Flights, Parties, Tequila and Poker

Posted on December 19, 2005
Filed Under Geeeek Stuff, Movies, Poker

Friday night our company had it’s “Holiday Gala.” For the first time that I can remember, I wore a tie to an event other than a wedding or funeral. Since I had ZERO plans to drive home after an event where I knew there was going to be some heavy drinking, we rented a room at Green Valley Ranch Casino where the party was being thrown. Turned out to be a great move. Though, we paid $129 to rent a room that I was awake in for less than 90 minutes. I had checked in after work, drove home and got ready for the party. Between that time and the start of the party, we took our kids to the airport and put them on a plane. It was their first time they were flying alone. Any amount of nervousness that I had was completely overshadowed by my wife. She was a bit of a mess. We left the airport and went directly to the party. About an hour in to the party we received the call from the kids that they landed safely and my mom was there to pick them up. It was then and only then that my wife was able to relax and start enjoying the party.

To help the party along, I had bought 2 bottles of Chinaco Tequila. If you have never had this tequila, stop what you are doing and go buy some. It is the best tequila I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a few). We always buy the “blanco”, but, for Christmas, a buddy gave us a bottle of “Anejo.” So, for the party, I brought the Anejo and one of the blanco. We cracked the Anejo first. Holy crap, that was some smooth F’n tequila. With a group of us all sharing, it didn’t take too long for that bottle to hit the dust. Then, about an hour later, during dinner, one of the staff from the hotel informed me that bringing liquer in to the party was against Nevada law. Before he was able to swipe the 1/2 bottle we had left, I hid it under my chair. To cover our bases, we went ahead and polished off that bottle a few minutes later. I think I finished up with 7 shots.

At the start of the party, with our first drinks, the wife and I took Chasers. These are supposed to help you avoid a hangover. For me, they worked like a charm. After the part ended at 11:00 PM, we played poker until 3:00 AM. We went to the room and were asleep by 3:30 AM. Woke up at about 10:00 AM and I had no hangover symptoms at all. I got called a few names when I told that to a few people who probably had less to drink than I did but woke up feeling pretty wrecked.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. We pretty much laid around all day. Did a little shopping (very little) and then watched The 40 Year Old Virgin. We had started it pretty late so it was hard to keep awake through it. It’s a funny movie but we both hate the ending. When they break in to song it just completely loses it for us. When they broke in to song in the middle of Anchorman, it was funny and short enough that it was able to remain funny. But, in Virgin, it’s a 5 minute interlude which breaks right in to the credits. After sitting through that, it’s a real bummer that they didn’t put an extra scene at the end of the credits. Even if it was just the foreign employee jumping on screen to yell, “Go fuck a goat.” That would have been funny. (I could totally write for Hollywood.)

On Sunday, with no kids to look after, I was able to sneak out and play in 2 poker tournaments. Both at the Sahara casino. In the first tournament, I did really well in the first hour. So well that I didn’t even bother buying the optional add-on. In the second hour, I chose a bad spot to try to bluff a guy off a hand after I missed my draw. Actually, I almost got him to lay down his hand. He took a full 2 minutes before calling. So, I didn’t feel too bad about my play. I hung on and doubled up a few times and had a decent chip stack before putting in too large a raise with K/Q of spades in early position. When a player in late position re-raised, I had put too much money in to the pot to fold. I had to call off the rest of my chips. I was happy to find that he had 10/10. This put me basically in a coin flip situation. It was much better than if he had A/Q or A/K. Then I would have been in real bad shape. But, the board bricked for me so I was done. Then, in the evening tournament, I didn’t have quite the same ride, but the result was the same. I got knocked out about 2 1/2 hours in to the tourney. At the end I lost 4 good sized hands when going in with the best hand. The final 2 hands for me went like this:

Hand 1
A/Q (me) Vs K/9. K on the turn and I’m dead. This isn’t a horrible beat, I know. But, with the amount of chips I have at this point, it hurts not to win with the better starting hand.

Hand 2
A/Q (me) Vs K/Q. On this hand, I’ve got the guy basically dead to one of the 3 remaining Ks. Of course the K showed up on the turn again. This knocks me out of the tourney.

Both hands were against the same guy.

I had a blast this weekend. My company put on one hell of a party that included a VERY funny video production that had shots of our CEO and COO talking about what it is our company does. The cut back and forth to movie clips and clips from TV shows like the Three Stooges. They poked fun at all facets of the company and I don’t think anybody was spared. Also, we had a toy drive for Safe Nest. A great many of our employees brought an unwrapped gift to donate to a great cause. I’m not positive who’s idea it was to set up the toy drive but I aplaud you, whoever you are. What a great way to provide some cheer to some people who could really use it.

Enough rambling for me. I gotta get some sleep!

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