Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

We started with.......6 runners. BOOM.

Apparently, two car loads of lads are coming straight from the football, (leaving before the end), including Flushy, Paul Parker, and Foxy. We might yet have some fun, then.

I only realised the score when I clocked Flushy's flash motor (note for Camel, personal plate = tosser) parked outside.

6 runners? 

If you take it down it'll be on par with Orford's Leeds SPT side event win back in the day.

Please! 12 runners now, and that is without the incoming football boys.

Running the table, too, am up to 6,500, from 10,000 starting. Epic.

[Marky147]

Haha, good luck!

[Machka]

We started with.......6 runners. BOOM.

Apparently, two car loads of lads are coming straight from the football, (leaving before the end), including Flushy, Paul Parker, and Foxy. We might yet have some fun, then.

I only realised the score when I clocked Flushy's flash motor (note for Camel, personal plate = tosser) parked outside.

6 runners? 

If you take it down it'll be on par with Orford's Leeds SPT side event win back in the day.

Please! 12 runners now, and that is without the incoming football boys.

Running the table, too, am up to 6,500, from 10,000 starting. Epic.

Is that after the re-entry?   

[tikay]

One unguarded moment is all it takes.....


Lord Howell is, arguably, one of THE most experienced Politicians in Parliament.

Currently he is Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, & his Daughter is married to Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. He was an MP from 1966 for over 30 years, & held Government office under Prime Ministers Thatcher & Cameron.

Pretty experienced then.

So how on earth did this little gem escape from his lips yesterday?  



".....but there are large and uninhabited and desolate areas. Certainly in part of the North East where there's plenty of room for fracking, well away from anybody's residence, where we could conduct without any kind of threat to the rural environment."

As you can imagine, Twitter was on fire yesterday, & the item about it on the BBC News site alone garnered nearly 700 angry comments.  

It is way too easy to chastise, dissect & generally knock people who hold Government Offie, or any high-profile job, so I'll not add to the list, but it'd be pretty neat if we could fathom how he came to make such an indelicate comment. As an example of shooting one self in the foot, it is right up there with Gerald Ratner.

As a famous story from the wonderful "Lake Wobegon Days" by Garrison Keiller said....

"....how do these things happen?...."

Knock Lord Howell all you like, I don't care, now will I join in, there but for the grace of God go you or I, but the real story is the human mind, & how it works so efficiently. Always. Almost.

Probably be a good idea if Lord Howell (Baron Howell of Guildford, no less) swerves taking his holidays up in the North East this year.

[tikay]

I was trying to think of the story from Lake Wobegon Days when I Posted that thing above, & so I enlisted the help of the amazeballs google.

I typed exactly this in the Search box.....

...."How do these things happen?" Lake Wobegon days

And the might of google could summon up only THREE results.

One of which was this.......

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=25486.13660;wap2

Yes - an extract from this very Diary! Wowzer.

Not sure if that is awesome incredible (or as TomTum might say, shit just got real) or just reflects that I plough a very lone furrow in my reading material.

Anyway, if you have not read, or heard the Audio Book, "Lake Wobegon Days", do yourself a favour, get it now. Full of homespun & understated truisms.




If you don't believe me, try googling "quotes from Lake Wobegon Days".

[Tal]

While I find the story you've reminded me of, allow me to link you to this bewildering tale:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23512853

"Mr Chong's lawyer said that as a result of the incident the DEA had introduced new policies for detention, including checking cells daily..."

[tikay]

While I find the story you've reminded me of, allow me to link you to this bewildering tale:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23512853

"Mr Chong's lawyer said that as a result of the incident the DEA had introduced new policies for detention, including checking cells daily..."

Bewildering indeed.

Daniel Chong said he drank his urine to stay alive, tried to carve a message to his mother on his arm and hallucinated.

He was held in a drug raid in 2012, but told he would not be charged. Nobody returned to his cell for four days.

 Mr Chong, now 25, said he slid a shoelace under the door and screamed to get attention before five or six people found him covered in his faeces in the cell at the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) San Diego headquarters.

 


"I didn't just sit there quietly. I was kicking the door yelling”

 
After Mr Chong was rescued, he spent five days in hospital recovering from dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a perforated oesophagus. He also lost 15lb (7kg).

All that happened in 4.5 days? And he somehow got $4.7 milli in compo?

I'm a seller. Lock me up for 4.5 days please. I'll cope.

[tikay]

OK, so you can't be arsed to google "quotes from Lake Wobegon days".

Well damn you, here are a few to tempt you.


“Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.”

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.”

“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted.”

"One reads books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life. People who don't read are trapped in a mine shaft, even if they think the sun is shining.”


“Evelyn was an insomniac so when they say she died in her sleep, you have to question that.”


“They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad to realize that I'm going to miss mine by just a few days.”


“Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.”



There. NOW go buy that book.

[tikay]

One more.

This may be my favourite one today. Tomorrow, maybe not.




“It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.”

[Tal]

Like Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, there are hundreds of attributed quotes to Sir Winston Churchill and we'll never know whether half of them are accurate or fictitious. Part of the charm for me is that they are plausible; that they align with the character we have in our minds when we think of him.

Your mention of political indiscretion reminded me of one such attribution.

As PM, Winston was reportedly awoken to be told that one of his MPs had been found in a compromising position and a state of some undress in St James' Park with a guardsman. He thought for a moment.

"Last night?"
"Yes, Prime Minister"
"Awfully cold last night?"
"Er..yes, Prime Minister"
"Makes you proud to be British"


As an aside, there was a telegram exchange between two of the quotables I've mentioned above.

