Status: Success!

My first notable act of the year 2006 was losing about $48.00 of real cash - or at least "legal tender" - to my buddy Monty in a single hand of no limit Texas Hold 'em.

We called it Operation One Positive Thing in 2005. It was a last minute assemblage of cool motherfuckers playing poker. Not so much to ring in the New Year but to give the finger of accordance to the year 2005 as it coughed spite and bile on its deathbed. Monty quit his job in 2005. He and his wife were both unemployed at the time. They had planned a window in which they could live without jobs while they found something more fitting than their previous endeavors. A knee injury had left Monty incapacitated of late with severely limited mobility, heavily medicated, and with medical bills impacting their arranged "jobless window". You can read about their situation with a heavy dollop of brilliance, wit and humor at Monty's blog "Drink Rum dot Org".

Monty assembled the usual suspects to my glee and amazement. I remain shocked as I write this that these cats didn't have plans by the time our mission acquired its green light. Of course none of them were sorry to see the demise of 2005 either. I don't believe I know anyone personally who would chalk it up as a good year. I believe that a couple of us concurred in the kitchen that night that we'd had personally worse years than 2005, but that 2005 was so genuinely bad across the board that more people than usual shared the sentiment.

Everyone brought food and/or Booze to the game; the spread was immaculate. We had meat, cheese, fruit, vegetables, yummy sugar concoctions and large quantities of the most glorious of all consumables - Booze. I spent quite a bit of time in November and December devising a new Cocktail called the "Turn Card". I plan to make it the official Cocktail of the next Booze Monkey album that will be entitled Fourth Street. I brought a premixed batch of them to the game for the approval of the drunken Scooby Gang I call my friends. I'm damned pleased to note that the drink was a "hit". Dear Kerie, in particular, was very fond of my new libation and that makes me rather giddy. I also premixed about 64 ounces worth of our house Bloody Marys to make the first morning of 2006 notably more bearable.

We decided not to play in tournament structure. Things were a bit more relaxed and people could leave the table for food and drinks at their leisure. We were playing straight money with $.10 and $.15 blinds that did not increase throughout the night. The average buy-in was $20 with unlimited rebuys. There were eight of us playing. I ended up seated between the two players that confound me the most. Christina was on my right and Kerie was on my left. Grumble grumble. I can read neither of them. To Christina's right was my buddy Eugene. Eugene is a damned fine Poker player; in fact I think it is safe to say that he has won more than any other single player at our house games. I have a top hat - with a Booze Monkey playing card in the hat bad - that I wear when I play Poker. I call it my "give my money to Eugene hat".

Very early in the game Eugene took a nice lead. He won a couple of average sized pots first. Also I bought him down with bottom pair for a couple of bucks early on to gauge his play - a habit I continue to rationalize. I think he had two pair for that hand. Then, before the first real table break, he went all in against Christina. She had a hand, I could tell and she was seriously considering calling. My instincts told me that he was bluffing, if he had the hand he would usually try to bet an amount that would be easy to call. Going all in had the feel of a large over-bet, as if he were trying to scare her out of the hand. I handed Christina a twenty-dollar bill and said "if you are inclined to call him, do it, we're only playing with money that we're prepared to lose." She called him with trips and he had a flush. Oops, the die for the night had been cast. Soon thereafter we took a short break.

I decided that I wanted to buy another $20 worth of chips. I did this only as a stupid joke because Eugene now had a big stack of chips in front of him. I was only down a few bucks and the night was very young. I was being silly and flippant and it cost me later. I've never said I wasn't a dumb ass.

I was off my game for the entire night. Which is a bummer because the last few times we had played I had played very well. I couldn't catch cards, but that is irrelevant; I seldom win at Hold 'em with cards. But I couldn't find my groove. This was the kind of night where I was playing slow, tight and solid Poker, the patient and relatively boring kind of Poker. But I was gaining, I wasn't losing any big pots and my stack was growing.

