It's Poker Male Bonding Weekend Time!!!

Every year Doug hosts a poker weekend for all his buddies from tennis. His family owns some recreational property that anywhere from 10 to 12 guys will converge upon in all their male grandness.

There’s boating and prawning and drinking and poker and drinking and hot tubbing and drinking and laughing and drinking and joking and drinking and falling on the rocks and drinking. And that takes care of Friday. On Saturday they play their “Main Event”. There’s big prize money and the coveted trophy for the winner – which, unfortunately, Doug won last year (and trust me, they are all SO proud of this trophy):

Some guys take it seriously because they want to win. Others, like Doug, not so much. It’s more fun to drink and be the funniest person you know. And if you lose, oh well, it’s off to the hot tub and another round of drinks. And when the sun comes up? Well, towel off – it’s time for Caesars and breakfast!

There’s always lots of food (and drinking) and cigars. They even have organized events – like skeet shooting. A brilliant idea! Give drunken men guns and have them shoot into the sky!! They also have a golf competition to see who can hit the nearest island. Oh, oh and the best: craft time:

Such a talented group of 50 something year olds. Yep, at the end of the weekend everyone has lost their voice, eyes are red, legs are wobbly and fun was had by all!

And their better halves? SOOO glad not to have been there.

The Zen of Poker (part 2)

Doug and Annie Duke

I've mentioned Annie Duke and how she is the most famous woman poker player, EVER. She is a walking encyclopedia of percentages when it comes to poker hands and poker pots.

And, because of the math thing, she is Doug's newest, best friend.

So, this is how it came down. We were leaving the seminar when they announced that Annie would be holding an all-women's clinic in Las Vegas in June. Now, June is my birthday month and my first thought is:

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday, get packed!
Happy Birthday to me!

It also just happens to be at the EXACT same time that Doug is hosting his annual all-guys poker tournament weekend.

My thoughts - Yip-P as in Perfect timing

Doug's thoughts - Whaaaat??? You get to go to Vegas and hang out with Annie Duke and I have to stay and play poker with the guys. Whaaaat?????

Next up - Doug and his need for one-up-man-ship.

The Zen of Poker (part 1)

Doug taught me how to play poker. It started with him playing for fun, online, and me watching him. He finally let me try a game, all the while giving me bits of advise that sounded like this:

"Blah, blah, pot odds, blah, blah, something or other percent, blah, blah"

And, of course, I replied:

"It's ok - I use intuition - I can just tell when someone is bluffing me".

This went fine for quite a while - we would take turns playing and Helping each other out. Well, at least until I started Helping him out - something along the lines of:

"I knew that was going to happen" or "Why on earth would you have done that, couldn't you just feel that was wrong????"

Yeah, well now I play upstairs in my own office, on an entirely different site - I don't think Doug wants to chance us being in the same room or on the same table EVER.

But we did both enrol in a one day poker seminar taught by Annie Duke (the most famous woman poker player, EVER). She is amazing! This is what she says:

“Poker is about the math”.

Wow! – how amazing! Nobody has ever put it to me like that before.

What? When? You did? Of course I was listening to you, Doug.