8.5.09

I was walking down the corridor of the Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino and I thought to myself, hey I know those guys. In front of me, at a table with a radio station’s advertisement pinned to it, were the bald guys who are always on my cable access sports channel. They are out of Atlanta, but I can’t for the life of me remember the name of their show.

If I had to guess it’s something like Mayhem in the AM, or some such similar drivel. These guys are just regular men who enjoy talking about, and more importantly continually learning new information about, sports so they can then talk more about sports. I’ve re-read that last sentence about six times, and it still sounds screwed up, but it conveys my thoughts. They like sports, a lot.

They like sports so much that they all three shave their heads. I assume this is to regale as a group in one last loud, outcry against male pattern baldness. This may not be true. It may be a marketing ploy designed to make their show stand out, visibly, above their regional competition. That’s probably it. If it works I commend you. I can’t imagine why else you would all three want to look exactly alike. You even have one of your interns jumping on your bald bandwagon. Are any of you individuals at all? Or it baldness just that uncool? I have no earthly idea. These are the thoughts that keep me up at night.

Other thoughts, particularly of late, have been keeping me awake at night. I recently received a trinket, in the mail, as a gift from a new friend. It is a card protector. To those of you unfamiliar with poker a card protector is something you place over your hole cards to protect them from having any other cards slide underneath them, or get mixed up with them. If this were to happen your hand would be dead, no matter what. Therefore, someone long ago invented card protectors. Brilliant, whoever you are, you are a jackass.

My friend was being nice. She thought I would enjoy this gift. My wife did not think it was such a good idea. I then reacted badly. I did not take her voice of concern seriously enough. In my own defense I did not understand how she, my wife, was feeling. Thankfully, I now understand. I apologize for being insensitive, again.

Something that I may have finally learned, after 29 years of marriage, is that if you have a choice of hurting the feeling of someone you live with, or hurting the feelings of someone you don’t, you should probably pick the latter’s feelings to hurt. It has to make life a lot easier. I suppose I’ll have to return the card protector. I liked it, although I rarely use one. They’re nice to have, just in case, sort of like a condom.

The Beau Rivage. A splendid hotel. Only $79 per night if you give them a minimum of 5 hours play at the poker tables. I think that is the number. They are lenient about it. If the poker room manager recognizes you then it’s no trouble whatsoever. I won a little bit last night, but the game is just not that great.

Apathy is working well, but it is boring as hell. I changed the game again last night. The table went from being hyper aggressive and raising constantly, to a more calm limp and see the flop sort of game.

I sat down, played very tight, trying to figure out how the players were acting to different situations. I picked up pocket queens, on the button. An apparently aggressive player raised to $20 in front of me. I just called. Both blinds also called. The flop came 6 high. The blinds both checked. Mr. Aggressive made a pass at me and bet $60. I slapped his hand away and raised it $100 more. The blinds got out of the way. There were two spades on the board.

I knew what was going through his mind. He thought I could be on a flush draw. He thinks his smallish pair, or big ace (AK, AQ, AJ) might be good. He is a gambler. He raises all-in. I instantly call, and the turn comes a queen. The river is an eight, of spades. I hate the spade.

I wait for him to turn over his hand as I had called him, and not the other way around. I looked over at him as if to say “I called you, friend. Whatya got”?

Slowly he rolled over pocket 8’s. I quickly turned over my pocket queens and he looked disgusted. Yes sir, you have been taken down by one seemingly apathetic man.

The rest of the night was dull as I continue to be card dead. I had a good night, won a little bit, stayed in a plush room, and will have a good meal after I play today. I think I’m heading to Tunica this afternoon. I’m hoping to be able to post this, aka, find a friggin wifi connection, once I get to Tunica. I can’t locate one in Biloxi.

I hope my friend understands everything concerning the card protector. My wife is a good woman. M has put up with my bs for years. We have been through so much crap that I have to respect her wishes in a situation such as this. M feels the way she does partly because of how her thoughts and attitudes have developed in twenty plus years of knowing my dumb ass! I would be insane if I did not realize that fact. I’m not insane, not yet.