I had a terrible night last night. Nothing went according to plan. No beer at Ted's. Poker was all screwed up, and the long and short of that can be summarized by my straight at the end of the night (on the flop) that faced up to Daylan's boat on the turn (made with his powerful 4-6 offsuit, is it any damned wonder he loses at poker?).

An early, early morning this morning. Poker last night, and it continued until the wee hours. I'm nearly broke until Tina gets paid Friday, and I knew that the kids were going to be out of town this evening, so I thought I'd better look into securing some money. There was a poker game going, so I headed that way, after leaving a voice mail for Tina explaining where I was (not usually a good idea). I hate to walk into a poker game short on cash, and knowing that a loss means a pissed-off wife (because why should she be happy to be without me for the evening with no associated financial gain?), and leftovers at mom's, if I'm lucky, for lunch, not that that is so awful. There's also the problem of playing scared, which no one will tell you is a good idea, at least no one who ever won much money playing poker. It's not that these problems are insurmountable; they just tend to complicate things. To further complicate things, when I walked in I was looking at two much larger stacks. We have a table stakes game with a limited buy-in, so I couldn't immediately put all my money into play, so that increased my risk. Suffice it to say that I played conservative for about two hours, and had gone through almost my entire bankroll, before I started getting a few hands. My upswing began when there were only four players left, which is dangerous because some players will simply quit because they don't think there are enough players to play. Eventually, Player #3 got all his chips in and faced up to a hand that was just a little better. I still wasn't close to even, but Player #1 was a newbie, and a rube, so Player #2 wanted to forge ahead, seeing my short stack,and the possibility of taking all the new guy's considerable stack (built entirely by luck). Of course Player #3, being a close relative of Player #1, advised him he probably didn't want to continue to swim in that particular shark tank, but new money never listens. Since I was still some distance from even, I was happy to continue to play, especially since my cards had started turning for the better. Twenty or thirty hands later, and Player #2 was knocked back to an even amount that he felt was only going to keep decreasing, so he bowed out, leaving only myself and Player #1. I developed a slight lead, playing my super-agressive heads-up game but I kept running into walls when Player #1 would draw out on me, or just plain have me beat from the beginning. I was looking to use my lead to push him around, as is the standard strategy in No-Limit Holdem (even Matt Damon knows that), but finally I ran into the rather large setback of his trips against my two pair. That cost me nearly all my chips. I realized I was making an error in strategy. It's only possible to push around a player who has an interest and a knowledge in the game. I just couldn't make him believe anything about my hand. He was strictly playing his own hand. Reading me was the farthest thing from his mind. I immediately fell back on kiddie poker myself, only playing my own hands. I figured out that it was best to use his own game against him, as immature and predictable as it was. The advantages that I had were a willingness to risk everything and a nose for blood. I doubled up twice in a row, slowed down on a bad run, and finally took him down about two in the morning. It was exhausting, and bad practice for playing against better opponents, but at least I have a little kicking around money for tonight. I got a return voice mail on the way home. It was Tina, and she sounded not unhappy at all that I was out playing poker, requesting only a bag of chips and a pop if I won. I turned around and back-tracked a couple miles and picked those up for her. She apprently had napped and played Sims all evening, and was apparently just glad to be left alone.

This was a pretty good weekend for the Eppersons in poker terms, despite the misgivings of Friday evening. I mentioned earlier that I breezed through two tournaments, but I neglected to mention that I did so partially on two sets of quads. Both of them paid significantly, as the first one (twos) knocked Rachel out of the first tournament, and the second one (fours) gave me my initial chip lead over Kyle in the second tournament. I managed to be stoic throughout the process, which has gotten easier through the years. My twos came slowly, as all I had on the flop was K-2 with something like 8-9-2 on the board. The betting was light, or non-existent, and the turn of course came two. I bet a little and got called. The river came two, and I bet a little more and got raised, and, smelling blood, I raised all-in. Rachel had trips on the flop if I remember right, and turned them into a boat on the turn. Who can blame her for slow-playing a little bit? That will only bite you in the ass once in a great while. That time it did. The second set wasn't nearly as dramatic, as I rolled up fours, and hit trips on the flop for no investment past my big blind. Easy to play. River made quads, and I was lucky enough to be in against flat freakin' nothing but a drunk man with chips.Neither of those sets of quads was my big hand of the weekend though. We played last night, and I set it up mostly as appeasement to Tina since I went to Lexington to visit with Aaron without her. We played straight cash and I just kept hammering at everybody all night, except for Tina. She got up a few dollars. Eventually it got down to me, Tina, and Cory, and Cory had about ten or twelve dollars, and just kept floating up and down. He got down to about $9.20, and I offered him for the second time that night to fill him up to $10.00 and all of us go home, but he vowed to never give up. Which was admirable, and perhaps not entirely unwise, considering we were risking twice as much every hand as he was. We had been playing differing games since Nathan had exited earlier in the evening, and finally Cory thought to play a little Three Card Molly high, which is not to be confused with the sucker game Three Card Monte, which is a shell game with cards. In Three Card Molly, you play just like Five Card Draw, only you only get three cards, you draw up to three times, and 3 aces is the best hand. I rolled up a pair of tens and a 3, which is of course a power hand to begin with, and I bet it mildly after Tina checked. Cory and Tina both called. I drew a nine, and Cory drew two, while Tina drew three. I bet bet mildly again, and was raised by a little by Cory. I just called, smelling a power play later on. I drew my third ten, which is akin to a straight flush to the ten in regular poker, and was raised considerably! I thought of re-raising by the same amount, but it occurred to me that Cory had a pretty good hand. I at first thought he might be bluffing, and I wanted to bilk him out of a little more since he might have pot odds to call, but then I decided he was going to call my all-in bet, which way over-chipped him. I bet it, and he called with almost no hesitation. I showed him the tens and he showed me a pair of queens. We remembered that he had another draw coming, so he still had a chance to draw out one of the two queens in the deck to beat me. To add insult to his injury, he drew an ace.I should also mention that Tina won a nice chunk of change last night when her straight to the ace became a royal flush on the river, and made someone else's flush. They say that is a once-in-a-lifetime hand. I know it pleased her. I think she still has time for another one.

We breezed through a couple of little poker tournaments, net gain about thirty bucks, and then I started to get reasonably drunk.