan around the table, I actually recognized one of the guys at the table, which surprised me. He is one of the better basketball players I play with on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. It was pretty comical, because he sat there with about three buttons undone on his shirt, showing off his possibly waxed chest. He also had a lady caked in makeup on his left arm. If I didn't know he lived in town, I would have presumed they were on an anniversary trip to South Lake... or maybe that he was entertaining a hooker (hope he doesn't read this!). I smiled to myself and pretended not to know them.

Other people at the table included two wiley-looking old asian guys, a college dude, two ladies who were pretty solid players, and a middle-aged guy to my right from Cameron Park, who I chatted it up with. I told him about the Grass Valley music fest I was going to this summer to see Ani Difranco. As soon as I said "Grass Valley music fest" his eyes lit up.

"Do whatever you can to see Tommy Emmanuel."

My new friend was coo-coo for Tommy Emmanuel. I've never heard of him, but apparently he is the best guitarist in the entire world, according to Mr. Cameron Park.

"He makes Eric Clapton and Santana look like beginners."

This, of course, perked my interest. I am intrigued, but he isn't playing on the same night Ani is, so chances are I probably won't stick around (and pay for) another night of music.

The actual poker was pretty uneventful, I got pretty lucky and didn't have many difficult decisions. I had pretty bad cards all night long, but that was fine with me because I just folded until the good cards came. I ended up winning a few big pots, and finished up $86 for the three hours or so I played. Surprisingly, the basketball buddy and his wife went busto within the 2nd hour. I had made a mental note to stay out of any pots with them, because I just assumed they'd be sharks. In their defense, they did get pretty unlucky with a few hands, and that is all it takes to crap out at $3/$6.

I came back to the house at about 12:30am or so to a house full of strangers. But they were friendly, drunk and high strangers, so all was good. When lots of people come over we have to re-arrange the furniture in the living room so everyone can fit in and see each other. This means blocking any route to the kitchen, and I was craving some food, so I hopped over the end of a couch and was treated to a very happy site in the kitchen. Cans upon cans of Coors Light (Silver Bullet!) covered both counter tops. If I hadn't had such a fun and profitable time at the casino, I would have been bummed that I missed such a fun time.

I thought (as did my roommates) that they would have a little drink here, then head out to the other people's house. But Kristara apparently started up Asshole, and was the first president, and was a mean bitch--so she got her comeuppance and everyone got trashed, lol. That would have been a site to see :) I finished some left-over pizza and people decided it was time to buck up and go home. I'm not sure if any of them was in a good state to drive home, but I was in bed and asleep by the time they made it out the door.

Saturday morning was fun, woke up around 11:30am and decided that basketball at noon sounded fun. Grabbed my ankle-brace out of my sports box and wrapped my ankle up good. It didn't feel too hot, but I could always just work out a bit if running on the ankle didn't feel good. Skipped breakfast because I didn't want to run after breakfast like I did on Thursday. No warm-up for my ankle, because when I got to the gym I was the 10th person to show up, so a game started up.

I saw the guy from poker the night before and we had a fun little talk about it. He said he and his wife only play once a month or so. It was nice to finally have a conversation with him (still don't know his name), because we tend to play against each other a lot, and we had gotten into a little argument on Thursday about a crappy call by him (or so I say!). He's a nice guy though, and I made a point to be on his team today.

I'd say my ankle was at about 10%, but we won the first game somehow as I hobbled up and down the court. I was actually skipping most of the time when I changed direction, because I had to use my right foot.

We lost the 2nd game and I was ready to stop playing basketball for the day, but by that time 8 more people had shown up, so we had two games going--and by losing on the "winners" court, we had another game on the "losers" court. So instead of abandoning my team, I played another game... and lit it up! We played a team that didn't have very good defense, and in a game to 11 by 1's and 2's, I made four 2's to score 8 points. I couldn't really do anything but shoot threes, because I could hardly move, so I'm glad they left me open!

