Post-Birthday Drip

Well, its probably post-nasal drip. Or a full blow sinus infection. Whatever I got, I feel like doggie-doo.

We held a gathering at our house last night - sort of a "Welcome Home/Happy Birthday" party for the husband. We got a manageable mix of doctors he works with, accountants I work with, and poker bloggers, and a variety of spouses and kids here and there.

The food layout, if I do say so, was good, and I hardly had to throw anything away. Except the vegetables. Apparently, big kids don't eat their vegetables.

The poker was fun, collegial, and quick. It was myself, Dr. David, Joshua, Dr. Andrew, Cayne, Dr. Chako, and Zeem. I played my normal poker. Pretty tight and conservative, one or two pushes when I figured I could get away with it. We had other guests, so I had to do double duty of playing and hostessing. I think I covered pretty well.

No money at the Chako house though. It got down to the final four - we were going to pay two. Dr. Andrew had recently acquired a stack. I had been the chip leader to that point, but his acquisition gave him a slight advantage. He was in the small blind, Cayne was the big blind, Dr. Chako was UTG (with not even a blind in his rack) and I was the button. Small blind was $400, big blind $800.

Dr Chako puts his last $700 in. I look down at AK. I'm not a fan of AK. But Dr. Andrew only has half a blind in. And just acquired a stack. He doesn't need to play. Cayne is short-stacked. And Dr. Chako has nothing. I raise to $4,000. Total blind steal and figure I can go up against whatever the hubby has. Dr. Andrew looks at his hand, pauses, and says "All in". Cayne looks at everyone, and graciously backs out of the pot. Without any foreshadowing, this was the best tournament decision he made all night.

Now here is where you have to do one of those "what now?" If I'm playing just me, you call it. My bet was over half my stack, the blinds are going up in less than two minutes, and that leaves me with an M near the 3 range, if I did the math right (my head is stuffed up - don't do math well when I'm congested). AK is a good starting hand against the blinds. I could have thought about our buy ins as family money - let the Dr. go down in flames, but leave one of us in short-stacked to try to do battle against Cayne' shorter stack and hope to get our buy-ins back. But we play our own cards - not as a family.

I call. Dr. Andrew flips over pocket 7s (not pocket 8s, honey). A made hand, but a bit of a race. Flop comes out . . . A . . . x . . . 7. GRRRRRR! A set for Dr. Andrew. As if to add insult to injury, the turn gave me a King, for two pair. But he had me covered. And Dr. Chako's lame nothing hand went down in the muck with mine. Ah, such is the game.

A stunned Cayne blurted out "Did I just make $40?" Yes, Mr. Mackey, you did. So now, you and Joshua can add that to your little nest egg so that when you finally have the courage to come out to the world . . . you can have the finances to do it in style. Besides, I need more gay friends. You can stop hiding behind that "he's my roommate" thing any time you're ready.

But it was good company, and good fun. We even got a call from my favorite Canadian Packer-lover and general lover overall (did I mention I hugged him AND kissed him in Vegas?). And I got my baby love. I still love their fat little bodies, even though I have no desire to have another one of my own. I even got a baby hickey on my hand from where a little over-exuberant James tried to gum through the side of my hand.

When the poker game was done, we retired to the kitchen drank a little, talked with the remaining group, listened to Dr. Chako play a few songs on the guitar, and called it a night.

Well, that was after I took some Nyquil.

Winna #1 (Dr. Andrew) and Winna #2 (Cayne)

Cayne smiling (always) while Dr. Chako contemplates (always)

No this is not a Coca-Cola products ad . . . Dr. Chako and Zeem both contemplate . . .

Dr. David and Joshua consider . . .

Mrs. Chako kisses fat babies . . .

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife