Did I spell that right? Ah, who cares.
Poker. I love that game. I’ve always considered myself a pretty good poker player. Not great, but not bad either. And poker has always been good to me. I usually play with the same group of guys, every once in a while getting some “new blood” in the games. When you play cards against the same people over and over again, it gets easy to play them. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to win, eventually you’re going to have to have the cards. But it’s easy to see how the games going. If you’re not a poker player, you wouldn’t understand that.

I think I’ve gone up a level in the hierarchy of poker players. I was invited to a game last night. 8 players. No limit Texas Hold em’. I knew one, of these 8 players. The one that invited me. Normally, I think of a game of “casual” players as a loose game. Meaning, bluffing is hard to do. Most “casual” players will call on nothing, just to see the next available cards. Play tight in a loose game, and vice versa. Well, after the first hand I noticed that it wasn’t the case at all. These guys were there to play. When 4 out of the 8 guys folded on the blinds in the first hand, I knew I was going to have to take it from these guys. So I did. Long story short, I took it down. Got home around 1:15am with a heavy wallet. Good night.

I feel, when you can show up to a game where you know no one, and handily take it down, you have graduated to the next level. I think I’ve hit that level.

So, Nate comes over today. He wanted to borrow my poker table for the “dead money” game on Sunday. I won’t be there, so I told him he could. While he was here, he wanted to go heads up against me. Nate likes to play against me. I taught him how to play poker. I’m also number one on our tour. Both in money, and top finishes. If Nate and I sit down and play, and he beats me, it’s sort of a satisfaction for him. He’s beating the guy that taught him, and a guy who generally knows a lot about, and loves the game. I feel the same way when I take a “natural” poker player down. Except today was not Nates day. 10 large each, 50-100 hold em, and we went at it. It was a damn good game, and if I wasn’t playing it, I would have loved to watch it. There was a lot of chip movement. Nate is an aggressive player. I play towards the game. So with those two factors in mind, there were a lot of chips flying back and forth. But in the end, I took him out.

Poker has been nice to me. This weekend especially, lol. Nate called my “second job”. I just simply call it, a nice, fun, suplimental income.