Christina regained her losses by taking down a massive pot with four of a kind - fours. That is always fun to see, even losing to four of a kind feels kinda good, it's just a cool thing. I know Christina reveled in it, and I know I would have as well. She also took me for a nominal pot when her 9 high flush beat my 8 high flush.

There was a great deal of money on the table and for the most part it was moving around. I can't remember who re-bought and who didn't. Most (if not all) of us came to the game with little regard for the money. This was the kind of night where the funds were ancillary. This was about friends and a great game. Most of the people at the table are big-time gamers, video, online, role-playing, strategy, et al. I think my buddy Andrew, whom I seldom have the pleasure of seeing and who drove quite a distance for the night's festivities, bought in either two or three times. Christina had $40 in the game and as I mentioned above I bought in a second time for no real reason. Andrew was also the wild card at the table in that neither Christina nor I had ever played Poker with him. I was familiar with everyone else's play.

Schvin arrived late. He had recently returned from a business trip to Hong Kong and his sleep patterns were all screwed up. He took the seat to Monty's left, where Monty's leg had been previously propped. His arrival altered the table dynamic and it wasn't long before the money began to move around. I've seen Schvin go on lengthy winning streaks, so the moment he sat down I tightened up my play even more. Luckily he was a tad distracted by giving Monty an on and off foot massage throughout the night.

Floyd the Barbarian was seated to the right of Eugene. He's another cat I don't get to see very often. As with everyone present his play improves every time we play. He took Eugene for a big pot and the chips began to shift. He played well for the entire night and I think he ended the game to the good.

Somewhere in there we took a break to gaze at Dick Clark, drink cheap champagne and watch the girls make out for a while. Then it was back to the felt.

Very gradually Monty began to amass chips. He was taking nice pots from just about everyone. I remember noticing his ascension to the role of table captain and exercising caution. Leave it to Monty to have his already noteworthy Poker skills enhanced by copious amounts of Alcohol and Vicodin. May the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson be praised!

Somewhere around 2:30 or 3:30 in the morning came my undoing. I can't remember the board: I wish I could. The pot wasn't too big at first. Everyone got out of the way leaving Monty and me heads up. I was holding a 3 and a 5 and I was in position. In fact, if I hadn't been in position, or if there had been any pre-flop aggression I'd probably have folded. But I hit trip threes on the flop. I slowed down hoping to get myself paid. Interestingly, Monty played the hand almost identically to the way I played it. The turn brought a five. Booya! I'd hit a full boat, threes full of fives. I started imagining a nice chunk of Monty's stack over by my Red Bull and Stoli. I had put Monty on two pair but I wasn't too worried about it because I was convinced that I had the nuts. The trouble would be convincing Monty that I didn't have a hand so as to extract the largest amount of funds from his bank. At this point he was the table's chip leader. I was up to about $48 with that stupid unnecessary extra buy in sitting there making my $8 worth of winnings look like significantly more than it really was. I had checked behind Monty on the flop and the same happened on the turn. The river came with a four. I read the board but I was convinced I had the nuts. Monty raised it up, about 75% of the pot. I thought he was trying to scare me off and I doubled his bet. He re-raised me again and I thought he had two-pair, maybe trips. I was still convinced I had the nuts. I know Monty's game, he doesn't go all in on a bluff, well, very rarely, and I didn't think he'd bluff me with an all in bet (Eugene has balls of granite, he'd bluff all in on a pin drop). I knew he had cards, but I was convinced. I started another re-raise and he said "All in," and I called instantly. We tossed out our cards and he showed a full house: fours full of threes. Even then it took about thirty seconds to realize that he had beaten my boat. It was so damned close that it took both of us a moment to realize it.

I sat out until the next break. Then I bought another $20 worth of chips that I just piddled with, but I wasn't really interested in losing any more coin, so I just went through the motions for another dollar or two.

We played until about 5:30 AM, then we crashed for a few hours. We started the sunny part of the day with pancakes, bacon, coffee, juice and Bloody Marys and good friends.

So that's it, I started 2006 by losing about $48 in a single hand of Texas Hold 'em. I can't think of a better way to start the year.

Operation: One Positive Thing in 2005
Status: Success!