poker

We hosted a poker game last night. The guys Kent (& now I) have been playing with for several years. The major change we made over the course of that time? Revaluing the chips from 5c to 25c. (Actually, I think we had 5c and 10c chips; but we'd forget which was which late in the evening ...) A 75c bet scares everyone out of the game. Low stakes poker, all right.

When I first started going to these games I had a lot of anxiety over losing. Since I was a kid I've had a lot of anxiety over losing -- whether it was chess or baseball.

I've mellowed. If I'm having a losing night I won't keep buying in & buying in. But I won't sulk, either. Even losing is cheaper than any other night out doing things with friends. And a big night ends with me five dollars up. Woo hoo.

The five of us had dinner at Dara beforehand. We've taken lots of guests to Dara, often to delighted exclamations. Dara is a short block from our house. Thai/Lao food, with Dara, the woman who owns the place & runs the kitchen, shifting the emphasis to Lao as that's where she's from and there are plenty of Thai restaurants in town.

Kent did poorly in the game but, he says, he spent more buying snacks. I did OK. The first hand of the game I got dealt a full house. And I think I won a dollar. I think I won more later with an Ace high. Yes, one person piled up the chips. When he was gloating at the end of the night I reminded him he'd been the big loser last time. "But I won more tonight than I lost then!" he said.