The $320 Putt

Pauly flew back to L.A. from Vegas to spend Valentines Day with me. Do I have the best boyfriend or what? Inspired by our time on the mini-golf course in Queenstown, I got Pauly a portable putting green and a new putter for V-Day. The thing even shoots the ball back at you so you don't have to fetch it each time. We became such junkies down in New Zealand, and now we could bring the fun home. Golf (the miniature version at least)), I've found, is one of the few prop bets (aside from vegetable-eating) where I actually feel I have a shot against Pauly. Thank God for handicaps. We instantly started gambling on putts once we set the thing up. After a few practice rounds, Pauly set the ball at the end of the green and took his stance.

"$20 I sink it."

"I'll take it."

The ball broke left and Pauly missed.

"Double or nothing?"

"OK."

He took another shot. Wide left again.

"Double or nothing for $80?" I offered.

"OK."

He missed again and was approaching mega-golf tilt.

"OK, $160?" He had to get unstuck.

"Go for it."

He took a few practice swings, exhaled deeply and squited at the hole before taking his swing. He missed it again!

"Ship it! One more time. Double or nothing for $320" I said. I had a feeling he wasn't going to miss it this time, but I had to at least gamble.

My instincts were right. He sunk it in one graceful swing.

After that, we smoked blunts and watched one of my favorite films of all time-- Annie Hall. A perfect Valentines Day I'd say.

* * * * *

This afternoon, I played in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly even though my PLO skills are rather limited. It might even be my weakest game. On Week 1, I managed to bubble the final table (and the money). Last weekend I couldn't play because I was on the road from Vegas to L.A. so I was looking forward to getting back into the fray. On something like the third hand, Benjo (a French poker journalist friend of Pauly and I) opened for a raise. I had A-A-K-X and re-potted. When Benjo three-bet, I had a feeling that I was probably up against the other two aces, but there was no way I was folding the hand. I moved in and he called, showing A-A-J-X. My kicker ended up playing and poor poor Benjo was gone, courtesy of some rotten luck. Suddenly I had 3k chips and pretty much no idea what to do with them. I got involved in another hand soon after, and flopped two pair with K-6. When a straight card came on the end and my opponent bet $1,000, I had a feeling I had been rivered but made the donkey call anyway. Back to my starting stack. But luckily I was able to flop some big combination draws and pushed them aggressively. I ended up knocking out Joe Speaker (on a hideous beat when he turned a straight, bet pot and I called with a straight draw and the nut flush draw... I rivered a higher straight), Derek, and Iggy.

I had the chip lead at the final table, but gave a lot of it away playing too tight when it got shorthanded. I was card dead, but probably could have made some moves given my image. I just don't have the experience playing shorthanded PLO and I ended up running top pair into two pair and going out in 4th place. At least I was able to cash and boost my Stars roll a little bit.

I've only been home for about 2 weeks, but tomorrow I take off again. I'm flying to Copenhagen, Denmark to cover the EPT Copenhagen for Poker News. Mike Lacey of Antes Up is my partner for this gig. Pauly is going to join me in Copenhagen on Friday after spending a few days in Amsterdam editing his new project and smoking mass quantities of kind bud. We'll get at least a day to explore the city after the tournament finishes.

Don't worry. I made like, triple sure that I had aisle seats for the long (LAX-Amsterdam) legs of the flight. I also have a new book, and the iPod is charged and chock full of new tunes I've downloaded from Coventry, Pauly's group music blog that I've been contributing to as of late. Make sure to heck out the Justin85 mixes-- there are so many random bands on there that I'd never heard of that are great discoveries.

It is now back to hunting through my wardrobe for warm clothing. It's like, 30 degrees in Denmark and I think I own one sweater of any significant weight.

I'll catch you all from Copenhagen.