I realized something last night. Not that I’m a poker addict, I already knew that, I realized that I can’t play poker with my brother anymore. Over the years I’ve been compiling a mental list of things I can no longer do with my brother. For whatever reason. Last night, I added poker to that list. Heres how it went down:

The players:
Chris
Anton (Tone P)
Anthony D
Joey D
Clay
Eric the Kid
Me

No limit hold em, winner take all. Eric went down first, I took him out. Although, he had to leave so he just kind of threw it in. Bummer for him because I tell you what, that kid can play. He plays loose and aggressive. I love it. Anyway, then Tone P went out which worked out great for the rest of us, because he delt almost the rest of the night. Clay was out next, then Anthony D. Left in the game was Chris, Joey D, and myself. Chips went up, down, back and forth for quit a while. Then I took out Joey D.

Heads up time. Chris and I.
Never played Chris headsup before, so I was kind of excited. I love heads up play. It was starting to get late though. We played a few hands, without much action, then decided to take a ciggerette break. While we were out side, Chris suggested that we count the chips, and whoever has the lead takes 80 bucks, and the other takes 60 and we call it a night. The only problem with that is, we both knew he had the chip lead. So I suggested we throw a time limit on it. Another 20 minutes of headsup, and if nothing happens, we’ll split then. That we’d still end at a decent hour. (1:30am decent?)

So we started to play. First hand dealt, I go all-in. Chris folds. Second hand dealt, I go all-in again. Again, Chris folds. Third hand I go all-in before the flop, Chris folds. I talk some shit like “man, call me on something would ya”. Chris says, and I quote “I’m not going to risk my chip count on these cards”. He’s telling me he’ll sit on the chip lead for 20 minutes and take it down. So I say to him “This is the reason we never put a time limit on the game. Someone will get a chip lead, and sit on it till th time limit runs out.” He tells me he’s had crap hands at which point I disclosed the fact that I went all-in the second time with a 3, 9 off suit. He for sure would have won, but he was protecting his chip lead. We play a few more hands, and this is where it gets interesting.

This is the swing hand. Flop comes like 9, 9, 4. I check. Chris bets. I raise, he calls. Next cards a rag. I bet strong, he calls. Rivers a rag, I bet strong again, he calls. I have another 9. I take it down with three of a kind. I check-raised him, and played the hand perfectly to take it down.

Chris says “there, you’re the chip leader now, we’re done”. I say I want to play it out, he says no, we’re done. So we start counting out hte chips when he says “Just so you know, I beat you tonight”. I’m like, “what?” He says “yeah, I flat out outplayed you tonight”. I said noway, and Tone pipes up with “play it out, thats the only way to know”. I agree, Chris still says no.

While we’re cleaning up with chips, we start going back and forth. Here’s my issue. I was willing to play it out. Chris wasn’t. I played him like a god damn fiddle on that 3 9’s hand, and he says he threw it away on purpose. He’s claiming at this point that he did everything right, and I’m a shlub.

Fact: I wanted to play it out.
Fact: I took a big hand from him, and he got an attitude.
Fact: I had to work in the morning, he didn’t, yet I STILL wanted to play it out to see who would win.
Fact: He’s never made it that far, and I’ve won many, yet I don’t know how to play….sure
Fact: He fucking told me he was going to sit on his chip lead till the time limit ran out. He can’t deny that, Tony was right there when he said it.

All this adds up to me never playing poker with Chris again. Am I mad at him? Yeah, a little. Will I get over it? Sure, probably real quick too. Will I ever accept an invitation to cards at his house again? Nope. God forbid we end up going heads up again, it’s just not worth it. So, I had fun, won 80 bucks to which I gave Tone P 20 for dealing for 4 hours, and I got home at 1:45am.

There are other things I’d like to talk about, things that happened over the weekend. The wedding, and another issue thats been really friggin bothering me, that I’ll probably never post about ( I dont think I should), but all this will have to wait till later.