Weekend and a Poopy Game

Ok, so I returned home last night. Sometimes when you're really tired from an exhausting (but, fun) weekend trip, something as simple as a nice meal can really bring a smile to your face. QB picked me up from the airport around 9pm, and when we got to my place, there was a surprise meal that she had prepared for us.

Bacon Wrapped Enoki Mushrooms



Mussel Risotto with Iberico Cheese



Food was great. Thank you, Iron Chef QB.

Okay, let's go back in time a bit... so, on Friday I flew down to Phoenix early in the morning for a work-related meeting. All that went okay, and by 4:30 my plane took off for SoCal. By 6, PetDander had picked me up in his new Prius. We made it to his place quickly, and pretty much just hung out and watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle (remember this, as it is of karmic importance) while waiting for Mrs. PetDander and her friend, Loaner.

Due to traffic, the four of us didn't make it out to dinner until about 9 or so. We went to a place called Pizzaioli in Chino. I had the Tortellini al Forno, and I must say that I liked it very much. There wasn't ever much silence during dinner. Conversation flowed without any problems at all. It's really easy when you have two nearly-compulsive talkers (me and Mrs. PetDander) sitting at the table together. However, it was fairly balanced. I'd estimate that we dominated no more than 70% of the entire conversation.

Ok, so that was dinner. PD and I then headed for the Commerce for some late-night poker. We sat in a really soft 9/18 game and PD proceeded to get smacked in the face by the deck... he must have had the nuts 4 or 5 times in the first few orbits. I was stuck a little bit early on, but over the next couple of hours I clawed my way out of my hole. Eventually, we got moved over to Table Stonehenge, where there wasn't much card playing going on. It was mostly a blind-chopping fest. When we finally called it a night, PD was up 420 and I was up 420 (I told you the movie was important).

The next night we entered into Event #5 of the California State Championship: $540 Limit Hold'em Tournament. There were a total of 180 entries, and the top 18 spots paid. Sadly, neither of us lasted more than 2 1/2 hours. I'll bore a few of you with the details of the hand that led to my eventual demise...

So, I had gotten hurt pretty badly a few hands ago when I had a strong hand that lost to a guy's runner-runner straight. At this point I've got 1500 chips and the blinds were 75-150, and the limts were 150-300. I'm not in good shape at all. I look down to see KQ of hearts in the small blind. Everyone folds to the button who has roughly as many chips as I do. He raises to 300. I call as does the big blind. We see a flop of Ah Td 6h. This is a flop with a ton of potential for me. The big blind and I both check, and the button bets. We both call. The turn brings an offsuit 5. Again, we check and the button bets. I decide to make a move now... I figured I'd raise it here and hopefully get them out right now. If they both don't fold, I've still got 12 outs to the nuts.

To my surprise, the big blind cold-calls my raise... and my stomach felt just a tad bit sick. The button folds (he later told me he had AKo). The river is an Ace, and I bet out in desperation, and get raised. I fold my King high, and the big blind tables A5 for the full house. I'm down to 150 chips at this point. Rowr shows up with her luck, and I am able to quadruple up to 600 with AK suited. Then, I find 55 and 3-bet pre-flop. The original raiser calls that and also my flop bet. I'm shown 77 and no help comes, and I'm out.

Unfortunately, I can't remember PD's busting hand. So, on that note, I'll move onto what's next. We all then decide to head off to Hermosa Beach with Duke and Crestfallen for some post-bustout drinking. Our plan was to hit up Sharkeez, which is a bar I used to frequent back when I lived down in SoCal. But, when we get there, all we see is a burnt out lot. Turns out Sharkeez burned down in May. You can read about it here. There went that plan.

We figured food made sense, so we hit up a small pizza joint on Hermosa Ave, then we made it to Sharks Cove, a sports bar just down the street. There, the five of us started off with a fair bit of drinking. A little later that night, an old college buddy, Mafioso Enzo (also known as RD Pabn in some circles), joined us and we partied some more. It was a fun evening full of random conversation topics ranging from eating mosquitoes to obsessive-compulsive disorder to boll weevil appendectomies. We left when the bar closed, and by then, most of us (non-drivers) were fairly toasted.

PD and I decided we wanted to play more poker, so we headed back to the Commerce. Rowr wanted to hang out more and watch us play. PD and I were already playing for some time and there was still no sign of her. I began to wonder what had happened to her, but I was soon paged on the loudspeaker. Turns out she forgot her phone and was wandering around aimlessly in the card room. At some point, the catcalls and whistles broke her down and that prompted her to just make the page.

It took a little bit before PD and I were put on the same table... must have been around 4am or so when it finally happened. And, what a table it was. This 9/18 table was EPIC. Here was the line-up when we first sat down... there was Crazy Arabian who was a true maniac. He'd raise pre-flop just about 100% of the time. Then there was Mr. Fobtacular who was by all means an enabler. He really loved to egg on Crazy Arabian and kept the game super-live all night long.

Along with those two, there was super-bad playing old Russian man and really passive Math teacher guy. The math teacher guy really reminded me of Milton (the stapler guy) from Office Space. Then there was the Egyptian. He wasn't really Egyptian, but he must have taken lessons from them, as he had this ginormous pyramid of chips in front of him. He played extremely well throughout the night, so there's no reason to believe that he didn't win it all (possibly from the Crazy Arabian). The Egyptian really reminded me of Vin Diesel. He didn't really look like him... he might have had the Vin Diesel smile, but his voice was really similar.

Anyway, the table was fantastic, and even Rowr (who is a beginning poker player) could see just how profitable such a table would be for those who chose not to play stupidly. I think she had an amazing time, as I heard a rumor that she is planning to go play some low-limit poker at the Commerce soon. PD was pretty card dead and went up and down all night, never really getting much traction. By the time we left (about 9:30am) he was stuck a little bit, and I was up about a rack. Win or lose, that table was entertaining for everyone to be sure.

Sleep is so good after a night like that.

Now a quick mention of Cat Poop. Has anyone heard of the game, Eat Poop You Cat? I think it'd be a really fun game if you had the right mix of people and just the right amount of inebriation. I just wanted to mention this game so that some friends might read this and happen to remember it next time we all got together. Okay, this post is way too long already. That's it, I'm done.