Job, Fight, Poker

I just received a call from Bank of the West. I one of two people that they are considering for an Assistant Customer Service Manager position. I should know by Wednesday. This is good news, although it would be better news if they hired me. Good luck me.

I almost got in a fight this weekend. Actually, I'm kind of mad that I didn't. My friend Adam Swift took me to one of his friend's houses here in Omaha to watch the Husker game. It was in the incredibly northwestern part of town, and Adam lives a long way away from me, so we drove two cars. We stopped for a bite to eat, and he told me about a guy that would be there. They don't like each other. Now, Adam is smaller than I am. And nerdy looking. Physical prowess isn't a word that you would use to describe him. When we got there, he didn't have to point out the guy that he didn't like. He was already belligerently drunk and acting like a jackass. It wasn't hard to tell that he was one of those guys that people are still friends with because they've always been friends with him, but over the course of the night he embarrassed himself repeatedly. As you all know, the Husker game was poo, and near the end of the third quarter, Adam and I were talking about why we had no run defense. Adam is a huge soccer fan, so he joked about us needing to hire a French soccer coach for our football team. That's when Greg chimed in. "We don't need a fag running our football team." Then there was an argument between Adam and Greg. Then Adam said "Wow. It's really not a big deal, I don't know why you have to be such a tool about it." Then Greg got in his face and threatened him. Here is the part where I just should have hit him. I tried breaking it up peacefully, but that obviously didn't work. I tried to get one of his friends involved, but they sat around like a bunch of cowards. That let me down because they were a lot of fun, and I thought they were good people. They still might be, but this wasn't one of their better moments. Adam showed incredible restraint and tried to walk away, but the guy did the one thing that is just dirty pool; he called Adam a chickenshit. It's like George McFly in Back to the Future. There's something in man DNA that won't allow us to be called a coward in a heated moment. We can't help it. Adam was walking to the garage at the time and said "Yeah, I'm real fucking scared of you." Greg's gears started to turn. A few seconds later, Adam was in the garage and Greg finally realized what he said. Then he sprinted into the garage after Adam. Some other people were in the garage and grabbed Greg and Adam simply got in his car and left. I stayed and had a great night. Greg aside, everybody was very nice and a lot of fun. I should have hit him. It wouldn't have done much, but I should have done it. I should have done it because people like Greg rely on fear because it's all they have. He was supposed to be a fantastic kicker for the Huskers, but he's too big of a drunk and got kicked off the team. He may have gotten kicked all the way out of school. He works construction now. His life peaked his senior year of high school, and I can't blame him for being angry about it, but picking on 5'8" redheads isn't impressive. He wasn't a huge guy, and I would've had a chance in a fight with him, but I wouldn't of at that place. As soon as I hit him, three other people would've hit me. It's another thing in man DNA. If somebody hits your friend, you hit that person. I still should've done it. I talked with my dad about it on Sunday as we were driving around in Omaha and he was proud of me all around. He was glad I didn't get in a fight, but he was glad that I would've hit the guy if he had hit Adam. "If one of you gets a black eye, you all get a black eye. If one of your friends doesn't help you out, then YOU give them a black eye." Despite the modern PC era where there aren't "manly" things, I'm glad I still have a manly quality or two lurking beneath my modern-man exterior. I still should've hit him.

Poker is still going well. I'm taking some pretty sick beats still, but not one after the other. Actually being allowed to win hands is nice. Friday I lost $30 because I came home rumblin' stumblin' drunk and decided to play. At least I had the presence of mind to only play for $30, but it was more like charity than competition. I didn't play on Saturday, and I did okay yesterday. I played two $50 HU and a $.25/$.50 NLHE 6 Max table. In the first HU, I played ridiculously well but got boned. After four hands I was up to 13k and got coolered. I had 46hh and called a raise on the button. The flop was a glorious 2h 2x 5h, he checked, I bet pot, he raised pot, I called. The turn was the Qh. He checked, I bet pot, he called. The river peeled an A and he moved in for his remaining 3k here. I thought for a short while and called, and he turned over the disgusting KJhh. That sank me to 6k and I battled back brilliantly. I took one of with QJss on a Ts 8h 4d flop and got a K, giving me two overs and open-ended on the T that I knew he had. The river was an A giving me my straight and giving him two pair. He criticized me on my "awful" calls. A few hands later I made a hero call with 73 on a 7626Q flushed board. He check-called the flop, bet an odd amount on the turn, and bet an odd amount on the river so I looked him up after a lot of thought. He had J3o and again criticized my "awful" calls. He then got stubborn with J3o again versus my TT on a final board of Q32KJ. I bet the whole way and checked the river, but it still gave him the lead. With 8k, we got into a raise war preflop and I shoved my QQ into his JJ. The flop brought a J and I bricked to give him the match. The second match was much better as he didn't pull any hands out of his anus. I beat him down to 6k pretty quickly by getting stubborn with my top pairs and forcing him to fold, and finally got him to call with QJ vs my A9 on a 987A board. The river blanked and I went to get some food. A brief ego moment: I can't believe I can get somebody to CALL away their chips with a gutshot (and he probably thought he had two overs as well). It just amazes me that I confuse people so much sometimes that they will call off their money drawing dead. Regardless, the 6 Max table started out pretty much the same way. There were two raise-tards at the table who were in every hand, and I managed to be the only one to run into them when they had hands. My rivered two pair made one guys gutshot, and my AK ran into 22 on an A72 flop to the same guy. Twenty minutes, -$100. Good start. I played very patiently and took as many cheap flops as I could and finally got everything back with 45 on a 632 flop. The guy that had been raping me had 62, and I took down a $160 pot to put me up $10 on the day. I bullied another $10 out of the table and then took a big break. I ended up only playing some small SnG's and a $.10/$25 NLHE ring game later on. I think I made like $6, but it was a lot of fun and a good way to unwind from the day. I'm not sure how much I'll play today, but I hope it keeps going the same as it has. Bankroll at $867.87