fresh content already?! you kiddin' me?!?

at the risk of flaming out early, here's the 2nd post in as many days. went to PK's for poker nite. texas hold em - all night - all hands... i guess it's the hot poker nowadays, but would 'between the sheets' ala 'in-between' or 'between the rails' kill em? or my family favorite, 'up and down the sasqua-wanna'... 8 community cards, 4 by 2, w/ 3 each in the hole, and best 5 card combo takes it, kill anyone?!. or 2 card drop-si (also called 'guts', also called 'balls'), and a 3-card version. and don't forget about another family favorite growing up: 7-card stud, high-low eight ball two spinner sweep'. for those not in the know... 7-card means.. duh, you end up w/ 7 cards.... stud means no trading in cards (ala 'draw') for fresh cards... ala 7 or 5 card 'draw'. the high-low means the pot is split between the high hand (aka the traditional 4 of a kind, full house, flush, straight, 3 of kind, 2 pair, pair) and a 'low' hand', which is the lowest 5 cards possible, w/out any duplicates... aka.. a 9-6-4-3-2 hand would be a "96". the 'eight ball' means there can be no low hand w/ the top card above an 8... aka, an '87' is the 'highest' lowball hand that could win, and the best lowball hand is a '54' (ala a 5-4-3-2-ace), altho my dad used to tell a story where the locals thought the best hand possible was a '64', and the brainerd guys thought a '54' couldn't be be for low hand... the locals argued that a 54 is disqualified from low hand, because that's actually a straight. dad said they had to fight there way out of that town, all over a '65' vs. a 'can't lose' '54' for lowball. dad and his friends were green (highschool age), and they went to another town's bar to play, w/ a bunch of grizzled vets... the old, drunk vets pry thought they could trick the young out of towners... they bet wrong. but dad never told us who ended up w/ all the money, which i surmise means that it wasn't him and his buddies. 'two spinner' means two community cards that everyone can use in there hand. and 'sweep' means that one player can sweep both high and low hands, using different 5-card combinations of the cards for the best low hand and best high hand. don't have to declare at end of betting if you're going hi or low.. it's assumed everyone has a shot at high and low... so, to review, 2 cards down, then bet. then a card up and bet. another up card and bet. another card/bet. another card bet. seventh card down (no bet)... flip first spinner card and bet. flip 2nd spinner card and bet. (that's the 7th round of betting, if you're counting). go around table, figuring out the best low hand, the best non repeating 5 cards at 8 or under... then, the best hi hand (full house, flush, etc). spilt the pop, new deal.

maybe 5 card draw (3card draw, 4 w/ an ace) w/ a spinner. or blackjack out of the dealers pot. or the classic, 'in between'. or dropsie, or polish poker (one card on forehead that you don't look at), or 5 card shotgun (aka like 5 card stud, but w/ all cards up, and betting at every card, or NO betting at every card w/ a huge ante. or 7 card no peak. which is 7 cards down, flipping over in turn around the table, only stopping when you beat the prior best hand. if get a 4 or a 9, can buy another card for half of the pot ante amount. and w/ almost every other poker game, it's always the best 5 cards that win.

maybe 31, if you really want to slow things down. or criss cross, to get lots of betting (3 by 3 grid of cards, w/ 2 spinners.. and, go figure, winner uses best 2 card spinner and 3 cards in a tic tac toe pattern to win.

or whatever game the buzzed dealer can come up w/. any derivative game of the above... 'ummm... so this is 6 card stud, 3 down, 2 up, 1 down, betting on up cards, w/ like 3 spinners, one-eyed jacks and 3s wild, can buy a card w/ a 5 showing, and will be high-low, w/ NO sweep, and like no eight ball required, either.... so, who's in? ante is 50 cents, and chicken-*hit rule is in effect, in case you fold but actually would have won, you need to match the pot.

wow, did i spend lots o time chasing a quarter here, a quarter there... a double burn by hitting the post in in between on a 'pot bet'... youch! odds of actually hitting a post are 2 in 13, but they always seem lower when you're faced w/ a 2 and king, and why wouldn't you bet pot, only to have a KING be you in between card, and guess what, you're counting the pot, and then putting in twice that amount. youch, indeed.

so, did i win tonite? nope. did i enjoy it nonetheless? of course... except for the 3 hour and 45 minute drive over to west side (minnetonka)... well, seemed that long, pry about 45 minute actual drive time.

the wife and the boy get back tomorrow... they'll be underwhelmed by any 'progress' of cleanliness or honey-do project completion... where'd the week go?

ps.. saw the da vinci code... mono e mono... first movie in a theatre that i've ever gone to alone. felt kinda weird... no, i take that back... karen h and i went to movie back in '89 'together'. but we wanted to see different movies... so, i went to a star trek sequel, and she went to a chick flick. worked out well... nobody talks much during a movie anyway (well, except in the hood, to 'big mamma's house'). the movie matches the book pretty closely... about 92% the same. i'd give it a 6.5 out of 10. i liked the discussion of past history and jebus talk waaaay more than the chase scenes in current time...

and damn... i guess i just passed the midnight point... so, make it 'two updates in 3 days'... and here's your random pix of the blog...

out,
j