Texas Hold 'Em & the Long Island Blues

Played cards last night at a friend's place and, while it was mildly fun, it wasn't way big fun.

Why? Well, first of all, everone's gotta play tournament style now-a-days. Its gotta be Texas and its gotta be tournament style. This means you're in it for the long haul, and, depending on the company, it can be kinda tedious.

Plus the house rules for this particular game were a little funky. Money paid to 1st thru 4th place, which takes away a lot of incentive -and- the blinds went up every round, which is fine in the early goings on, but in heads-up play becomes quickly cumbersome. Blah blah blah.

Yes, I realize this may be somewhat tedious for you non-cardplayers but one of the lovely things about having a blog is the ability to whine or pontificate upon any given topic, ad nauseum.

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So there I was sitting on a commanding chip lead in heads-up play -but- due to an extremely progressive blind was knocked out after only two hands. So I finished 2nd place and won a whopping $20. Whoopee. Plus I had to witness the amateur version of "Sports Talk" for the duration.

Yes, the progressive blinds are there to speed up play, but then... aw, skip it!

You want to know the real reason I'm bitching? The real reason I'm bitching is because it was boring. BO-O-O-O RI-I-I-ING!

Sure, we're all there to hang out and shoot the breeze, but how long can you sit around and hash over the same mundane crap?

- I thought he came around on the pitch.

- Yeah, but did he break his wrists?

- Guys, there are actually two criteria. The wrists is one. Whether or not the bat went past the front of the plate is the other.

- But the picture clearly shows...

- But is it a picture of the same play?!

Apparently, you can do this for hours. Fascinating stuff.

I never thought I'd pine away for any part of Long Island, but. Those guys knew how to have fun. We'd drink beer, smoke cigarettes and talk about whatever random stuff came up (okay, yeah, we talked about more than our fair shair of acting junk - go figure, a bunch of actors! - but still).

We'd mix it up, play into the wee hours -and- lo and behold, it was... FUN! Sometimes, we'd even go out to breakfast after. Here's to you, all my homeys back on Cell Block C!*

*All apologies to Kid Rock, and, no, it wasn't really prison but L.I. does have a certain, closed-in, impending violence kind of charm. : )

To my former brothers-in-arms:

The impeccable Antoine Jones! The creepy-but-endearing Tim Gillespie! And last, but certainly not least, the lovable man-child, Josh!

I love you guys and hope you are doing well. Or, at the very least, surviving.

(sigh).

So where was I? Oh yeah, cards.

Who the "F" pays out to 4th place with 8 guys playing!