Queen Alice

(an entry about poker)

I'm trying to get Alias the Jester to approve my poker nickname 'Alice'. As in Alice in Wonderland "curiouser and curiouser" "you're nothing but a pack of cards" etc etc. Why? Because I always want to see the community cards before I confirm a bet. Anyway, Alias hasn't even approved of my nickname for him but this is my blog so I get to call him Alias. So Old Man River, Alias, Soccer Chief (not a poker nickname, duh), Mr Origami and I scheduled a game after work...

Big boss came in, though, and ran a sales meeting in the boardroom, which is our usual den. We were even going to use the projector to screen the cricket, which is being played in Perth. We ended up moving furniture to the sound room and setting up there and had to contend with the radio broadcast of the match.

I had a bloody lucky run of cards - a lot of triples - which wiped out Alias and Old Man (he had taken down Origami in the meantime, if my memory serves me correctly) reasonably early. So I went heads up with the Chief, who I find impossible to look at because he's just too beautiful (I mean, really, it's just not fair for one person to be so good looking...).

I started off with the larger chip stack in the one-on-one but we see-sawed for about ooh, a good hour. The blinds started hitting 40/80 with a minimum bet of 80 so there was quite a many chips in the pot at each hand. In the end I can't quite remember how I steamrolled him, but he had bet all-in and I, having the slightly upper hand at the time, acquiesced. I think I might have had a pair of fives and he might have had a king or ace high. Origami later said that he fully thought the Chief had me covered and conceded that I'd played well.

Bowed out within a couple of hands in the second round, though (Chief had to go - I felt bad that he was so tired and the play exhausted him further). Alias actually took me out (rather than the other way around, which is what usually happens). I had pocket Queens and a Queen on the river... and he had a flush. Bastard.

That reminds me of an earlier game where Origami lost to the Maverick (who doesn't actually work with us - he is the husband of Melways, who does work with us). They were both all-in. Origami had pocket Queens and the Maverick had pocket 2s. Melways dealt a 2 and it was all over Mr Origami. So those pocket Queens are cursed.

Next time I'll scream "you're nothing but a pack of cards" and see if that gets me the nickname I want.



P.S: Interim news about Stalkie, who'd told Alias and a bunch of other people (at a lunch the other day) that I had said that Alias and Origami didn't want her to play poker any more. This is a blatant lie. Either she's mixing up the fact that Alias and Origami think she's a loose cannon at poker with the fact that Dutchie and our CEO didn't want her to come into the office or she is trying to discredit me. Alias also mentioned that his manager, Toro, keeps getting emails from her and is too nice to shake her off. Lying to her just makes it worse for himself. I guess nice people aren't always completely honest.