Weekend Update. . .

After work on Friday I went to the bar with Chris and Brian for a few drinks to catch the beginning of the Sox game. It didn't take long for jocks in suits to file in. They had some promotion where they were giving away Sox and Bruins tickets, skis, etc. Perhaps they underestimated the breadth of Red Sox knowledge because every time the petite woman read a question, like twenty jocks yelled out the correct answer at the same time, which was, on average, about 3/4 of the way through the question. she kept looking at her boss with a quizical look. They couldn't figure out what to do. The Sox got a big lead early, and then I left. . .

I came home early and got uncomfortably content - I say uncomfortably because I was really feeling like playing some cards and settling in instead of being social and doing something. Matt said he was going out somewhere in town with some of his friends, but I settled into a nice, bad high-limit game. For those that don't know me very well, I have a tendency to occasionally break usual grind-it-out discipline and go against my better judgement. This usually happens when I have been running good in whatever I am playing, and I decide to gamble a little and place myself in tough spots that will challenge me. Well, I usually find a way to justify it, even if there really is no good reason. Anyways, I started at around 8 p.m. and after a few hours I was up a bit. One player was overplaying some hands vs me in the right spots. This always helps :). Just as quickly, though, I made a bunch of second best hands and I was back to even.
I hadn't eaten any dinner, so I went to the seven-eleven around the corner to get some chips and a small can of cashews. I strolled back, cracked open the can of cashews, pulled an MGD bottle out of the refrigerator and took another seat. Picked up my ipod headphones, and played the itunes from the beginning of The Books c.d. This c.d. will be in my permanent collection of good music to listen to when playing poker - mellow, minimal words, lots of samples in foreign languages, etc. I usually play several tables of $30-$60 but in this game I just play one. I crack the door of my apt. wide open because it was warm out, and that way I don't have to sit out to have the occasional cigarette. I open my kitchen window so the ventilation is great.
Two hours later I am stuck about a Kia (my friends and I usually refer to the swings in bigger games in units of small compact cars. If I were stuck twice as much, I then could say two Kias, or maybe upgrade to one off-lease Honda or a BMW with 125k miles on it, etc) I got severely owned in a few hands, but most of my losing plays were marginal decisions. At one point, I took a bad beat and followed it up with a real marginal calling of two cold from the bb to a button raise and sb 3 bet and losing when I should have just opted to fold preflop. At that point I had to throw in the best poker de-stress song of all time - "Suicide is Painless" aka The M.A.S.H. theme song. . . )
About four hours, 10 cigarettes, and three MGD's later, I managed to claw my way back and scrape out a Kia. I wanted to go to bed, but I needed to eat something again. I strolled into the Seven-Eleven again at like 4:30 a.m. As soon as I walked in the guy behind the counter - a 20-something African American - kind of grinned. When I brought another bag of chips to the counter he laughed out loud and said, "Oh man, I'm guessing you had a reeeeeeeeaaaallll good night. . . " I just kind of grinned and said, "It was ok. I got unstuck, so that's good." He had no idea what I was talking about, so he just gave me an awkward and stilted smirk and my change. I think he finally realized I wasn't stoned, anyways. . .

Saturday, I didn't play at all and went to the Beth Orton concert in the evening. It was ok. I enjoyed it, but it could have been a lot better. Since I am so oversaturated with new music now I haven't had a chance to listen to her new cd that much yet, and she played mostly new songs. I took a pic on my camera phone, but it looks like an image of a newly discovered planet. My Sunday was worthless, yet relaxing, for the most part. . .

Tomorrow night I will post answers to the quiz. 12 is still the high score. Any quizzes that I get before I put up the answers I will take. Also, Scneider noted that even though he didn't win the quiz, he still got the $75 from me, just in a more roundabout kind of way. . . .