Road Trip

So, this weekend I headed up to scenic* Medina, Ohio, for a poker tournament--a little mini road trip. (It's about two hours away.) I know that seems like a long way to go for a poker game, but seriously, I'm having a hard time finding any decent games in Columbus, and I was really itching to play in a live (as opposed to online) game. I discovered this game through an online meetup group and, as much as I was hesitant at first to send a $200 buy-in check to a total stranger, my gut told me it was all completely legit, and it was. The tournament was held at this other guy's house. There were about 30 people there, and everything was very well organized. Also, since the thing started at 6:00 and I was optimistically planning on being in it until the end, I got a hotel room so I wouldn't have to drive back at midnight--making the whole thing even more of a road trip.

At the tournament itself, things did not go exactly as planned. Due to a completely stupid play on my part, I got knocked out about two hours into the thing. I don't want to rehash the hand that doomed me--believe me, I've played it out in my head enough. I didn't get a bad beat--it was just a bad, bad play, and I should have known better. But, as everyone who plays poker knows, every game is a learning experience in a number of ways, and at this particular tournament, I discovered a new leak in my game.

For those of you who don't know, a "leak" is exactly what it sounds like--a bad habit that causes your chips to leak away from your stack and, of course, money to leak out of your pockets. There are lots of common leaks--playing too many hands, for example, or not letting go of a good hand even when you're almost positive you're beat by an even better hand. Discovering your leaks and trying to fix them is key to improving your game, so I'm always on the lookout for my own. And my game has gotten better because of this, although I will admit I've still got a long way to go in live play. (My online game has actually gotten a lot better, but online poker has different leaks than live play.)

So, to describe my leak, let me set the scene a little bit--there are 30 of us in two big rooms, and I'm one of two women in the whole place. And as much as gender shouldn't matter in poker (as I like to say, it's not weight lifting), it does. And it's necessary for me to acknowledge this and evaluate how it affects my game. I've discovered that there are basically three types of guys at any given poker table, and they tend to be pretty evenly distributed. One type will play against a woman in the exact same way he'd play against a man--that is, he evaluates the player without regard to gender. (Naturally, these are the good players.) Another type doesn't believe that a woman is capable of bluffing (oh, those naive, silly boys), and they will fold to me whenever I raise unless they have the nuts. The third type just can't stand folding to a woman, and they'll call when they shouldn't. So, on top of the usual job of trying to figure out everyone's playing style and tells, I've got to evaluate which type of guy everyone is. It's a lot to think about. When I'm concentrating well and really paying attention to all of this, I play a good game.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at this tournament, and I didn't figure out why until later. As it so happens, the guy on my immediate left was a total cutie pie and, as I discovered through talking to him, smart and interesting as well. (He's an attorney, which is no surprise--I'm like an attorney magnet. If there's an attorney in the room, I'll wind up meeting him or her. I don't know why this is.) Anyway, naturally we started flirting a bit, and I was just . . . very aware of him sitting there. And looking back on my final hand in which I made a very bad decision, I realize I was thinking more about my conversation with this guy than I was about the hand or the game in general. Bad, bad leak.

Interestingly, the guy in question busted out as well a short while later and joined me in the cash game that started up . . . so maybe I affected his game in a similar manner? And by this time, everyone had had a few drinks and the flirting was even more prevalent, so I just started looking at the game as more of a social event than a money-making opportunity, which of course meant I dumped off some more money--$80, in fact. So, to recap, I spent $200 on the buy-in, $60 on the (rather cheap) hotel room, $80 on the cash game, $15 on beer and food, and about $30 on gas, for a total of $385 to play in a tournament in which I wasn't really paying close attention to the game. This was not smart poker, people. It was, however, a lot of fun, and totally worth it. Also, I just cashed out $500 online, so I'm still ahead. (If, in fact, the money ever actually finds its way into my account, which is an extremely complicated process in online poker these days--more on that later.)

[By the way, I was struck by something during my drive to Medina and back--what the hell is up with that "Leaf" restaurant you see all over Ohio? At almost every exit, you see those signs telling you which restaurants are where, and it's always like, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Burger King . . . and Leaf. First off, what a totally stupid name for a restaurant. "Leaf"?? That's good--name your restaurant after something inedible. And second, has anyone ever actually eaten there? If you have, let me know. I'm just curious.]

[*I'm being kind. It's not that scenic.]

Holy Crap II*

[*Note: This phrase has become my go-to exclamation for whenever something is outrageously, shockingly expensive or whenever my financial stupidity far exceeds its usual level. So, you kind of know where this post is going.]

As you know, I have written before about the inherent dangers of text messaging. Yesterday, I encountered an entirely new hazard--financial ruin. O.K., not ruin, actually, but stress and strain for sure. This happened when I logged on to my cell phone account and discovered that my text message bill for the month of April came to . . . $100!! This is on top of my usual bill of about $60. Shocked yet fascinated, I pulled up my itemized bill and was amazed to discover that in a single month, I had sent and received over 600 text messages. WTF?? I had no idea I was texting that often. It was a real eye-opener.

So today, I did what I should have done a long time ago, which is to sign up for unlimited text messaging for one low monthly fee. ("Low" is relative, by the way. Sometimes I feel like I'm getting low monthly fee'd to death.) But it's too late for this month's bill--$100, down the drain.

In the meantime, I also found out yesterday that my work phone (the Treo), which I thought had unlimited text messaging (and which I've been trying to get people to text to rather than my cell phone), does not, or at least, it didn't--I'm trying to remedy that too. I guess it's a lucky thing that people weren't using my work number during the month of April--I doubt a $100 text-messaging bill would have gone over too well with the finance people.

So anyhoo, all of this has led me once again to contemplate the role of text messaging in the dating scene of today. It truly is a brave new world. Before my divorce, I had never sent a single text message, but as soon as I started dating, I realized it's THE form of communication with new people you meet these days. Who knew? And it's not just a trend among the young, either--guys my age do it as well. (O.K., in reality, the closest I've gotten to someone "my age" is 34, but close enough, yes?) And I have to say, at first I was pretty resistant. Why go through the annoying process of punching all these little phone buttons (and learning a whole new language--T9! Some of you know what I mean!) when it would be much easier to just call the person or, if an immediate response isn't needed anyway, e-mail them.

But there are some definite advantages to texting that have become apparent to me as I've gotten more into it. The most obvious one is that, unlike on a phone call, you don't have to respond right away--you can let the phone just sit there while you go about your business, and you can answer when convenient. A happy side effect of this is that you can think about your response more--you have time to come up with something witty and clever before answering. (No more thinking of the perfect thing to say after it's too late!) This explains why it's such a hot phenomenon in the dating world--you always want to come off as witty and clever to people you're dating, right? Now you can! (Of course, the converse is true as well: If someone takes a while to text me back, and the response is still dull, unintelligible, etc., a big red flag goes up with me, and I tend to kind of write the person off. Harsh, but true.)

Another advantage is that you can be much more . . . flirtatious, sooner, in text messages than you would be on the phone. Things you might be hesitant to actually say to a person you can put in a text, with a little wink-wink icon . . . you can get away with a lot this way. The recipient can't really tell if you're joking, teasing, whatever, when they don't have the tone of your voice to go on, and it just makes things more interesting at times.

Anyway, since I also text people I'm not dating, here's some info--for now, use my personal cell phone number, not my Treo number, for texting. If this changes (again!), I'll let you know.