Saturday was another installment of the infamous home game, bbq edition. We were lucky enough to secure the services of a babysitter and Facty made her ihg debut. Check her out for the details of her glorious performance.
As for me, I put away three Guinnesses (Guinnessi?) on an empty stomach between arrival and the time I sat at table 3 seat 8. The third beer was the one that knocked down my ace-rag sensor and I played too many hands early. I then saw a free flop with 97off and turned my full house. The new, “What-game-are-we-playing-?” woman in the 3 seat had limped with 98off and the river eight gave her nines full of eights and she took a big bite of my chipstack. I let out my drunken chewbacca gutteral roar, got up, and checked on Facty over at table 1. She had just won a big hand with a flopped house of her own and I decided right then that she would be the poker player in the family on this day and I’d be the alcoholic.
I did scratch my way back to starting chips but could not get ahead. With blinds climbing and facing a raise, I pushed with A4, essentially waving the white flag. The raiser showed me his ace-ten, and I set to grilling some mahi mahi.
Sunday was Mother’s Day and we went and saw my mother and grandmother, who turns 80 years old today. While not a poker player, my grandmother is responsible for my love of cards. When I was 7, my mom and I lived with my grandparents while mom went to nursing school. My grandmother would pick me up from school most days and taught me how to play gin and gin rummy, and other long-forgotten card games. She even taught me the rules of blackjack, my grandfather’s favorite game. It sparked a love of games and cards that obviously stuck with me. To this day, she plays cards every week with her retired cronies. Yesterday she was telling me about some new game they were playing called Liverpool, some sort of gin variant played with two decks and a poker-like pot that builds as the hand progresses! The best part was when she complained that while she likes to keep it friendly, playing with nickels, some of the other old ladies want to play for dimes and quarters, making the game too “cutthroat”! Happy Mother’s Day and Happy Birthday, Grandma.