Winning that game put us on the winners court again, and my ankle was screaming at me to stop, but I played again because I'm an idiot. We got beat pretty bad, because this team played defense, and I couldn't really play defense. Back down to the losers court for game #4, against the team I lit up. This time they decided to guard me, and we got whooped. My ankle praised Jesus, and I went upstairs to work out a bit. After working out I came back down to the basketball courts and watched as my team (minus me, plus Mike, a cagey veteran) won their game on the losers court, then ended up beating the reigning champs on the winners court. That felt good, because I didn't want them stuck on the losers court all day because I couldn't play any defense! I'll probably take it easy on my ankle this week, because of the Sacramento Hat Tourney next weekend. Can't miss that, so I'll have to miss some bball this week, dems the breaks!

After bball on Saturday I was CRAVING a French Dip. Not sure why, other than I hadn't had one in a long time, and that I skipped breakfast. I hit Sam's Place for the first time in a month, and the food was grubbin' as usual. When I got there, there was a breaking news special about the Blue Angels. One of the planes crashed at an air show in.. Brunswick? I think? That'd be a pretty horrific site to see.

(this clip isn't the crash video, just a random clip of them flying over Lake Washington)



I grew up with the Blue Angles flying around Seattle every summer. They'd do warm-up runs all around the city, flying right over all the houses, inbetween the buildings in downtown Seattle--it was pretty nutty to see. Then we'd watch the show and see the four planes flying literally within feet of each other. I always thought it was extremely dangerous, but at the same time, watching them do it year after year it seemed like they were pretty much invulnerable (and untouchable, because as a color-blind kid, I knew that was something I'd never be able to do). Not invincible anymore :(

One of the other TV's just so happened to be showing game 2 of the Red Sox/Yankees series, so I watched a few innings while I chowed down the dip and spicey (and I mean spicey!) fries. Big Papi hit a two-run shot to put the Red Sox up by 4, so I was content when I left in the middle of the 5th inning (and they held on to win).

I headed back home and thought I might get some Vanguard in with the gang, but it wasn't to be. Played some spades and listened to the Tupac CD again--that CD is where it's at. Had a pretty nutty spades game where me and my partner were at 359 (9 bags) and our opponents were at 473 or so. I was first to act and went double-nill (no passing), because it was really our only hope. I was surprised to see a hand that just might work... although even if we got my double-nill, my partner would have to bid his cover hand perfectly and get no bags, or else the opponents would win. My partner bid 4 and we pulled it off perfectly. No way we should have won that game, but we did!

I didn't have any plans, and was feeling lucky, so I headed back to the casino for the evening. I got a seat right away again, and only recognized one guy at my table--one of the old asian guys from the night before. He ended up leaving about 30 minutes in. The rest of the table was hilarious though. This is what the table looked like:

Seat 1: 23yr old guy who I chatted with all night, lost his first buy-in and went to the ATM and came back saying defiantly, "I'm not going to that damn machine again tonight!" He also was there because he and his roommates were vastly different, much like me. He said, "Well, it is either poker, where I have fun and might win some money, or sitting at home with my roommates who just do shrooms and watch SNL on Saturdays." He used a line I had been waiting to use for some time now--in response to "good players don't (play 7-2 offsuit, cold-call three bets on draws, yada yada)"--"good poker players don't play $3/$6 either!" Which got a hoot from the table. He also had a broken ankle. Mine is just sprained, but eerie similarities!

Seat 2: 30-something husband of Seat 9, good poker player and also a really funny guy. The lady in Seat 8 couldn't stand the guy because she thought he could "look into her soul." He called her down with crap two times and she folded, cursed under her breath, then went on a smoke break both times. He hit quad nines in a big pot where I folded a pair of Kings with a Q kicker on the turn to his aggression. The jackpot was about $150 for his quad nines. About five hands later he hit quad 8's, which only got him the $30 pot, because jackpots were only for quad 9's or better--I didn't feel too sorry for him though.

Seat 3: 40yr old guy with a golf hat. Wasn't very good at poker, but was a jester. He'd show his cards every time and could hardly believe his bad luck when he was behind the whole way. He and I chopped a huge pot in a hand that I live-straddled and woke up with AK, which was his hand too.

