The gift that kept on giving - until we got tired

My birthday was Friday, and my wife asked me what I wanted.
Other than the usual wisecracks, I told her I only wanted one thing.
Time.
Time is the most precious commodity we have (or, usually, don't have) in our house.
So Friday night, Kate and I went to a Japanese steakhouse, the kind where they cook the food in front of you and throw bits of chicken for you to catch in your mouth. I love watching the chefs throw their cutlery around, just barely missing a finger (both the patrons' and the cookers) and slicing up the veggies and meat with the skill of a veteran serial killer. But I love the food even more. I think shrimp on a grill just might be my favorite food. It's even healthy so you don't have to feel guilty about eating it.
And Saturday, at 10 a.m., Kate dropped me off with a longtime buddy of mine.
It was time for Black Hawk poker!
If there's one thing I truly do mourn since the twins were born, it's time with my friends. Sadly, I just don't get that much anymore. It's not fair to the other person to leave the house at night with three kids up and around (two infants and a toddler I should say), and so everything has to work out just right, and it has to be planned like a D-Day invasion. We went down to Kate's parents in Lakewood for the day, so she would have extra help, and though it worked great, as an example, we packed enough clothes, diapers and other baby crap to get the adults through a month in Germany. It took me five minutes to pack for me and an hour, at least, to pack for the kids.
So Saturday would be great for two reasons. I would get to spend time with a close friend, and I would get to play live poker.
Now it's Black Hawk poker, $2/5 limit, so it wouldn't be very imaginative, skilled or quite frankly much fun at times. But it's still live poker, and complaining about live poker, especially now that I rarely get to leave the house, would be like bitching because your peanut butter pie didn't quite have enough whipped cream.
Probably the most interesting hand came when someone raised and I looked down at a pair of 8s. I called, and an older, 60ish, friendly, chatty lady with a thick Texas accent called as well.
We called her Auntie Poker because she would have made a great aunt. You'd learn how to play poker, and the Thanksgiving dinners would be a lot more lively. But she's also the typical Black Hawk poker player. She wasn't a total idiot, but she played a lot of hands, especially if it was soooted, chased every draw (correctly, if you're into odds) and overvalued marginal hands.
The flop came 8,9,2 with two spades. The original raiser, a young, cool, aggressive player who had climbed Longs Peak seven times (so I liked him right away), bet, Auntie called, and I raised with two spades and a straight draw out there. The raiser re-raised me and Auntie called. I paused for a second and figured if he had a set of 9s, congrats, and re-raised to $20. He just called, and Auntie Poker called.
The third spade came down, a 5, and my heart sank. I did not put the younger guy on a spade, but I definitely put Auntie on one. I figured she had to have some kind of draw. I checked it around. Maybe that's weak but I didn't want to get check-raised, and there was a ton of money in the pot already. Plus I was hoping the board would pair. I weakly checked it around to the river and showed my 8s. The younger guy had K-K, and Auntie mucked. I have no idea what she had. Maybe JJ? I wouldn't even put her past a pair of 9s.
I got A-A three times and it held every time, and I flopped a set of queens and later Kings, but those didn't get much action, and almost all the rest of my big hands, few as they were, didn't get much either. I also did not have a draw hit all day and didn't get a straight or a flush the whole day. And I took a flush too far on a paired board and couldn't fold TPTK to a set of 4s, though in this game it didn't cost me too much, and it's hard to fold a strong hand when it's only $5 more to call and there's a ton in the pot and the players will bet second pair all the way down.
The last two hours we were in card dead hell, and we relied on the Kansas game to entertain us.
What a game. KU played a tough OSU team at their place and really controlled most of the game. It's really unreal that they will most likely be 11-0 and playing for a spot in the national title game. I have to say that over and over to believe it. This is like the Bad News Bears going to the Little League World Series.
As a bonus, my Mookie Vegas bet was on the game, so I'm gonna get a nice payoff for that. Ship it!
As we drove home, we talked poker, our relationships and football. It was disappointing to finish down, but the poker was not about the money. Not today.
The time spent playing it was much more valuable than that.

Run those stairs a second time

Come out tonight to this:





When in the biggest upset since the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team took down a bunch of much larger and angrier men on ice I took down the last Mookie. I'll be "defending" my title tonight, meaning I'll be handing off the crown like a former Miss America to the next lucky contestant, probably by the first hour.
Complicating things is the fact that I"m Mr. Mom tonight, so I hope the toddler cooperates when Daddy whispers to him that he needs him to sleep so he can fold his way to a sixth place cash.
I think I'll make the Razz event too as I love Razz.


* * *

I had a good time playing some (actually a lot) of hold em with CC of Quest of a Closet Poker Player last night. The closet player himself came out of the closet to crack my KK with A,5 and destroy my K,Q with top pair with his set of 3s.
I tried $2/$4 limit for the first time and thought I did well until the very end, when after three tough hands I finished $35 down in a bit of a daze. That's nothing to what CC suffered yesterday, but I was still bummed, considering several times I was up quite a bit, and I've always prided myself on not donking off a good night.
CC had several good suggestions for my game (including the shocker suggestion of the century, raise more preflop, gosh I thought I was pretty LAG, I guess not).
Thanks, man.

* * *

I have had ONE entry for the baby pool. I have heard some rumblings that more want to enter.
To enter, send me $5 via Paypal (dengl5@earthlink.net) or via my Poker Stars or Full Tilt accounts (I'm pokerpeaker).
Tell me what you think the birth date will be of the twins in the email you send me.
If this is a dumb idea let me know, too. I thought it would be fun. I'm not profiting from this at all. This might just be stupid. Maybe a little pimping would help?
The official due date is June 3 but twins, as you might guess, don't get carried for 40 weeks. So what will it be?
Hmmm....


Edit: I actually don't know if I'll enter. I think I have an unfair advantage to inside information. And I don't want people to think this pool is as rigged as online poker.
I've also had people wonder when they can enter.
Well, OK.
The deadline is APRIL FOOL'S DAY.
April 1.

And some want data. I'll post data when I know it.
Here's what I know now.
Kate had a great pregnancy with Jayden. She was dead on on the due date last time and had a quick and (relatively) easy delivery.
Mostly what I hear is we are lucky to carry twins 35 weeks, although a twins blogger just told me she went 39 weeks with hers. The babies are growing normally right now, meaning it's possible Kate could have them sooner or later, depending on your thought process.
The official due date is June 3.
We're going to consider ourselves "on call" from mid-April on.
And if we do have a scheduled C-section (Kate didn't need one the first time), that date still counts, so good guess.
Three slots per date. You can enter up to five times.
Good luck.