Tao of Poker

Umma Gumma

The heads up Chinese Poker match against Change100 continued with six tough sessions since my last post. I'm currently up 21 points after enduring a rollercoaster ride the last 48 hours. My lead climbed to 25 before she mounted a comeback and knocked it down to 15. Then it got ugly and I sent her on megatilt. It go so bad that during a fit of ire she slammed her fist on the tables and freaked out the Fanta drinking and Umma Gumma toking bohemians sitting nearby. She was so pissed off that she didn't talk to me for an hour and we halted play for over 24 hours before her tilt subsided and we were ready to return to action.

We've been playing in coffee shops around Amsterdam during random times like 1pm at the Bull Dog in Leidseplein or in the back Pink Floyd's at 8:20pm or upstairs in La Canna at 5:15pm. We'd squeeze in an hour of playing after dinner or before we went to a museum.

Some of the hands were juiced like Change100's six pair for an auto scoop. I scooped the last hand that session to break a tie. Later that afternoon, we sat through an hour of horrendous migraine inducing Eurotrash techno pop at La Canna that would make Dieter's (from Sprockets) nipples stand erect as three wasted girls from Spain wearing tight jeans with big white belts at the table next to us couldn't stop screaming. I couldn't tell if it was the Himalayan hash or the music that whipped them into a trance-like frenzy. The voguish club tunes didn't faze Change100, who rallied late to tie after she scooped with a Hammer boat and 7-7-7-2-2, 8-8-6-6-4, K-K-10.

I managed to pull a straight flush out of my ass in one session and then cracked Change100's quads with my quads. I didn't win the hand, but I prevented her from scooping with 9-9-9-9-2, A-2-3-4-5, K-K-8 against my Q-Q-Q-Q-6, J-J-T-T-8, 7-7-2. That hand sent her tilting down Tiltdown Street for a few minutes. I ended up having a horrible session even though I pulled another straight flush out of my ass when she had another 6 pair.

In our last match, Change100 started out by scooping two out of the first three hands and took a 8-1 lead. I fought back and lost 16-12 and still hold a 21 overall margin.


I played a few hit and run sessions of online poker at the 5/10 tables on Full Tilt. I'm still trying to clear my reload bonus. I flopped sets on consecutive hands, but only won tiny pots. I've been playing poker and switching back and forth the TV between a Dutch reality show (sort of The Real World meets Masterpiece Theatre) and CNN (keeping an eye on the elections... seems like the Democrats are back in power for the first time since 1994 when Slick Willy was busy getting hummers from interns in the Oval Office and I was wandering around the South following the Grateful Dead).

I've also posted several random photos of Amsterdam over at the Tao of Pauly if you like those sorts of things.