Globex Corporation Newsletter

About a month ago, Monday became Positive Day, which for the sake of continuity I will now refer to as Positive Monday. As a result of having to keep my generally overwhelming negative attitude in check for one entire day, Tuesdays became Mega-Bitch Tuesdays. While I don't generally like to constrain myself with categories, I'm thinking that I'll make Wednesdays Recipe Wednesdays. Maybe I'll be less specific and make it Do It Yourself Wednesdays. While I like cooking, there are a lot of other things I do for myself that might be interesting and silly to spring on those 3 or 4 people who actually read this.

A whole lot of years ago, so long ago that I was actually married, while I was working in Sioux Falls at the third place TV station in a three station market, we started a little bi-weekly poker game. It was every other Monday since at our station we got paid every other Friday. We played for real money in that you could actually buy stuff with any money you won. We played for nickles, dimes and quarters, with a 25 cent maximum bet and a two raise max. At that, it meant losing $10 in an evening was a real trouncing. But we could all afford $10 every other week and frankly, there were many weeks when I drank more than $10 worth of booze.

We played dealer's choice, meaning that when the deal came around to you, you got to pick the game. We were all pretty adventurous so the games got pretty wild. We generally had too many wild cards for my taste, but I learned a lot of different type of games. While I really enjoy the popularity that poker has acheived in the last couple of years, all you ever see on TV is Texas Hold 'em. Now Hold 'em is a really great game and truthfully I love playing it, but it's been years since I played Hi-Lo Chicago or Seven Card Stud - Low Spade in the Hole Gets Half the Pot.

That Monday night poker game grew a little bit, one of the guys in the game had a roomate who worked at one of the other stations in town. A couple of other guys from that station started dropping in on the game. Some guys from the paper (not "ThePaper") started playing with us. If something went down in the media in Sioux Falls, we pretty much knew about it at that game. Yeah, we played for money, but it was more an excuse to sit around, drink beer and talk about whatever until three in the morning.

At my next job, I tried to get a game going. Eventually, about the time I was leaving, we got a little game going. This was an interesting game because we played it in the facility we worked in. The on-air operator played both times we had the game, monitoring the signal on a TV in the corner, often running out of the room excitedly to actually do his job. Fun stuff.

Another difference, the Sioux Falls game was all tech types, I think a couple of reporters may have played from time to time, but generally it was just us low paid employees. At this game, the sports anchor played. This station was even more screwed up in the way they paid their tech people, so this guy made a whole lot more money than us. He thought our 25 cent limit was silly and kept trying to bet more than our maximum. We were playing a weird game that required best hand plus low spade to win the pot. If these conditions weren't met, everyone had to re-ante and we started over. This game went on a long time, the sports anchor kept trying to up the bet. Finally I said fine, bet whatever you want, but no complaining when you lose. A couple more hands went by, there was quite a bit of money in the pot, I had the deuce of spades and three of a kind, I pused in all of the remaining money I had, probably not more than $10, but the way we normally played, that was a lot of money. The sports anchor (I'd like to use his name, he was such an asshole, but you'll notice than I also didn't name the station, don't want to get anyone in any trouble) matched my bet, figuring I was trying to buy the pot. The rest of the techies folded, I showed my cards and raked in the cash. The game broke up after that, I had already accepted a different job and moved two days later. In what was supposed to be a 25 cent maximum bet day, I left about $60 ahead. I got the guy I wanted to get, too, so it was a good night.

I play in a game now that isn't for any money, just bragging rights for one week. I have a whole lot more fun at this game and it's easily the most "professional" game I've ever played in, TSA's homemade poker table and high quality chips really adding to my enjoyment of the game. The homebrew doesn't hurt either. We play Hold 'em which I'm finding I enjoy more than I thought I would. Playing a no-limit version makes the game a lot more interesting, something we probably wouldn't do if we were playing for real money. My Saturday nights have probably become the highlight of my week.

It's the highlight of my week even if I have been knocked out first the past two weeks. I will point out that the 3 weeks before that I made it to the final pair, so apparently I do know how to play the game. This weeks final was CCG and TIM (still his actual name). For the second week in a row, the final pair were people who sleep in the same bed (I'm assuming here anyway) which does make the dynamic a little different. It was TIM going home with all of the fake money, both pretty even in chips, both with decent hands. And it was getting pretty late....

BOJ