Where feminine hygiene is no laughing matter ...Rick's Cafe Americain

Well I wish I could report, in no less than a three part special, that I was off performing some noble deed, but I suppose Cambodia’s young women will have to look elsewhere for succor, at least for the time being. In fact the only exciting development to occur recently was my joining netflix. For those of you who, for some reason, have yet to sign up for this life enhancing service, I urge you to remedy this oversight. Life without netflix is much like like without an ipod: noisy, dull, gray and lifeless.

While I did not get an opportunity to watch this year’s incredible Super Bowl game, I was shocked and appaled to learn of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s brazen disrespect for America’s children and the public’s refined sensibilities. Unfortunately I was at County General recovering from the effects of a 72 hour hard-on. I am however heartened to hear that Micheal Powell is bringing the full force of the FCC to bear on the incident. Powell was no doubt swayed by figures revealing the event to be the most rewatched incident in the history of TIVO. Thats right, the American public was so disgusted and outraged that they forced themselves, and their friends, and their coworkers, and their families to watch it over and over again, probably zooming in at times, and maybe even changing the angle. Yes American’s show themselves to be made of sturdy stuff indeed, burning the offending image into thier collectives minds, because only by forgetting can we ever allow such a tragedy to happen again.

Meanwhile Mike’s dad continues to be less demanding on the Weapons of Mass Destruction as his son is with what Maureen Dowd calls the Weapons of Mammory Destruction

George Tenet is feeling some serious heat right now, but the head of the CIA has risen to the occasion and renewed at least my faith in what appears to be a crippling failure in America’s intelligence operation. In the NYTimes , in defense of the agencies WMD claims he is quoted as saying “In the intelligence business, you are almost never completely wrong or completely right.” Oh, cool, just like horoscopes.

On the Democratic front im severely dissapointed to see Dean doing so poorly, its not that I dislike Kerry, but he lacks.....well....everything. I do think he’s a good speaker and I think he has performed better in the debates than any of the other candidates, but he lacks energy and passion. He does not strike me as someone willing to make some serious change in the White House and fight Congress for what he believes is right. Though some early polling is disheartening, I’m hoping Dean makes a good showing this weekend and gets Wiscosin on the 17th. Some good news is that Democrats have been coming out in record numbers for the primaries and polling shows a huge percentage(well over 80%), granted of Demococrats, highly dissapointed with the Bush administration. Also recent Polls have been showing Kerry having a good chance in a head to head with GW.

Well this is my first blog in a long while and I don’t want to pull anything, so im signing off. But more later.

This post has been modified from its original form.  It has been re-formatted to fit your screen and account for Sam’s newly-acquired blank space fetish.

Well I wish I could report, in no less than a three part special, that I was off performing some noble deed, but I suppose Cambodia’s young women will have to look elsewhere for succor, at least for the time being. In fact the only exciting development to occur recently was my joining netflix. For those of you who, for some reason, have yet to sign up for this life enhancing service, I urge you to remedy this oversight. Life without netflix is much like like without an ipod: noisy, dull, gray and lifeless.

While I did not get an opportunity to watch this year’s incredible Super Bowl game, I was shocked and appaled to learn of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s brazen disrespect for America’s children and the public’s refined sensibilities. Unfortunately I was at County General recovering from the effects of a 72 hour hard-on. I am however heartened to hear that Micheal Powell is bringing the full force of the FCC to bear on the incident. Powell was no doubt swayed by figures revealing the event to be the most rewatched incident in the history of TIVO. Thats right, the American public was so disgusted and outraged that they forced themselves, and their friends, and their coworkers, and their families to watch it over and over again, probably zooming in at times, and maybe even changing the angle. Yes American’s show themselves to be made of sturdy stuff indeed, burning the offending image into thier collectives minds, because only by forgetting can we ever allow such a tragedy to happen again.

Meanwhile Mike’s dad continues to be less demanding on the Weapons of Mass Destruction as his son is with what Maureen Dowd calls the Weapons of Mammory Destruction

George Tenet is feeling some serious heat right now, but the head of the CIA has risen to the occasion and renewed at least my faith in what appears to be a crippling failure in America’s intelligence operation. In the NYTimes , in defense of the agencies WMD claims he is quoted as saying “In the intelligence business, you are almost never completely wrong or completely right.” Oh, cool, just like horoscopes.

