Saturday, September 17, 2011

Pirate Poker

Well, John wanted a much better write up than this one.  However, having virtually no memory left for anything, I can just write an overview.

I left for the game totally disorganized and forgot my Somali-Useful Phrase book. Too bad.  I could have been the affirmative action player with pirate phrases like, " istaag ma waan ku tooganayaa" ha ooyin" or bet with the numbers.  I have all the numbers.
On the way I had no voice in the GPS so I was often on the side of the road with my blinkers on.
On the way home the voice came back, but in Africaneer.  Wow!  given I'd forgotten the Somali phrasebook, that was a bit eerie.
I did bring what I could pass off as doubloons, those silver strike rings with the silver missing.  The guy I bought the rings from "pirated" in one sense the silver.  John's kids liked the rings.
John splashed the pot (or is it "loaded the chest") with plenty of treasure.  There were pirated books and cups and shot glasses.   He won one of his own books about three times before it went to Peter and so he got his money back.  I chased the books. So John would splash the pot with the book which would build the pot and then he would take the pot down.  New pirate poker strategy.
Peter did the best.  I was happy.  I staked him.  He started at the 20 dollar table and with one buy in cleaned that out, then he came to the $100 table and did a nice job winning the most money he has ever won at poker. Shiver me timbers!
Once he layed down a straight because he knew he was beat and he was.
Once he called Todd's  $20 raise holding only a pair of nines and won.
Once he folded to Todd's strong hand and did not lose.
He seemed to just read the player's well.
I think Peter was also ahead on the booty he took home.
I did my usual.
I did fairly well in the beginning and then it drained and drained and I had to rebuy.  I took a decent pot and so ended down $14.

Ed has the worst luck.  A fellow called his $30 preflop raise holding just 2-4 offsuit and after other decent bets proceeded to catch a wheel on the river.
Then I tried to push Ed off with an all-in bet on my bare pocket queens, and he must have seen that.  He called with his bare pocket jacks.



I made lots of mistake.  I misread cards and remembered cards and overbet.
Perhaps it was the pirate movie:  Pirates of the Carribean:On Stranger Tides which John had playing in the background.  Much of it was boring pirate and old English talk or Johnny Depp being cute, or long marches through jungle like, watery, mountainous terrain with bits of dialogue like, " We have to keep going."
Well, yeah Jackass, the movie has to be long enough for folks to eat a couple popcorns.
But this one mermaid played by the French actress Astrid Berges-Frisbey caught my attention.  And I had John play the movie twice.  French actress with a Spanish parent.  Sweet!
And I love vampires anyway.
Most of the mermaids were vampires.
No manatee inspired this movie.


Rich played a fine game, then got no cards, then went to sleep, then cashed in.  I was glad Rich was playing tired.  He was good.  I was in three good pots with him and each time we held the same hand.  You would have liked him Gregg.  He straddled every time.
Did I mention he was to my left?
Bilge sucking Scalawag!!
I tried to get him to move to my right, but even the promise of seeing Astrid-Berges-Frisbey  without turning around was not enough to entice him to move.


John played his usual aggressive self and won money.
And books!!  Did I mention he won books??  His own books??


John's girlfriend Danna was the only women at the gathering at either table.  She was sweet and very hospitable.  Nice to meet you Danna.  She played a while and then saw to it we were fed and then I guess she was sleepy.
In Jeopardy we had a category, "People named Danna"
Well, the kids were prepared for that one at least once.

John put out a spread of food: munchies, two kinds of lazana, pizza, fruit, veggies, and this huge platter of meats and cheeses all nicely collated.  It never seemed to empty. and we had a fine lunch while we tried to do Pirate trivia on Pirate jeopardy.
This is not my game.
Rich, the good poker player, once won on Jeopardy and he was very good.  Our team just stumbled along.  I stumbled and fell.  I did know the pirate joke, however,
"What is on each side of your buckin' head?"
"Your buccaneers!!"
This was the extent of my knowledge of pirate trivia.


"Did they want to use another letter in that question?" asked one of John's kids.
"No, why would you say that?"

And off the kids went with their Mom.

Rich was very helpful because he had just played at Niagara Falls (American) and I am going this month for three nights.  He gave me a sense of the no limit games and I may play them.  I told him where I intended to stay, and he told me I might get mugged there.  But I really don't think he has a good sense of Niagara Falls Blvd. motels, left from pre-Thruway days, when that was the main highway to the Falls.  Let's hope he is right about the games, and wrong about the mugging.
I also asked about seeing the Police in Vegas, playing at the Riviera in November.  I wondered if they would be too loud for me.  Todd and others discussed this group and then I mentioned I only knew the songs like "YMCA" and the table looked at me in disbelief.  Finally, they told me it was the Village People sang that song, and yes, they would be very loud.
"Right, " I answered, "It is the Village People who are playing in Vegas."
After that people just made fun of me and I could not get a straight answer from any of my questions.

I explained that I did not really know any names much after Bix Beiderbecke.  Then I realize I was rude not to answer Danna's question about who he was. Sorry.
I listen to a lot of old jazz, especially since I bought an internet radio that works off the wifi and pulls in about a thousand stations.
On WGBH Boston they play 24/7 Ray Smith Jazz Decades.  It was my favorite radio show years ago when Ray was a alive and being the DJ  just an hour a week on NPR.  It focuses on 30-40's jazz and Ray gives a short introduction to each set of tunes.  Often they play rare, even one of a kind, tapings.  Ray was an expert who talked about these players like some guys talk about baseball players.  He had been a drummer and got interested in collecting old jazz.  Lots of Bunny Berrigan and Jack Teagarten.  Some of the tunes were created much later, but still reflect that era of jazz before it became abstract and disharmonic. And sometimes he will play older jazz, perhaps the first in a particular style.
I go to sleep to this every night.

Someone had quads.  I forgot.
It was a very pleasant game without the action of the last one.  No one bought in for $600 (John) like last time.
But then last time I took home over $1000, my largest lifetime poker win.




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