When Norm’s Away…

Norm told me last week that Scratchy (see I can spell it right) had an overnight birthday party planned for Thursday. They were going to go to some indoor water park and weren’t going to be back home until sometime in the afternoon on Friday.

Norm called me at work to let me know that she was not planning on making dinner, as there were plenty of leftovers in the fridge. She also said that Itchy was going to stay home with me. She asked me what I had planned… I gave her my standard answer of I don’t know. She suggested that maybe we could go up to the club so that Itchy could do some rock climbing and if we were bored later we could go up to blockbuster and get a movie or a new game for the PS3.

I said that we might do that … Yesterday afternoon; I was feeling kind of bored and asked the guys at work if they wanted to get together and play poker. Most of the guys had other plans but I did get Dan to say that he didn’t have plans and could do it as long as it was after eight. I called up Eduardo and asked him if he was up to it… he said sure (when is Eduardo never up to playing poker) and that he would make a few calls so that we would have enough to play.

As the afternoon progressed, the poker game was taking shape but I didn’t feel like going up to the club as my knee was still bugging me and I was still at work at 5:30 and would never make the spin class. I got home well after six and was tired. Itchy asked to go rock climbing. I asked, “when are you going to come home and will you be hungry?” Itchy said about eight and asked if we could get pizza. I said fine...

The house was clean… I wasn’t hungry… and I was tired, so I sat on the couch and flipped the channels of the TV until I found a game from the NCAA tournament. I don’t remember who was playing or what the score was, but the house was quiet. I sat there for about two hours until the phone rang and it was Itchy asking to stay at the club until ten. I reluctantly said yes… Itchy called me again no more then two minutes later and said that they were coming home.

At about eight thirty Eduardo, Robo and big Dan came over. I asked Eduardo who was coming… he said that he made several calls but only got one confirmation (Tarik). Tarik is never late and as it was 8:45… this might have been a bad idea. I was thinking about plan B… maybe pizza and a movie. So, I asked Itchy to call and order the pizza.

I went to pick up the pizza… (They lost the order… great; the night was not getting worse.) I got home and there was still no one else there. I asked Eduardo and Dan if they were up to a little three-handed poker. Itchy said that Simon from down the block could play. We were getting desperate, but four-handed poker is much more interesting than three-handed so we agreed.

As we were waiting for Simon, Bruce and Heart Brake knocked on the front door and the Jackal called to say that he was on the way. After ten o’clock, the game finally started with seven of us. Simon took a big chunk of Eduardo’s money early in the game and seemed like a player. He slow played K7 (top two pair on the flop) into a full house on the river. He took the early lead and I got a good read of him after about an hour of watching him… I never got a chance to bust him. I got my top pair cracked by Heart Brake in the middle of the game as she had a better kicker and I went all in on her. It seemed like the next hand she took another huge chunk of my stack. After this, I just tried to play conservative. The first game Eduardo took the prize and we started the second game right about 1 am. I asked the group if they wanted anything to drink and even offered to make them a pitcher of Strawberry Daiquiri. They liked them so much that I made some Irish Coffee’s and Bruce got a chance to taste one of my Apple Martini. I guess I put a little too much Vodka in it. Second game was a quick game and I don’t remember any memorable hands… Heart Brake won. Third game started at 3 am and I Eduardo won again. The last game it was only Eduardo, Bruce and I that played. We started at 4:30 and Eduardo won as he took top honors for the night. When we finally emerged from the game room, Robo was playing Need for Speed on the PS3. Itchy was out on the couch.

The guys headed out of the house right before six am as I told them if they waited another half hour they would get caught up in rush hour. That would have stunk playing poker all night… all tired out and stuck in traffic.

I got up this morning and cleaned the house up. The house was quiet again and I got a good chance to veg out. I finally woke up Itchy just before Norm got home after three this afternoon.