On the Democratic front im severely dissapointed to see Dean doing so poorly, its not that I dislike Kerry, but he lacks.....well....everything. I do think he’s a good speaker and I think he has performed better in the debates than any of the other candidates, but he lacks energy and passion. He does not strike me as someone willing to make some serious change in the White House and fight Congress for what he believes is right. Though some early polling is disheartening, I’m hoping Dean makes a good showing this weekend and gets Wiscosin on the 17th. Some good news is that Democrats have been coming out in record numbers for the primaries and polling shows a huge percentage(well over 80%), granted of Demococrats, highly dissapointed with the Bush administration. Also recent Polls have been showing Kerry having a good chance in a head to head with GW.

Well this is my first blog in a long while and I don’t want to pull anything, so im signing off. But more later.

This post has been modified from its original form.  It has been re-formatted to fit your screen and account for Sam’s newly-acquired blank space fetish.

“Scott S” writes:

(Read the whole thing here.)

One is Ball of Confusion, by the Temptations ("Great googalooga can’t you hear me talkin’ to ya?").  The other is Compared to What, by Eddie Harris & Les McCann ("We`re chicken feathers, all without one nut").

Both are terrific songs, especially the second one (if you can find it, get the live version from the Montreaux jazz festival).  Written in the late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s, these songs are one voice of a generation torn apart by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war.  How much has changed, and how much hasn’t?  Have we come full circle?  Were the ‘80’s our ‘50’s?  I don’t pretend to have the answers (yet), or to be able to glean them from two old R&B tunes, but it’s worth a listen, if not a thought.

I’d like to start with the small stakes game, but to the extent that anyone reads this at all, they are probably coming from other poker blogs, so I guess that I should start with the serious game.  No matter how much it hurts to try to remember.

I don’t even remember the details of where it went so wrong.  All I know is that in the second hand of the night, I dropped almost my entire $60 buy-in in a hand of 2/4 Omaha/8.  I suppose it makes me a poor blogger that I remember almost nothing about the hand.  I remember that the pot was insanely large.  I remember that I flopped a very good high with a draw to the nut low.  I remember that the low didn’t materialize and the river undermined my high.  I remember flicking my cards into the muck and becoming quite sour for the next twenty minutes.  I had to go out of pocket for a hand shortly thereafter and ended up rebuying.

After the rebuy things went a little better and I probably earned back about half of my original buy, but it took a turn for the worse again.  With A5♥ in late position, I limped in and caught a flop of A-9♥-5.  I bet and got two callers.  When another 9 fell on the flop, I was stuck with a shitty kicker and lost to an offsuit hand with an ace and a medium kicker.  I lost a few more hands like that and saw flushes develop later when I held the top pair after the flop.  I also had some moments of serious weakness when I overread people.

Holding AJo, I got some money in the pot when the flop came A-9-6.  Two callers again, Pauly and Christian. Turn brought another 9 (damn nines again).  I bet, and I got two callers again. I figured one of them was calling to set up a river raise with trips.  The river was a K.  I figured that it didn’t help anyone. I checked, Pauly bet and Christian raised.  I pegged Christian for J9 or some such nonsense and had no interest in running into his trips. So I folded.  Pauly called and showed A4. Christian had nothing.  Maybe a 6.  On reflection, I had committed enough that I really had to call.  If I had called I would have chopped a decent pot with Pauly.  Instead I just got all sour again.  A long and expensive night.

Coach had a rough night also. He rarely got cards to play, and when he did get cards strange things happened.  He was dealt KK and bet it agressively out of the chute.  Somehow he had two callers through the turn.  A Q on the river turned the board into J-T-9-x-Q and he split the pot 3 ways with players holding KT and K4.  I think I’d rather have my kings cracked.

On the other hand, Rick played his ass off.  He was aggressive.  He played strong hands well and represented enough tightness that when he bet, people backed off.  That strength earned him a fair amount on hands when I didn’t think he had any cards.  I don’t think he thinks much of his own night (other than the outcome, of course), but I was impressed.  He played a very solid game and was rewarded for it.  Strangely enough, even though he won $210, I don’t think I lost a single hand to him.  It was as if Christian was laundering money for Rick’s Cafe.  I lost it to Christian, Christian passed it across the table to Rick.  Of course, Rick’s isn’t a real business and Rick isn’t giving a share of the money back to me.  But I’ll bet it doesn’t go to voter registration drives either.

The depressing tally:
Rick +210
Ferrari +45.50 (though he somehow ended up with $46)
Christian +36 (impressive comeback after an early $200 hole)
Sugarta +0.50 (which Ferrari “forgot” to give him)
Pauly -12 (nice to meet a fellow blogger; hope he comes back)
Coach -34
Swish -100 (I think.  He had some serious swings and went on full tilt to end the night.)
Ugarte -140 (Jesus.  Did I just write that?)

We now leave the dark depressing world of Ugarte getting his ass handed to him and move to the mountain paradise of Winter Park, Colorado.  Brother of Ugarte and I visited my former law school roommate, David, at his parents’ mountain house for his last frolic before fatherhood completely inverts his world.  I don’t ski anymore, but Brother, David and a pair of doctors from Dallas (Ziyad and George) got some great ski weather and excellent conditions.  But after nightfall, when skiing left everyone too tired to go out, could there be any better plan than poker?  How about no limit poker?

We didn’t have chips, though, so we had to quickly find a substitute.  And we had to get resourceful.  We found a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle.  And a bag of peppermint candies.  And a box of clementines.  Puzzle pieces=1; peppermints=5; citrus=25.  Everyone was given 200 units, and the value of 200 units was set at (hold your breath) $5.  Yes, you read that right.  A puzzle piece was worth 2/5 of a cent.  We were playing no limit with a .004 ante and a $5 buy in.  Binion’s here I come!

Ahem.

It didn’t take a lot of time for Ziyad to burn through his stack (and you won’t see a more imposing stack than a pile of jigsaw pieces).  He wanted to rebuy, but we ran out of fruit and candy.  Out came Trivial Pursuit. No fears, dear readers. We didn’t switch to asking questions.  Wedges=peppermints; pie holders=clementines. Anything to keep the game going.

The doctors called a lot of very strange games (Elevator and Oklahoma - I can explain if you care) and the rest of us stuck to Texas Hold ‘Em and 7 card stud.  Play wasn’t memorable, except I got fantastic cards early in the night and jumped out to a great start.  The cards went cold, the doctors were calling stations, and I watched my stack slowly dwindle and I fell to third place. 

I drank a lot of wine, got to see a good friend that lives halfway across the country and saw the aspens covered with snow.  I don’t think I care that much that I didn’t clean out the rest of the table.

Ziyad +7.50 (Good comeback but not a good player.)
Brother +4.50 (For someone who doesn’t particularly like to play...)
Ugarte +3
David -5
George -10 (Call, call, fold.  Missed the inside straight again, eh?)

While I was blogging this, I decided to play a $5+.50 limit SNG.  Started strong, got the chip lead and failed to heed my promise to myself. I told myself that I had to remember to play extra tight and let the short stacks get eaten by the blinds so I could coast to third.  Instead I had AA cracked by a Q7o that became two pair (though I had to play that hand) and played marginal hands poorly.  Despite a clear path to the money, I ran myself into 5th place. Discipline, Ugarte, discipline.  I popped a fresh $50 into my account, and I am giving myself until the end of the month to make back my first $50.

I can’t let this Grovel pass without mentioning my deep regret that I can’t play in the Grublog Poker Challenge - an online tournament for poker bloggers - set up by Grubby.  It will be 3AM in Paris when the tournament starts, and that is where I will be.  I also find it highly unlikely that any internet cafe will have the ChoicePoker software set up.  Fortunately, Rick has agreed to carry the banner for Rick’s Cafe Americain in the Challenge, so the Grovel will have a representative.  (If you want in, Ferrari, I’ll drop a note to Grubby and ask if we can send two players.)

I’ll have to content myself with playing in BloggerBowl II - Iggy’s tournament in March.

Kashei’s so good, it’s often hard to tell the whole site is a joke.  However, she recently stepped over the line into poor taste, with a post suggesting that the only good Israeli is a dead Israeli.  I love the site, but not everybody gets that it’s a joke, and that sort of anti-semitism is just not funny. 

I look forward to the day when this sick anti-Israeli fashion has gone out of style amongst the international right.  In the meantime, Kashei, don’t encourage them.

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” I have no idea who said it first, but I’m saying it now.  Since the “uniter, not a divider” restored honor and dignity to the White House, national politics has increasingly become a matter of party warfare: and the Republicans are much better at it.  Why?  Because what the Republicans seem to want more than anything else is to win, while the Democrats still seem at least nominally interested in effecting change for the better.

I increasingly feel in my discussions with Republicans that their most strongly held convictions are not rooted in ideology or logic but in loyalty and defensiveness.  I think many of them feel that their leaders have failed them, but they are unwilling to show weakness.  Republicans have control of the White House and Congress—and keeping that control has become more important than making good use of it.

What that means, however, is that so long as the Democrats continue to try to make change—pass good laws, make good policy, stand up for what is right—they will be distracted from the fight for control in a way that the Republicans are not.  So, I say to you, Democrats:  Join the Republican party.

Think about it.  Then there will be no question about which party is the biggest, strongest party.  Republicans will control everything!  Then, there will be nowhere to hide.  Our leaders and pundits will not be able to drive the wedge of partisan politics through the public discourse.  Maybe they will start taking responsibility for their actions and their words.