Living vicariously through myself

Wow. It's amazing the difference a good woman can make to a weekend.

I met Nicole through the company poker night in January. I was the person who knocked her out of the three money positions. We played again two weeks ago, and despite her taking most of my chips near the start of the night, I came back to put her out later when I called a bluff she didn't think I'd call. This elicited a torrent of expletives, resulting in one of the funniest e-mails Ed Wank (of Wank and O'Brien in the mornings on Real 97.1) said he'd ever read.

After some communication back and forth, I finally set it up that I'd take Nicole to dinner last Friday. So she arrived at Emmis, I gave her a quick tour and we went to Rock Bottom Brewery just off the circle. We'd talked after the last poker night about going bowling sometime, so we decided to go bowl a couple games after dinner (made me realize how much I want back into a league after I averaged 200 for two games). After bowling, we went back to my apartment and played poker for several hours, because I said I'd teach her to be better at poker if she taught me to be better at euchre. So we sat and played cards and had a couple drinks and just generally got to know one another better. It was a simple night, but it was loads of fun.

Last night was the biggest turnout for company poker night there's ever been. 19 people playing across three tables. We started at 8:30 knowing we'd pay four places. When the dust settled at the final table after a furious three-person all-in, it was me, Nicole and two guys from Indy Men's Magazine, Lou and Tim. I eventually went all-in heads-up against Tim even though neither one of us had anything -- it was a function of blinds being HUGE. By the time the night was over, the big blind (and consequently the MINIMUM bet for any hand) was $10,000 in chips. I won with an ace high. So we were down to three. At that point, it's just a matter of who gets the best cards, and less about who's the best player. Lou played very smart and ended up winning, and he deserved it. I finished second (my three finishes at company poker night are now 1-1-2) and Nicole third (at least in part, she said, because she took my advice from the day before and folded a lot more hands than she would have otherwise). Again, I was the one who dealt the fatal blow to Nicole's night.

By this point, we've been playing poker for nearly six hours. That's a long time to do almost anything. Nearly everyone has cleared out, and Ed Wank and his wife Amy insist that Nicole not drive home. So I said I'd take her, and she'd go back and get her car the next day. On the way, Nicole said she wanted something to eat, so we settled on Steak 'N Shake. We sat at Steak 'N Shake from probably 2:30 until 4 am. We decided at that point to go back to my house and play Trivial Pursuit. Two games of that lasted until 7 am -- by far the latest either one of us had stayed up in quite a while.

After we both got some shut-eye and talked for several hours after getting up (as Riley made several attacking passes), we went to brunch (around 3:30) at IHOP near Castleton, and then I took her back to the Wank's house to get her car.

It was a simple weekend, but it was fun to be with someone new and just have a good time. I hope it continues.

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