Back around… oh… 2004ish? 2005ish? I had a friend who lived in Las Vegas who made his bread and butter by playing poker professionally.
He invited Maribou and I out to visit him and one of the things he did while I was out there was teach me Poker Theory.
Now, I wasn’t a particularly *GOOD* student, but I did play poker in a tournament at the Luxor and I came in 3rd (most importantly, I outlasted him in this particular tournament).
Over the next few years, we visited him every year or so (and it was a great excuse to go to Vegas) and I played in some more tournaments, played some more limit poker games, and I even got a Stardust Windbreaker from the Stardust Poker room.
This turned into regular poker nights with our friends here in town and one of our buddies built a 10-man poker table and we entertained ourselves quite regularly on the weekends with nickel/dime limit poker games where we would discuss Poker Theory.
Like everything else, the Poker Bubble burst and the weekly game became every other week became monthly became yearly became that game I used to play all the time.
But co-worker is having a poker night. Just bring $20. So, despite my introversion, I’m doing something *AGAIN* with people this weekend. I’m going to play poker with co-workers. And discuss Poker Theory.
If I can remember it.
“K8o? What are you hoping for? A pair of 8s with a good kicker? A pair of Kings with a crappy kicker?”
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is “Play” by Clare Briggs. Used with permission of the Briggs estate.)
This afternoon: some (abbreviated) errand-running, because tomorrow’s weather looks unpredictable (chance of freezing rain).
I also have a lot of grading to do and an exam to write, so I guess I put some kind of appealing background noise on at home and do that Saturday (instead of this afternoon).
I’m trying not to feel resentful that my one “free” weekend for a while is going to be a weekend of freezing rain. We need the moisture (are in a drought) but melted rain > freezing rain.
I’m also trying not to feel resentful that the weekend right before my birthday (the 24th, I turn 49 on the 27th) I am on the hook for a large and chaotic campus event that’s supposed to be good for “recruitment.” I’d be happier with it if the version last year hadn’t been sheer chaos; I hope they’ve fixed the many problems that cropped up. (Also, I have to write two exams for students to take while at that event….)Report
That sounds like it’s going to suck. Good luck. (Might I suggest Chillstep long mixes?)Report
Well, it sucks less than some of the stuff I’m reading about in “Back from the Land” – about the hippies in the early 70s who tried to live off the land and realized (a) it’s really hard to do that, (b) if you come from a middle-class background, you lack many of the skills needed, and (c) blue-collar or pink-collar jobs are not as romantic as you thought they were (when they took on outside work to make up for lack of money earned from farm production or craft work)
I”ve concluded that every way of earning your life’s bread sucks in some way; the particular way mine sucks is that some times it takes over my whole life for a few weeks. This is probably more tolerable to me than the more precarious labor of things like waiting tables (where you also have to do more ass-kissing and cannot tell jerks to stop being jerks) or something like trying to run my own business (which, from what I’ve seen, eats your life all the time)Report
27 year-old who hasn’t woken up before 9:30am in 8 years thinks he could run farm if society crumblesReport
I thought I was mostly going to spend the weekend in bed after an insomnia-filled week, but apparently I may be spending part of it at poker because Jaybird got the night wrong and the game is actually Saturday.
I say “may” because a very cozy and sleepy and tipsy Jaybird fell asleep in the middle of me trying to find out if there would be sufficient-people-I-know-and-like-there-for-it-not-to-be-exhausting, in which case it will be fun, or a bunch of near-strangers, in which case I’m going to take him up on not having to go. Other people’s coworkers I don’t know are like the *exact* sweet spot for my personal Sartrean hell…
Found out my second mom, who has been battling cancer for a few years now, is prepping for a stem cell transplant to combat her recurrence, which a) I’ve seen other people have really good results with and b) is really miserable to go through, so I’mma try to write her a note at some point too. But I haven’t been doing very well at writing proper paper letters (well, on notecards) to anybody yet… I keep meaning to get back into the habit, but it never quite happens.Report