random thoughts and thoroughbred selections

Sunday, June 27, 2004

BG's Thirtieth Birthday Veal Chop Extravaganza

I've had nothing but the title typed in this spot for the last four hours. I blame Pauly and Shakedown Street for my sluggishness and unabashed laziness this sunny Sunday afternoon.

So, where to begin?

Pauly rolled into town in his rented Dodge Stratus with the Mississippi plates (doesn't it just put a spring in your step to say, "Mississippi?") about 2PM on Saturday from his overnight stay with friends in Chicago. For my birthday, I received an authentic Pauly Painting, and I didn't even have to crack aces with the Hilton Sisters to make that happen. Nice!

Anyway, I'm not a big drinker or anything, so instead of lining up shots for my houseguest for the night, I decided to show Pauly the town. My town, Grand Haven.

"It's so quiet out here," and "This must be a great place to raise kids" were the two most overheard phrases over the next hour or so, as we took the dog for a walk downtown. There was an art festival going on, the streets were packed, and the seawall was lousy with boats from all corners of the... well, from Chicago and Milwaukee at least. My town may not have a lot of "flava" or anything, but it's quaint, quiet, and it's mine.

Dinner was only marred by one unfortunate event. Our waiter, my neighbor, had told me earlier in the week that it would be OK to bring my own bottle of wine to the restaurant, they'd just charge me a corkage fee. Well, thank god I brought it in opened after letting it breathe all day, because we damn near gave the manager a coronary when he saw me pouring my own wine at the table. Apparently, I got some bad information. So, from my good bottle of Brunello, I had a glass and a half. Thankfully, there wasn't anything stupid like a confiscation or a pouring-of-contents-down-the-sink, as they would have had to take me away in cuffs before I gave up that bottle of wine. It was just Pauly and I for dinner, and he encouraged me to explore the writing angle I've been looking to take on for awhile now, which would have a serious horse racing bent to it. If I start to put my plans into action, maybe you'll see a new area of GamblingBlues open up in the near future.

As mentioned in the title, I had the Gorgonzola Encrusted Veal Chop (which came with a gorgonzola encrusted tomato, and gorgonzola potatoes au gratin), prepared rare, and Pauly had a T-Bone, prepared medium well.

I don't get medium well, but it wasn't my steak, so I should probably just shrug my shoulders and move on.

We returned to stately BG Manor in time to, uh, mentally prepare for the poker game. I hadn't mentally prepared in quite awhile, so it was a real nice welcome happy feeling to be back on that wagon. Or does that mean I fell off the wagon? Why does it always have to be a wagon?

The parties started arriving just before 8PM for the poker tournament. Nothing but Hold 'Em, $20 to get in, tournament style, with top three places paying. Because it was my birthday, everyone except Pauly, Lord Geznikor (link goes to his blogspot site, which I did just to drive him nuts - the real link is in my link list at right), and I were drawing for seats. I wanted these guys at my table.

So, at the "black table," we had:

Seat 1: BG
Seat 2: Lord Geznikor
Seat 3: MH (a regular)
Seat 4: Pauly
Seat 5: Gil (of the traveling LG and Gil Road Show)
Seat 6: My brother

For the early part of this game, I'm going to defer mostly to Pauly, as he took notes, while I just sucked on a Cherry Stout, and bided my time.

I actually lost a pretty big pot early to LG, going down something like 250 right off the bat. LG then spread his chips to Gil, and Pauly swooped in near the end of the first level and managed to deal a crippling blow to Gil, who didn't make Pauly for the nut straight he flopped.

I must mention that Pauly got a call from Al Can't Hang, calling from the Borgata at the Maxim magazine party. I'm not going to spoil Al's writeup, other than he did compare the atmosphere to "whorehouse" while on the phone. There are some days where I'd trade places with that sonofabitch in a minute, and last night was one of those. Go Al!

Shortly thereafter, Gil pushed a draw a little too far against my pair of Kings, and was first out. Within the next couple of orbits, LG tried to go over the top of me while also on a draw, when my Hilton Sisters saw a low board hit. He pushed all-in over the top, and I couldn't wait to get my chips in the middle. To add insult to injury, LG had four to an open-ended straight before the river, caught the 6 that made him his straight, but it was the fourth heart matching my Queen of hearts, giving me the flush.

From that point forward, the cards went ridiculously cold. I literally (not in the sixth grade girl usage of the word, in the "didn't land a hand worth playing" sense) folded my way into the money (top three). Problem was, MH was responsible for taking out the last six players. After Ms. Third Place Finisher bounced out, and I went heads-up, I had 3200 to his 10000. With blinds at 100/200, neither of us were hurting for needing to make immediate moves, so MH just sat there and waited for the right all-in preflop of mine to call. My 97s versus his ATo. He caught his Ten, and that was the ball game.

Still, second place without raking a legitimate pot over the last two hours isn't bad. It does ruin my perfect record playing heads-up in the home game though. I've finished third, but I've never finished second.

Pauly took off this morning, and I would assume you'll be reading more of his exploits tomorrow afternoon. It was great to have him here, and once again say for the record that this little corner of the web in which we all reside is home to some really terrific, genuine people, all of whom I'm glad I get to know through their writing, and am proud to get to know personally when I have the opportunity. Thanks again for coming out Pauly, you've always got a place to crash in West Michigan.

[>>]posted at 4:32 PM by BG - click to email
-----------