The Summer of George

The Weekend: MPG III & the Friendship Festival

This past weekend was jam-packed with fun and excitement and activities, so excuse me if the commentary is a bit short. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Shall we begin?

Monthly Poker Game III - Friday Night

The night started for myself, Scott, and Jeff at 7pm with a $1 game of H.O.R.S.E. Jeff was the victor. As everyone else arrived at around 8pm, we played a game of Around the World in Scott's driveway. I thought it was great that nine dudes in their late-20s were playing (and getting excited about) a game they all learned at around age eight.


Also, Baker has, hands down, the ugliest basketball shot this side of Mars. It is a sight to behold, though he was able to eventually able to get to the top of the key.


Poker started off with a bang this month. We had nine players in attendance, including Jesse, who obviously takes his game very seriously. Both of the sanctioned games were $5 No Limit Texas Hold 'Em games, and I was able to take a few small pots early in the first one before...


I started unneccesarily chasing hands that never seemed to come to fruition. The worst was a hand against my brother-in-law, Chris, who called my pre-flop raise (I had Ace/Queen) of $40. The flop came Ace-Ten-Six, no double-suits. I bet $75 with top pair and a pretty good kicker. He calls. Next card comes Jack. I figure that I've got him beat at this point, so I lay out a $200 bet. He calls, next card is nothing special (like a 3) and he checks. I can't figure out what he has, so I mistakenly check and reveal my Aces. He flips over a ten and a Jack and takes down the hand. I should have bet big time on that last card. It's been killing me ever since. At that point I was the shortest stack at the table, by far, so I decided to take a few snapshots of the hands that came my way over the course of the next hour. Here it is, the anatomy of a poker player's stack throughout the course of a friendly neighborhood game:









Obviously, I did not win the first game.


Congratulations to Jeff, who did win that first game in his first appearance at the Monthly Poker Game. He deserved to win that bracelet.


I won my first bracelet in the second game, edging out Jeff in an intense heads-up match at the end that lasted about forty-five minutes. We didn't finish the second game until 2:30am.


After that, Scott, Jeff and I played three-way five card draw, where Scott cleaned house.


After that, dice. We played this until around 5am, when the sky outside started to lighten up. We decided, at that point, that enough was enough. Time for bed.

The Friendship Festival - Saturday
I grew up in Bourbonnais, where the Friendship Festival is held every year in June. I try to go down every year to check it out. Fond memories from childhood, and all that jazz. I play the same games every year:

Skee-Ball

Fast Pitch, and my personal favorite...

Horse Racing. This game, by the way, is totally rigged. Only hot chicks, like my wife (pictured above) and Jesse's (he's there, too) girlfriend, seem to win, no matter how few and far between their good rolls are. Totally and completely rigged.


The main attraction for the 21+ crowd on the weekends, though, is the beer tent, which I like because the whole town, in essence, goes out drinking for two nights a year. This is the pile of EMPTY kegs they had stacked up in the back.


My little brother, Andy, is one of the head honchos at the place, and was able to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule to stop at the beer tent fence (he's not of-age quite yet) to say hello to his mother and me.


Westphal even came in from Wisconsin. She and my sister, Lindsey, were able to catch up before Linds makes the big move to Florida in a couple of weeks.


My other sister, Erin, is also making the move to the Sunshine State, so it was real nice, for me and Annie, to get to spend some QT with the both of them before they move away... forever.

And, in case you were wondering, my family exclusively endorses the open-mouth smile.

posted by The Nightmare @ 11:10 PM