Poker with Ben and Laura

Chris and I headed out to Ben and Laura’s new place, for some burgers and a game of poker. Ended up meeting some friends of theirs (Ken and Sarah, John and Jay). Turns out, it was John and Jay’s house where Chris and I attended that big, 20+ person Holdem tourney, way back when.

Dinner was excellent, and I stuffed myself on burgers and hot dogs. There were a ton of kids running around in the backyard (including some of the neighborhood kids), and that just made things that much more fun – all that running and screaming and excitement everywhere. One of my favorite moments was when I saw a few kids taking buckets of sand from the sandbox, and walking it over to the nearby fence. They were trying to feed the sand to a dog in the adjoining yard. Unsuccessfully, I might add.

As Chris and I were setting up the chips for everyone, Simmie (her real name is Symphony) came out to show off this toy snake she had. We talked at length about the difference between mammals and reptiles, and how some animals are warm-blooded and some are cold-blooded. We ended up talking about the different kinds of snakes, and how the cobra was one of the deadliest.

And, I’m not sure how it got to this, but she began wondering out loud about who would win in a fight: a dog or a cobra. The type of dog she was thinking of was “you know, the really long ones?” A Daschund is what I think she was after (or, as Chris refers to them… “weiner dogs.”).

There was some debate here, as we all had our differing opinions. I had my money squarely on the cobra. Simmie was partial to the dog, but I think she was blinded by how cute Dascunds are, and wasn’t really giving serious thought to their fighting prowess. Chris on the other hand, had a lot of thoughtful questions to ask. Has the dog been walked? Is the dog hungry? Does the dog surprise the cobra, or is it the other way around?

This had me laughing to no end, and it was hysterical to watch Simmie process each question, deliberating the answer in her head and then declare her findings. This conversation was the highlight of my evening.

Poker, however, was a different story. I was excited to play again, but I think my overzealousness got the better of me. I had pocket Jacks, got all excited, and ended up going all-in fairly early on. Instead of slow-playing my hand (which I’m prone to do), I bet heavily at the start, and wound up going head to head with Ken – who matched my raises and raised me in turn. All of this before the flop.

Turns out, he had pocket Kings to my pocket Jacks. Doh!

I hung on for a few hands after that, but was first out of the game. Tonight was one of those bad beats where I questioned whether I even knew how to play the game at all. Ah well – it was a good game overall, and I still had a lot of fun watching everyone else play to the end. The women at the table were kicking butt consistently, all night, and it looked like they were going to end up dominating. But by the end, Ken and Ben were able to hang on and recoup some chips. Ultimately, Ben went head to head with Jay and ended up beating her after some intense head-to-head hands.

Lots of big shifts tonight, and a surprising number of big hands decided by the river cards. So it goes.

Great fun tonight, and I’m just itching to redeem my poker playing abilities. Next time, maybe I can find some decent middle ground between slow-playing all night and going all-in so early.