"Texas Hold Your Bollocks..."

So P dubbed our poker night. It was the first I've played since the days of my "youth" back in D.C. with my Phi Psi boys. And I had almost forgotten how addictive it can be! I was getting up for snowboarding the next morning at 6am, so we started early with the intention of finishing at a decent hour. Less than decent ended up being 2:30am. We had 5 players and more than enough tacos to start us off. The round up included PG, co-worker in a former life and poker "otaku," i.e. "I'm British but should be from Vegas," his girlfriend A-chan who is Japanese but has the best British accent ever, O-chan, P, S and me. PG, A-chan and I were the only ones who knew how to play, but a few bottles of wine/beer/shampoo later (note the red face in the pics), and everyone had gotten the hang of it pretty quickly. Also P's family tradition of hat-wearing spiced things up a bit. Choose your hat, choose your luck. If the luck runs out in the white fuzzy beret, no worries, just change to another. The boys were looking loverly in pink, of course (it's basically the only color hats P and I own)

They always say, the most memorable rounds are the ones you [almost] won. In my case there was one in particular, a big loss to S with a sad story behind it. I was dealt pocket aces. The flop and turn were all low cards-- nothing looking too promising for anyone, not even a face card on the table. And then the river brought a possible straight. Someone only needed a 5 to win... but both the blinds had folded, and who would have stayed in so long with a 5 until the river!? Perhaps I temporarily forgot we were playing with beginners, or perhaps I was too excited by my pocket aces... I'd been trying to run up the pot and then found myself trying to buy it. But P and S are (unfortunately) no quitters. They call and flip one card each to be cocky... they had nothing. I reach for the chips!.... until, S decides to be a smart a$$ and flips his other card, which is THE 5, of course. Little does he know it was a very expensive hand for him because next time I'm doing him no favors. Anyway, in the end, the money ended up with PG and A-chan-- I think they teamed up and pulled a fast one on us. I broke even, and S, P and O-chan (who ended up curled up on the couch before the night was over) lost maybe 3 drinks in Roppongi each. Not a bad night overall.


The 6am wake up was a less than deserved challenge, but the boarding was fun. I finally feel as though I can do it properly and just enjoy without having to focus too intently on staying on board and off ass. In less than 2 weeks I will be tearing up the curves in the powderly bliss of Niseko (in Hokkaido, the northernmost island) for a long weekend with 5 Frenchy boys and the KVH posse. Kid in a candy store? You read my mind!