Games

Archive for "Games"

Poker 101: The Art of Fake-Checking and Keeping Your Mouth Shut

Posted on July 27, 2006 by Ching under Games, Poker.

I should really keep my mouth shut when I’m playing poker. When I get too comfortable around people, I start being chatty Cathy and then I end up giving my hands away. You won’t even need to stare me down to get a feel for what I’m holding. Just listen to the chatter and you’ll know whether to stay in or fold.

Case in point is Friday night poker. I end up at a table with Sandy, Mary, Brian (not my Brian but a different Brian) and a bunch of other super friendly folks. Of course, there is never such a thing as a friendly game of poker. Everyone is in it to win it even though we’re all playing for free. People take their bragging rights and points very, very seriously.

Anyway, it looks friendly on the surface but you know people are still really competitive. Of course, we always have a lot of fun. I do, anyway. Win or lose, playing poker is always a good time. I really like the exciting rollercoaster hands the best. Those hands where someone is 5% to win pre flop and then the flop comes out in their favor so now they’re in the lead, and then the turn comes in the other player’s favor so now the other guy is back to being the underdog and then the river comes and the underdog wins. Those hands rock.

A few people have commented about how excited I get when I get knocked out in such a manner, they would hate to see me win because I might just die of a heart attack. Just like any other poker addict, I love to share my bad beat stories. Sometimes over and over and over again, ad nauseum. Of course, since most of you aren’t the least bit interested in poker I’ve learned to keep it off the blog for the most part. I mean, poker stories are pretty boring for most regular people.

But I digress.. Where was I? Okay, Friday night poker. We are at this table being friendly and cordial and cracking jokes. I was playing really loose that night so I was in a lot of hands — most of which I had no business being in. One hand I was in last position.

It started out being a family pot. If not, only one person wasn’t in the hand. I think the dealer wasn’t in the hand because I don’t remember dealing but I was last to act each time. There was no pre flop raise so who knows what kind of cards were being played. After the flop, everyone checked. I bet the minimum amount. Everyone called.

“What is this? You were all fake-checking!” I protested. “If you were really checking you all would’ve folded after the bet.”

So we start joking around about fake-checks. Everytime someone would check and the possibility of a killer hand existed, we would all tease each other about fake-checking.

Several hands later while still at $20-$40 blinds I find myself in one of the blind positions. I have ace-three off-suit but I’m in big blind so I play it. I think the small blind folded pre flop because I was first to act each time.

The flop comes ace, king, jack. I hit top pair and I want to know what’s up so I instinctively bet $200. This is a decent bet because it’s five times the big blind but, considering that just about everyone called pre flop, I realize now it might not have been big enough.

Sandy goes, “What happened to fake-checking?”

“Well.. I happen to have something,” I replied.

“You gotta fake-check if you have something good,” she continued.

“No, you only fake-ceck if you have something REALLY good.”

Crap! Open mouth, insert foot. You can pretty much guess what happened. It was call, call, call, call, call. All the way around the table. Definitely not what you want to see when you have top pair with a weak kicker.

The turn card comes and it is a blank. I fire another $200. It was probably a futile attempt at this point because the pot had grown in size and anyone with anything would be ill-advised not to call such a miniscule bet compared to the pot size. It did manage to scare all but one. I guess after second bet they finally believed me. Except for Mary. She was the non-believer. The river card is a queen. I visualize myself hitting my head against the table a dozen times. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I checked it to her. She bet $200. What’s $200 at this point?

“I know you have the ten but I call,” I said defeated. And she did. She had the ten. To her credit, however, she had a king-ten so she hand the second best pair post flop. I cannot blame her for calling. First of all, I didn’t bet big enough. And worst of all, I gave my hand away. She knew exactly what I had. She called because she had the second best hand and a better draw. She gambled and it paid off.

So there are really two lessons to be learned here. First, fake-check if you have a good hand. This will allow you to smooth-call and trap someone, or re-raise and send an amateur toward tilt-dom. Second, keep your mouth shut while you’re doing it (unless you are a pro and have mastered the art of table talk — which as we’ve proven here does not describe me).

As Mike Sexton always says on the World Poker Tour, “May your cards be live and your pots be monsters!” Good luck, everyone! Happy poker-playing!

No Comments

You’re All Invited

Posted on July 22, 2006 by Ching under Flickr, Food and Drink, Games, Poker.

Brian and I have decided to have an all-you-can-eat taco challenge at the Harry and Webb Taco Shop on Monday (Brian wanted me to clarify that participants will need to buy their own meals; just in case anyone gets the wrong idea). Brian and I are both pretty sure that I will win because no one can eat like me. I can out-eat just about anyone. Except maybe for Dill. If he shows up, I’ll lose for sure.

