Silly Happy Poker and More

Spring is in the air... finally... and while for me that includes participation in the World's Largest Trivia Contest (Stevens Point, WI), it also gave me the chance to stop in with my old trivia friends on the Saturday night of Easter weekend and play some old-time, silly poker.

I'd forgotten how much I missed sitting down at a table playing silly made-up games for a dollar or three. Sure, there were the occasional hands of Omaha or 7-card stud, but blessedly not a hand of hold'em in sight the entire night. Instead it was such old home-game stalwarts as Black Mariah, 2-22 and 7-27, though the latter with am occasional twist -- jacks were "shit on your neighbor" cards (they each received cards, whether wanted or not), diamonds were double and hearts didn't count.

Hilarious. Don't expect to a see a chapter on it in Super/System 3. Nor on Standard-1 or Blind Melon, true slam, among the night's other faves. Suffice it to say the night's strategy for most players, including me, was never fold a hand that had a reasonable chance of snagging a piece of a pot.

The game broke about 4am, with me up perhaps a hundred and still facing an additional 90-minute drive further north. It was worth it anyway.


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And then the good news from this morning, though non-poker related. I was not selected for three months of once-a-week grand jury duty, after being summoned in and sifted through interviews with the defense lawyers. Too many disqualifying circumstances among me and my immediate family for them to even want to consider me; after about three questions, the lawyer said "That's enough, let's keep the line moving," and sent me back to my seat.


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P.S.: More "Just Conjecturin'" posts coming soon. At least four more. I promise! I'm confident there will be other news on this front some time soon as well.

I've also seen the recent stories regarding Full Tilt being investigated by the SDNY. If true, it's pathetic to see the feds targeting FT before UB or AP, but there's reason to believe that the impetus was planted as part of PartyPoker's prior settlement with the US, as in, "We'll settle, but only if you promise to go after Tilt or Stars next." I've believed that was a poison-pill play by Party since day one, an attempt to clear out the market for a possible reentry to the States once formal regulation arrives.

But, gee whiz -- the UB owners are almost as publicly known, include plenty of Americans, and the site's history included not only a mega-millions cheating scandal, but the offering of a "house" game (blackjack). Neither condition applies to Full Tilt. I'm not a huge fan of Full Tilt, but the politics in play here are hilariously thin.

Thus cometh the sandman. It was never of question of if, for those of you with heads in the sand, but always a question of when and how.