Seat 4: 50yr old hilarious black guy. He did pretty well, and had more than his fair share of big hands. Had a cackling laugh, which I usually can't stand, but he was laughing at himself more than at anyone else, so it was alright. He was joking around with me and seats 1, 2 and 3 all night.

Seat 5: 50yr old skinny Italian guy with a hairy chest and an unbuttoned shirt. Not great at poker and pretty quiet all night.

Seat 6: 40yr old guy. First time at a casino, and got a run of cards. Eventually the lady in Seat 9 said, "you never bluff, do you?" which of course got him to bluff in the next hand, like clockwork, lol. He had some pretty funny lines, I remember laughing, but I can't remember any specifics.

Seat 7: 60yr old guy who nothing could possibly go right for. He'd have AK and flop AK, only to lose to a set on the river. He eventually would just look at me across the table and shake his head as he got beat again and again. Apparently he thought I understood his hardship? I did, and I'd be a shoulder to cry on as long as he kept calling when he was beat!

Seat 8: 60yr old lady who had a temper and liked Camel cigarettes. This lady was funny without trying to be. The guy in seat 2 would call her with nothing and she'd fold and go into a tirade, then leave. A few minutes later she'd come back and assure us all that she was in complete control of her emotions, until she lost another hand, then she'd storm off again. We didn't specifically make fun of her, but she was the cause of a lot of the table laughter.

Seat 9: 30-something wife of Seat 2. She was originally from Germany, and she unknowingly hit a straight-flush for a $240 jackpot. It was a pretty ridiculous hand. I had AK in the BB, the flop was T-J-Q, all clubs. She bet out first to act, I called the bet, Seat 2 re-raised, Seat 4 re-re-raised, and Seat 7 re-re-re- raised. She called all the bets, and I insta-folded my now ugly flopped straight. The 8 of clubs peeled off on the turn, and there was a crazy amount of betting again. When all the dust (and the 3 of diamonds on the river) settled, she had the 9 of clubs for the straight-flush, I had the flopped straight, Seat 2 flopped a set of Q's and was hoping to boat up, but folded on the river; Seat 4 had the A of clubs; Seat 7 flopped a K-hi flush (and stared at me after the hand, looking for some hint of understanding, I suppose). Talk about a juicy flop!

Seat 10: your hero!

I ended up drinking seven Sierra Nevadas through the night, and didn't leave until 2:30am. I finished down about $70, and continued my break-even poker playing. A bit frustrating to keep breaking even on weekend treks, but I have a blast, and I'm not losing money, so hey hey!

Got back home and took a fun trip down memory lane by checking out my old livejournal. There are some pretty funny comment conversations back there with Stacey, Tessa, Kristle and other friends. Which got me wondering what Tessa, Brien and Kristle are up to nowadays. I read through some of Tessa's recent posts on her new blog... she's still got it! She continues to write a very entertaining blog updated almost daily, and makes me wish I had kept on blogging (and also motivates me to blog now!).



I wasn't able to find out much about Kristle and Brien. A few entries down in my livejournal were at a really fun and exciting time in my life, when I was just about to move down to Sacramento with Kristle. Kristle, Brien and I had a great time the last few months of college together... then Sacramento (and Japan for B) happened, and I think the bad situation in Sacramento put a hold to whatever friendship we had. Since I'll be moving back to Seattle in November most likely, I spent some time wondering last night what all these old, possible friends are up to now. Anyone know what happened to these two?? Last I heard they were living in South Seattle?

Ended up hitting the hay around 3:30am and woke up this afternoon at 3:30pm... nice! Waking up tomorrow for work is going to suck, ah well.

Had a nice chat with Stacey today about lots of things, including her new relationship with Ben. Not a huge shocker there, and I'm sure they'll have a lot of fun together. Her plan was to stay single for a while, but guys tend to have other plans when it comes to smoking hot, bass-playing ladies :)



Holy crap, 3-hour blog entry! I think I can extend it with a few pictures... time to search!