A Weekend of Firsts

I had my cherry broken a lot this weekend. Coming up to Michigan has exposed me to a lot of new things.

***I had my first heads-up challenge against Veneno. I took the lead in the first match, but she quickly overcame and took me out. She wanted to play another one right away. I'm telling you, that girl is insatiable. So we played another one. It ended poorly for me as I slow played my Aces. By the turn her 42o was Twos full of fours, but she improved on the river to Fours full of twos. Yes, that's right, my crummy little pair of aces lost to a pair of trips.

I did manage to exact some revenge the following night, but she was severly handicapped by some strange mango liqueur and tequila mixture. I highly reccomend it for your heads-up opponents. Well, I also recommend cracking her aces with 75s. I was open ended on the flop and rivered a four. So our match total is 2 for her, 1 for me. But I have a feeling that lovely girl hasn't had enough of me yet.

***Saturday brought the first time I met a Michigan Blogger. I met two, in fact. I traveled 90 miles to Muskegon Michigan and Great Lakes Downs. I was worried because my email wasn't working Saturday morning and I had to find the track from my memory of BGs email, and I had only glanced over it. Thankfully it was very convenient and I got there right at noon. The ATM was down at the track so I ran out searching for an ATM. When I got back 15 minutes later, I beeped BGs nextel and he was standing about 30 feet away from me in the parking lot.

BG is an incredibly fascinating guy. He's probably the most self-confident insecure guy that I know. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but if you ever met BG you'd understand. His new travel requirements for work are a real disappointment, because his take on the local Michigan horse racing world would be a fascinating project.

THG seems like a really great guy. The first thing you notice is his voice. He should be in radio or announcing of some kind. A very strong steady tenor. Thanks for the drinks guys. I really had more fun playing the ponies with you guys than I did in the tournament. Even though my only decent score came on a horse called "Brother Derek."

***I played my first Michigan "Charity" poker. They apparently skirt Michigan gambling laws by donating he proceeds of the poker action to charity, and that allows poker games to exist. One limitation is that you can't win more than $500 a day. So even though there were almost 100 people in the tournament at $55 a shot, first prize was still only $500. I don't know the actual payout structure, so that should tell you how BG, THG and I did in the tourney. THG wins the pool for the last-longer bet we forgot to make.

***I got my first Dial-a-shot. Mine was Gin (okay, and some tonic) and I totally punted the toast. My only idea was to toast to horses named after Lord of the Rings characters. But I'm pretty sure BG would have slugged me.