Pygmalion was about to have its premiere at HM Theatre in 1913 and the following exchange took place:

George Bernard Shaw
AM RESERVING TWO TICKETS FOR YOU FOR MY PREMIERE. COME AND BRING A FRIEND - IF YOU HAVE ONE

Winston Churchill
IMPOSSIBLE TO BE PRESENT FOR THE FIRST PERFORMANCE. WILL ATTEND THE SECOND - IF THERE IS ONE

[tikay]

Like Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, there are hundreds of attributed quotes to Sir Winston Churchill and we'll never know whether half of them are accurate or fictitious. Part of the charm for me is that they are plausible; that they align with the character we have in our minds when we think of him.

Your mention of political indiscretion reminded me of one such attribution.

As PM, Winston was reportedly awoken to be told that one of his MPs had been found in a compromising position and a state of some undress in St James' Park with a guardsman. He thought for a moment.

"Last night?"
"Yes, Prime Minister"
"Awfully cold last night?"
"Er..yes, Prime Minister"
"Makes you proud to be British"


As an aside, there was a telegram exchange between two of the quotables I've mentioned above.

Pygmalion was about to have its premiere at HM Theatre in 1913 and the following exchange took place:

George Bernard Shaw
AM RESERVING TWO TICKETS FOR YOU FOR MY PREMIERE. COME AND BRING A FRIEND - IF YOU HAVE ONE

Winston Churchill
IMPOSSIBLE TO BE PRESENT FOR THE FIRST PERFORMANCE. WILL ATTEND THE SECOND - IF THERE IS ONE

So so good Mr Chess Bloke, so so good. LOVE that sort of stuff.

[Tal]

You'll start me off...

There goes a story that one of the great chess masters, Max Euwe - World Champion in the mid-1930s, you will doubtless recall from my piece on him in Chess Thread - was minding his own business on a train when a chap approached him. The chap had noticed that the Dutchman was fiddling about with a pocket chess set and asked whether he fancied a game.

Euwe agreed and beat him a few times over.

Exasperated, the chap declared "You must be some player! I've never lost that many consecutive games before. In my club back home, they call me 'Little Euwe'".

[tikay]

The deafening silence about my Omaha Adventure last night tells its own tale, but I must fill in the blanks, if for no other reason that to fulfil my monthly "talking about poker" quota.

I went ignomoniously busto.

Thats it.

Sometimes, no matter what you do, it aint gonna be your night. Last night was that night. Don't regret a minute of it, or the £110 it cost to enter (well £120 actually), or the one hour drive each way. This is the great fascination & beauty of poker. It don't always work out well, & we sure as hell need to accept that or we'll neveer get full enjoyment from it. And last night was the best fun ever. (May be a slight exagg).

I think I won exactly three hands all night.

I flopped the absolute nuts three times, & failed to hold every time.

I flopped two monster draws, & failed to get.

I had A-8-K-Q dd & saw a flop of J-8-8 dd. I bet the flop. Call. I bet the turn. Call. It was only when we reached the river that I clicked that Matey Boy actually DID have J-J. I felt so damn daft. 

I paid the £110 Entry Free with 6 x £20 notes. Annoyingly - this really bugs me - they gave me change with two x £5 chips. I knew immediately I would put them in my lucy & forget them. Got home, emptied my pockets. Bingo, there they were. Damn damn damn. That should be illegal, giving change in chips. Luton do it, too.

I had left my phone in my car. When I returned to it, post busto, there was a text message from a good mate. "Can I buy some of your action in tonight's Omaha, mate?". Marv.

Flushy busted me, predictably. It was so com that I laughed all the way home. No, I really did.

The coup went like this.

I was down to 6 Bigs, & Flushy was two to my left, so I can guarantee Flushy will give me a spin with any four when I make my move. Which is EXACTLY what I want.

I Raise, Flushy iso's, I call, orf we go.

On their backs.

I have K-Q-J-9.

Flushy has....

K-10-9-5.

LIKE. I'm not in bad shape then.

Flushy says "any fives in that deck?" The 10, of course would likely be a bad card for him.

Here comes the floppy-woppy.   

J

Yes!

2

That's OK.

2

Lovely. His two pair options are toast.  I am 88% - 12% to win now.

Turn was an innocent looking (well it was to me) 7.

Now I'm 90%- 10% to win.

"Ship me an 8" says His Flushyness.
   
Slotter alert incoming.

BOOM

[tikay]

Arguably, the night's highlight was the arrival of Paul Parker to my table. If you ever tire of sharing a table with Paul give up poker. Fact. He dissects EVERY hand with great hilarity.

I have not seen Paul for nearly 3 years, last time was at McCarron Airport in 2010 I think. Seems he has been off the scene for a bit, but he's cool now.

He had been to football with Flushy & co, & was dressed incred.

He told me he reads this Diary every single day. I raised. "Never seen your name there Paul". But apparently he does not log in, so reads as a "Guest". I tested him with a few questions. He passed. Reads it every bloody day, says he "came to Vegas with me via this Diary". Lovely.  

I could kick myself for not having my camera to hand.

He was dressed in....

Purple mountain boot things.

Loud check, Egyptian cotton , trousers.

A red pacamac thing.

Blue & white Brighton FC scarf.

All topped off with a straw pork pie hat affair.  

Now THAT is crucial apparel.

Here is THE MAN in yester years. He looks even better now.

Morning Paul.






Sharing tables with the likes of Paul Parker is why I play Liver Poker, & my £110 £120 was not entirely wasted.

[Karabiner]

I've not seen Paul for a few years now either, I'm glad to hear he's okay.

Hi Paul.