All Men Don't Suck

Not all the guys at Foxwoods were terrible.  The majority of them were nice and friendly.  There was this one guy Steve, who couldn't be nicer.  We played for hours together.  At one point, he offered me some candy from his Pez dispenser and then offered some to my sister who was sitting behind me.  She happily accepted.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that he had mint pez.  How cool is that?  When my sister told him she liked it, he told her to keep the whole thing, dispenser and all  Nice huh?

Anyway, I gave him one of my new poker cards that advertise this blog and he just sent me this email:

hi Josie....

its Steve...from the final table last week....in the event you still don't remember, I am the one that gave you and your sister the PEZ...lol...

how are you? what place did you finish?

i just found your card...so i thought i would email you and say hello...

when are you going back for another tournament? i will be at Mohegan sun for the Friday afternoon 200.00...and am thinking about tomorrow afternoon at foxwoods...

send my regards to your sister....i neglected to ask her, her name...my apologies for that...what manners...lol...

look forward to hearing back from you and hopefully seeing you again...it was a pleasure playing poker with you...

Steve

It reminded me that I met plenty of nice guys that day and I shouldn't focus on the douchy ones.  I can't make the tourneys he mentioned but I told him I'd definitely be back.

Speaking of my sister, I guess it's time for that sister post!

Since I had a room for two nights at Foxwoods, I asked my sister if she wanted to join me.  Actually the original plan was for both Evan and her to go.  Evan has never been to Foxwoods and he wanted to see it.  At first I thought they could hang out together while I was in the poker room but in the end I dumped the kid.  Why?  Because I thought 2 nights (3 days) when you're not allowed in the casino is just too long.  There isn't a heck of alot more to do.  Yeah they have an arcade, but I knew I'd be focused on playing and it just wasn't a good idea.  So instead it was a girl's weekend!

My sister is a hair dresser and a friend/client of hers was also going to be there!  This guy Mike, whose hair she cuts is a semi-professional poker player and he went to Foxwoods for the entire week of the MegaStack tourneys.  I'd only met Mike once before, about 10 years ago.

It was when I just started playing Texas Holdem and really didn't know what the hell I was doing.  Carmela told me about a poker game that was going on so I went.  I met Mike, I played HORRIBLY, and won all of his money.  I mean like cleaned house, while playing every hand I was dealt.  Playing hands like 2-8, J-3, stuff like that.  I remember ribbing him mercilessly about being to afraid to play a hand just because he was being selective.  Anyway, just thinking about how badly I played embarrasses me.  I was eager to meet him again to show him that I was a bit better now.

He was there to play the cash game almost exclusively.  He was there for a week and played only one tournament.  He lasted 9 hours but didn't cash and thought it a supreme waste of time.  He says cash games are more lucrative.

He was heading back to his room around the time we were heading back to ours after the tourney - my sister all excited that I won so much money and me, a freaking upset, seething, lunatic.  So we get back to the room and I'm still upset but Mike comes over for a visit, which was just what the doctor ordered.  Of course we get to talking and share our tales of misery.  Funny thing is, as miserable as we were, both of us were up alot of money.  Heh.  He's my sister's friend, but we were discussing alot of my hands ad nauseum, and he knew some of those assholey guys too.  He said they were regulars.  Before I knew it, I got comfy in bed, (I was tired!) chatting away with Mike who's sitting on my bed with me.  And this is a shy, quiet guy, and my sister is on her bed twiddling her thumbs, like what's going on?  He's a smart guy and a fountain of information.

We (sis and me) got to talking and thought "If we want to stay another night, we can always stay in Mike's room!  He has 2 double beds and he's only using one.  We can share the other!"  So we're talking about this and then I say - We can't do it!  No Way!!!

Why, you ask?

A couple of months ago, sis and I were shopping and there were these cute cotton nighties on sale for like $5.  Except they weren't all that cute - they were blue striped - but you know, only 5 bucks so what the hell.  We both ended up buying one each.

Fast forward to the weekend - we both brought the same nightie!  We could NOT show up, invite ourselves to stay, and then go to bed in twin matching nighties - that's too weird!  He would've been like wtf!

I couldn't believe we both brought the same damn one with us.  Now just for the sake of my blog, my sister agreed to take a picture in the nighties, just for the total visual effect.

This is a horrible picture of me, but for the sake of my blog....

I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but my sister has blue eyes and her hair's wet but she has light brown hair - and she's like 5 inches taller than me and 5 years older.  I say this because I was playing a cash game Friday night and this Asian man was asking me if my big fake ring was real, and how he could buy me a real one(sure he could) when my sister came by.  The Asian guy says "Are you twins?  You look like twins".  And immediately another guy at the table said "No they don't!"

Of course my sister LOVED THIS.  Because people are always asking us who is older.  :(  I wouldn't mind so much but I'm FIVE YEARS YOUNGER.  I hope it's because she looks young, not because I look old. 

So having a hairdresser in house is a good thing.  Sister could do my hair!  She bestowed alot of pain on me for like a half hour doing this and doing that - putting my hair up like I was going to the prom.  OMFG.  See below....

After all that work and pain, I took the whole thing down, brushed my hair and left, without regard to my sister's advice.  But before I did, sis wanted to take a picture of her handiwork.  Fine whatever!  But see how I'm posed there?  I was like just take the picture and she said NO.  Look at the phone - I want to take your pic while you're looking at the phone, that will be a good angle for you.

Okay.....

Except it's not!  I don't have a big nose but in that pic above I sure look like I do!

My sister gives lots of advice - some of it good, some of it, not so much.  She had a special bit of poker advice for me.  Advice that would lead me to win, she assured me.

"Hold your thumb in your other hand and pinch it."

What?????

"Hold your thumb in your hand and pinch it - throughout the entire game. Like this!" 

"Ouch, what the hell are you doing?"

 

"The pain will remind you to keep your mind on the game".

I told her I couldn't do that.  I'd look like an ass hold my thumb all day - lol, but she kept insisting that I do this.  For hours.  Even during the tourney.  At one point she came up behind me while I was playing and I felt a big pinch.  WTF!

"I got this for you", she said.

It was a shard of plastic.  ROFL Like a broken bit of a hard plastic glass.  "Use this to pinch yourself with!  Then you won't have to hold your thumb."

My response?

"I'm writing all about this on my blog!"

Carmela rocks!

Play smart, or pinch yourself while you're playing.

Josie