So if you want to witness an exciting taco-eating contest, feel free to join us. I think all-you-can-eat tacos are served between 4-8 pm. Brian and I aren’t sure about the times, though. We just know it’s in the evening.

Of course, that’s the same night that APL is holding the televised championship poker tournament. So if nobody makes it we will understand completely. We figured that we will probably stop in to cheer Michelle and Adelfa on. They both qualified to play in the tourney.

The tournament is open to spectators so you all should stop by. You can also watch it at home. It’s supposed to be broadcast life on local channel 5. It will also be webcast but I’m not sure what the web address is. Check the APL web site for more information.

No Comments

It’s All About Luck

Posted on July 2, 2006 by Ching under Games, Life, Movies, Poker.

I haven’t had much lately. Last night I was so mad at myself (and another poker player — actually I think I was more mad at them). I lost $13 in one hand of poker. Can you believe it? I had pocket aces and the other player flushed on me. Such horrible luck!

Speaking of bad luck. The Dills lost their keys the other night. They didn’t find out until well after midnight when we were all leaving to go home. They went back inside the APL building to search. I told Brian to wait just in case. I had a feeling they might have left it at Felipe’s where we had dinner before second session. Anyway, they came back out with no keys. Good thing Brian and I waited.

Of course, Felipe’s had long closed for the evening. We were going to drive by there but Dill said that their the maintenance person said he was on his way. I figured it would take a while for him to arrive but Dill said he lived onsite so we drove directly to their apartment.

The maintenance person took a half an hour to get there. We couldn’t really complain though, because it’s late. He probably had to get dressed or something. Anyway, Dill and Becca finally got in to their place to retrieve their spare key. We then drove back to APL so they could get their car.

Yesterday they went to Felipe’s to claim their keys. Thankfully, the keys were still there. Bad luck, but it could have been worse. (more…)

No Comments

Reminiscing

Posted on June 24, 2006 by Ching under Games, Life.

This August 8, 1999 journal entry is being republished here in honor of Eli. (If asked for a password, please us reader as the username and oldstuff as the password.)

· ·· ··· ·· ·

I forced Jen to play in front of the webcam with me last Thursday. As promised, here are the archived still shots..

The pictures above were taken during the afternoon. Later that night we played a little game of charades with Eli. He was chatting with Jen via AIM and he would tell her words which we would in turn act out.

The images below have been brought to you courtesy of Eli, who has conscientiously taken it upon himself to save the funnier still shots. Many thanks, E.

The following photos are of Jen and I, being goofy. They are still courtsey of Eli.

That’s all for now. Check back later.

No Comments

Brian Was Pooped

Posted on June 10, 2006 by Ching under Family, Games, Life.

Brian was pooped after the garage sale today. Mostly there was a lot of waiting around. We didn’t get much business and sold very few items, but getting rid of all of our junk (which the DAV will pick up from mom’s house on Monday) was well worth it.

We actually had fun after Dawn and her girls showed up. Amber and Haley came to sell soda and water to the customers. We all thought it would be a good idea specially on a hot summer day. Very few sodas and waters got sold, though.

Anyway, there was still a lot of waiting around with a bit of horsing around in between. Amber played chess with me. It was her first time playing, so I had to show her how the various pieces move, and she won! She was really excited about that. She learned the moves really quickly. She seems to be really sharp.

After that she taught me how to play Go Fish and Speed. We had a long discussion of how people are wrong to refer to “sugargliders” as “sugar gliders” because it is a compound noun. After all, it’s “firehouse” not “fire house” and “fireman” not “fire man” and “doghouse” not “dog house” and “superman” not “super man” and “butterfly” not “butter fly” and “watermelon” not “water melon” and… I could keep going, but you get the point.

Try searching for “sugargliders” on Google, though and you won’t get very many hits. However, if you use “sugar gliders” as the search term then you’ll get lots of hits. We both agreed that it should not have a space in between the two words.

Anyway, I realize that there compound nouns can exist in the open form but I don’t like them. I think compound nouns should consist of words stuck together like Siamese twins or at least be hyphenated. But that’s just me. =P

So that’s about the extent of my garage sale experience. It was my first one ever and I have to say, I refuse to participate in any kind of garage or yard sale ever again! It was so hot outside that we finally gave up and packed up early. I swear there were ten drivebys after our garage sale officially closed for the day. I kind of feel bad for closing early, but Brian and them insisted that we do because it had been almost two hours since the last victim (err, customer). It was Ching against everyone else so I was out-voted. It was actually good that we closed early because that gave Brian and I time to shower before dinner. It was a necessity because Brian and I were both really grody for being out in the heat all day. After our shower, he promptly passed out on our favorite sleeping couch (see the photo above).