Back From Vacation

As I mentioned in my last post, I went out to North Carolina this past week to visit some old high school friends. Before meeting up with them my wife and I spent some time on the coast at a Bed and Breakfast. I was hesitant at first about the whole B & B thing thinking it was kind of weird but after trying it a couple times I have to say I am a fan, especially when you are just staying a few days in a small touristy town. It certainly beats a hotel.

Friday afternoon we headed up to Raleigh for a weekend of excessive drinking and the Jedi Olympics. Our first event was poker. As I predicted, I won this event, although to be honest I probably didn’t deserve it. I inflicted two pretty horrible bad beats on my way to winning. The first came when I raised preflop with wired tens and had only Derek call. The flop was JQT and I though I had him. I bet about half the pot (in what will be a theme for this weekend, I was drunk so some of the details are a bit fuzzy). Derek raised, and I went all in. I figured if he had the straight then good for him otherwise, he’s getting knocked out. He calls and turns over AK for the nut straight. Crap. I was just kidding. Not good for him. This would all but knock me out first, earning me zero points in the one event I expect to win. I’m sure you can just about guess what happens here. The turn is a blank, but the river brings a queen giving me the boat.

Before I forget, scoring for the Jedi Olympics works as follows. 3 points for first, 2 for second, 1 for third and zero for last in each event. Person with the most points at the end of the weekend wins bragging rights and some prize yet to be determined. As an added incentive not to lose, the person coming in last in each round has to do a shot of White Lightning. White Lightning is a Virginia Corn Whiskey and quite possibly the most vile substance any human has ever willingly ingested. John decided that one year he would give us all a taste of Virginia as a Christmas gift one year, and decided that White Lightning would be a good choice. I think he was actually trying to kill us.

Back to the poker, my wife decided after a while that she doesn’t like poker and dumps all her chips to me, which didn’t make the others too happy. She would have dumped her chips to anyone in that particular hand, I just happened to have good cards at that point. Not that the others would believe it.

Matt went out shortly after that, leaving John and myself. I had about a 2:1 chip lead at this time, when I inflicted my second bad beat. Again, I’m not completely sure of the details, but John is one of my few regular readers so I’m sure he will correct me if I get this wrong. We had been going back and forth for a few hands, when I flopped middle pair on what was I think an 8TA board. I had TJs and the board didn’t have my suit. I had raised preflop I wanted to stay in control of the hand, so I made a half pot sized bet after the flop. I expected him to fold, but instead he reraised all-in. Now, here’s the problem with playing against people who you know read your blog. I know that he has read about my playing style and how I react to certain situations. He knows how I play and how I expect others to play. Against anyone else I probably would have given them credit for the ace and folded, but with him, I thought that he thought that I was bluffing and that a huge reraise would get me to fold. He had done it to me earlier when I was in fact bluffing and that had me a little on tilt. I decided that he was trying to out bluff me, and called. Even if I lose I still have enough chips to have a decent shot and winning. And I consider myself to be a better player anyway. (Sorry John). Well he turns over A8, and I’m not too happy about it. As I start counting out my chips, I proceed to hit a runner, runner straight knocking John out. I feel a little bad about it, but too bad. I think he’s still complaining about it thought. At least he didn’t lose any money.

We played a few more small tournaments over the coarse of the weekend, but the stakes were all real low and we were all real drunk, so I didn’t really take them too seriously.

Event number two was Bocce Ball. We augmented the normal scoring rules slightly. Each player had two balls and all four of us threw at the same target. The closest ball was worth 3 points, second closest 2 points, and third closest was worth 1 point, and we played to 50. I didn’t really know what to expect out of this one as Bocce isn’t really the sort of thing that any of us play all that often. At least I don’t think so. Things started out badly as John and Derek jumped out to big lead and I didn’t get on the board until the fourth or fifth throw. I managed to catch up though and was winning as late as the 35 point mark, but John and Derek both overtook me and I finished in third. White Lighting for Matt.

Event number three was Phase 10, which is a rummy type card game. You have to go through ten phases (thus the name) where in each phase you have to collect different things such as two sets of three, or a run of seven, or a set of four and a run of four. I was way in the lead after the first few rounds, but unfortunately that made me a target for the skip cards. Combine that with some crappy cards, like having two sets of four when I need a run of nine, and I earn a last place finish. I don’t know who won, and I don’t care. White lightning for me.


Event four was Disc Golf. I certainly didn’t expect to win this, but I was hoping for a second place finish. Derek first got me into disc golf and is pretty good. Plus it’s his home course so he was going to be tough to beat. He did choose the course with shorter holes, which somewhat cuts down on his advantage since he can throw way further than the rest of us, but he still won easily. Matt was also familiar with the course, and as it turns out he is a better disc golfer than I, as he was able to beat me by three or four strokes. At least I didn’t throw out my shoulder. John gave up after nine holes and earned his first ever shot of the good stuff.

Bowling was in store for event number five. I consider myself to be a good bowler. I’m not going to beat anyone that bowls in a league regularly, but I feel like I should beat your average bowler. In the summer between out junior and senior years of college, John and I found a cheap new bowling ally with $4 pitchers of beer. We would seriously bowl about 10 games a night three times a week. Derek actually ended up winning this one. I would have picked him for third but he just kept picking up spares, and I choked often enough to let him win. It came down to the tenth frame after I had spared in the 9th. I needed nine pins on my first ball or a mark to win. Yeah. 1 pin. Biggest choke in Jedi Olympic history.

We were supposed to play mini-golf, Settlers of Cattan and Mario Party at some point, but John and his wife had to leave early Monday morning, and we ran out of time. It probably wouldn’t have mattered as Derek had a comfortable lead by then. We did golf later on Monday, and since it didn’t count, I kicked ass. But then Derek won Settlers later on. I’d tell you about it but I don’t want to sound like any more of a geek than I probably already do.

So that was Jedi Reunion Weekend. Now I have to read a bajillion emails a hundred or so blog postings, and get ready to rejoin the workforce tomorrow. Yay.