Hello There, My Minions

I know I'm such a bastard, I've heard it before. I'll hear it again no doubt. I haven't been writing much for the past week, because honestly nothing has come up to write about. I've been working a lot this past week, as we've discovered a problem in the database that will take weeks (hopefully) to fix. Exciting stuff, right?

Usually when I'm not doing things, I'll have some random thought or something from the past to write about, but not lately. My mind's been swamped by hordes of database problems, and when I get home the only thing I've been doing is sitting on my laptop or watching TV. It's been great fun, actually, not doing anything that is.

This weekend was also the first time I've stayed in Santa Barbara in a while. I've been going to Ventura or Simi or somewhere for quite a while, so having a weekend to stay at home, not answering phone calls (text messages I'll respond to, obv) was a relief. I actually didn't go to bed till around 7AM on Friday night, which caused me to sleep until 3:30PM Saturday.

When I did eventually wake up on Saturday, I received a hilarious text message from Darsky, who's currently in Vegas. It was a message of disgust and disbelief, a drunken tale of sorrow and human misuse. Basically he hooked up with a fat chick, and I was partially to blame, both for not being there to keep him in the card room and/or keeping him away from fat chicks while he's drunk.

Being as how I sat around for the remainder of the day and night on Saturday, I felt like going out for at least a little bit on Sunday. Mitch drove out to SB and we hit up a little local microbrewery for lunch, enjoying multiple rounds of brew as we gawked/talked to the millions of hot chicks walking around State Street in Santa Barbara on a Sunday.

After that back at my place, as we took shots of Casadores, we had a decision to make. We could either go to Chumash with a $100 each and see what we could do at the blackjack tables, OR....we could not. At this point, although slightly buzzed, the former option seemed much better. I had been pretty lazy all week after work, and hadn't really gone outside, so I wanted to go do something.

Now I'm pretty broke right now, but I'm not to the point where $100 will hurt to lose. Mitchell, on the other hand, didn't feel like popping $100 to go lose it at blackjack, as he had already dropped $300 a week earlier to the very same Indian tribe. It was then that I realized that if I could lose $100, it wouldn't hurt too much to lose $200 by loaning Mitch $100 for the time being. That solved one problem, and I forked over $15 in Chumash chips that I had lyin around for gas money so that I didn't have to drive.

We got up there, and within 20 minutes turned our buyins (ended up being $120 each, both supplied by me) into around $275 each. Within the half hour, we obviously lost it back plus most of our stack. We were still having a good time, so it didn't bug me too much. Eventually we lost our monies and I whipped out another $60 to go heads up with the dealer. I lost every hand.

I followed Mitch over the cage so he could cash in his gas money chips that I had given him earlier, and being the degenerate that I am realized I still had $20 in my pocket. On the way out I stopped at the 1st seat of a table after watching the dealer pull two blackjacks in a row against a sorry table. I threw $20 on the circle and watched the dealer peel me off an Ace followed by a Queen.

Sweet!

The next hand I let the $50 ride, and I hit a 20 against an 18. I let the $100 ride and I took another 20, this time against a 17. I popped the dealer $20 and took off over to the cage, up $160 from two minutes earlier, and minus the $120 I leant Mitch, only $20 down on the night.

On the way out, realizing that I was only $20 down on the night, I decided to pop into the 1st seat of a new shoe on another table. I put $20 on the first hand, and just happened happened to peel of an A10 for another blackjack. For some stupid reason (as it usually is when playing blackjack), I only put out $15 on the second hand. I ended up losing that one, and popped the last $35 on the next hand. A 20 was good for a win against a dealer 17, and I pressed the $70. The next hand, I hit AA and had to reach into my newfound cash for split money. I split the Aces for $70 a hand, and hit a King and a Queen for two 21's. The table was crackin up at my carelessness and supreme luck, and I took down the $280 in front of me, minus a $30 for the gracious dealer.

I walked over to the cage laughing my ass off at all the money I had won in 5 minutes, and we left the Chumash casino as happy as a couple pigs in shit (gross expression?.....yeah I think so). Overall I had won $165 after tipping the cashier a redbird, although I was short $120 in cash cuz of the money I gave Mitch, so technically I only left with $45 more than I came with. I was still pretty stoked.

Obviously this isn't a lot of money, and to me this is pretty much money for food around town for a couple days. But considering that I only had $20 left before we were about to leave, and considering that I've been feeling pretty down about finances lately, it felt pretty good to walk away with any kind of win.

It was definitely something I needed, since I've been pretty bored all in all lately, and I needed the thrill of gambling. I had played a little bit of poker online while I home Friday night, but within a matter of hours I took two 2-outers in NLHold'em and another 2-outer in PLOmaha Hi, so I was pretty irritated and my urges were surely not satisfied. It was then that I vowed not to play serious poker for a while, both because of the fact that I'm low on funds and have no set bankroll, and because the game's become seriously not fun for me in the past couple of months, which is the only reason I play it in the first place. I'm even questioning playing at Paul's for a while, although I'll probably still go to deal even if I don't play.

This is something I've said a couple times before, hence my headline on this blog, but I'm pretty set about this time. The game's just become not fun to me anymore and I refuse to play it in that case.

With that being said on Friday night, I got a call from Matt on Sunday evening saying that he and his roommates were playing a game, $20-$40 buyin. I said okay.

Now even though I had said on Friday I wasn't gonna play cards anymore, I had stated that I wasn't playing any serious cards anymore, as well as stating Paul's game specifically. I said that I would play Bonedoneskis for sure, and I also never said I wouldn't play small games just for fun with the right people.

So as I walked into Matt's house, I saw seven guys already deep into a game of $20 buy-in $.25/$.50 NLHE. I bought in for $20, and within ten minutes was over $50. I ended up letting go of a couple hands that I now know I shouldn't have, as I gave these guys more credit than I should have, but overall in under two hours that I was there for I cashed out for $87. All in all it was fun, and it was a fun group of guys to play with. That and they were easy money.

But like I said, that game was just as much for fun as the blackjack was, and I don't expect to be playing another other than small homegames in the near future.

With such a boring week preceding it, the weekend was a well-needed blend of personal space and fun. I'm feeling like I'll be in the mood for writing this week, so hopefully I won't be such a bastard dad to this blog in the next few days.

Until next time.